Manhattan Municipal Building

Municipal Building
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Manhattan Municipal Building
Location:	New York, New York
Coordinates:	40°42′46.67″N 74°0′13.99″W / 40.7129639°N 74.0038861°W / 40.7129639; -74.0038861
Built/Founded:	1912
Architect:	Kendall, William M.
Architectural style(s):	Renaissance, Other
Governing body:	Local
Added to NRHP:	October 18, 1972
NRHP Reference#:	72000879 [1]

The Manhattan Municipal Building, at 1 Centre Street in New York City, is a 40-story building built to accommodate increased governmental space demands after the 1898 consolidation of The Five Boroughs. Construction began in 1909 and ended in 1915, marking the end of the City Beautiful movement in New York. Standing 580 feet (177 m) tall, its highest point is the second largest statue in Manhattan. The architectural firm McKim, Mead and White designed it to be the first building to incorporate a New York City Subway station into its base. Enormously influential in the civic construction of other American cities, its application of Beaux-Arts architecture served as the prototype for the Terminal Tower in Cleveland, the Fisher Building in Detroit, and the Wrigley Building in Chicago, in addition to the Seven Sisters of Stalin-era Soviet architecture. The building is similar to the Royal Liver Building (1907-11) built in Liverpool.

Located at the intersection of Chambers Street and Centre Street, the Municipal Building is one of the largest governmental buildings in the world. It houses thirteen municipal agencies of New York City, and until 2009, 16,000 people were being married in its Manhattan Marriage Bureau each year.^[2] There are 25 floors of work space (served by 33 elevators), with an additional 15 stories in the tower.

History

The government of New York City was increasingly starved for space since 1884, when in that year's annual report, Mayor Franklin Edson declared that more space was badly needed. But he also noted that City Hall was not expandable because its "style of architecture was such that without marring its present symmetry, it couldn't be enlarged to the required extent."

The central arch was inspired by the Arch of Constantine.

The City's agencies rented various buildings strewn all the way from Downtown Manhattan up to Midtown Manhattan, with the number of such arrangements increasing by the year. The government, desiring to cut down the amount of rent paid to private landlords, held several design competitions for a new massive building that would be suitable to house many agencies under one roof. Mayor Abraham Hewitt appointed a commission to study suitable plans and plots of land in 1888, and four competitions were held between that year and 1907. The final competition was held by the Commissioner of Bridges, who had already secured a new plot of land to be used for a new trolley hub at the Manhattan base of Brooklyn Bridge. Twelve architectural firms entered what would be the last version of the competition, and the winning entry was received from a young partner of McKim, Mead and White, then the largest architectural firm in the world with a staff numbering over 100. Despite such standing in the architectural community, the Manhattan Municipal Building would be their first skyscraper.

The building was first occupied in January 1913, and the majority of the building's offices were opened to the public by 1916. Various types of sculpture and relief were used, but the building most closely resembles classic Roman architecture, with the Arch of Constantine being the inspiration for the design of the central arch. So grand is this arch that automobile traffic used to flow through, but in modern times the shortened Chambers Street no longer continues through to the eastern side.

The WNYC public radio station was located in the building until May 2008. At present the Municipal Building is home to thirteen public agencies, employing 2,000 staff in nearly 1 million square feet (90,000 m²) of floorspace. A gift shop sells New York City maps, history books, and souvenirs of the city.

The statue: Civic Fame

Pinnacle

The statue of Civic Fame on top of the Municipal Building, installed March 1913, is a gilded figure designed by Adolph A. Weinman. At 25 feet (8 m) tall, she is the second largest statue in all of Manhattan. Constructed from Weinman's plaster model of sheets of copper with a hollow core, she is similar in this respect to the nearby Statue of Liberty. Standing barefoot on a sphere, she wears a flowing dress and a crown of laurels to signify glory. In her left hand is a five-sectioned mural crown, to represent the five boroughs of New York City (Manhattan, Brooklyn, The Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island; the building's five cupolas also represent the five boroughs). In her right hand is a shield and a laurel branch to represent victory and triumph.

Audrey Munson (1891-1996), who posed for the figure,^[3] was also Daniel Chester French's model for America in front of the Alexander Hamilton Custom House; she was probably also Weinman's model for Day and Night from the former Pennsylvania Station and more than a dozen other public sculptures in New York.

Weinman also sculpted the models for the bas-relief panels on the building.^[4]

Agencies

New York City public agencies located in the Manhattan Municipal Building include:

• New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services
• New York City Department of Finance
• New York Public Service Commission
• Manhattan Borough President
• New York City Public Advocate
• New York City Comptroller
• County Clerk of New York County (Norman Goodman)
• New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
• New York City Office of Payroll Administration
• New York City Tax Commission
• Field offices for the New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT), New York City Department of Buildings, New York State Office of the Inspector General, and New York City Department of Environmental Protection.

In popular culture

The Manhattan Municipal Building appeared in the 1984 film Ghostbusters. The Ghostbusters depart on their way to fight Gozer at 55 Central Park West. It was also the setting for a level in the 2001 Rockstar video game Max Payne. The building also makes a short appearance in the 1974 film The Taking of Pelham One Two Three where police drive down Centre St to deliver a $1 million ransom.

Also in the popular 1990's sitcom Seinfeld, Elaine Benes, worked in the building for her boss Mr. Lippman.

It appeared in the 2008 game Grand Theft Auto IV

Gallery

The Woolworth Building and Municipal Building viewed from the southern edge of Chinatown	The Municipal Building as seen from street level	The Municipal Building from down Chambers Street.	The building's front facade.
The building from above.	The building from City Hall Park.	The upper floors of the building.

See also

New York City portal

• Seven Sisters (Moscow) — reportedly modelled after the Manhattan Municipal Building

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Manhattan Municipal Building

Sources

• NYC.Gov / Manhattan Municipal Building
• Lower Manhattan Information - Question of the Week (What's the Statue?)
• Emporis - Municipal Building, New York City

Notes

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