Adams Express Building
- Architect
- Francis H. Kimball
- Year
- 1914
- Style
- Renaissance Revival
- City
- Manhattan, NY
The Adams Express Building is a 32-story office tower at 57-61 Broadway in the Financial District, designed by Francis H. Kimball for the Adams Express Company. Construction began in 1912 at an estimated cost of $2,000,000, and upon completion in 1914 it was the seventh tallest structure in Manhattan. The company had previously occupied part of the neighboring Pinkerton Building at 57-59 Broadway before commissioning its own tower.
the building
Terracotta skin over steel. The building's structure runs to 3,300 tons of steel, wrapped in over a million square feet of architectural terracotta. The New York Times described the style below the fifth floor as 'Florentine' and 'severely simple' above, while the Landmarks Preservation Commission classified it as palazzo style; one critic more bluntly called it 'utterly utilitarian.'
A closed subway entrance. An entrance built directly into the building once connected to the Wall Street station of the New York City Subway beneath Broadway, though it was later closed.
the style
The Landmarks Preservation Commission identifies the building's design as palazzo style, an Italian Renaissance-derived classical treatment for a tall commercial office block, though contemporary critics described it variously as Florentine, severely simple, or merely utilitarian.
More on Renaissance Revivalthe architect
Francis H. Kimball designed the Adams Express Building, completed in 1914 for the Adams Express Company.
nearby
- 65 Broadway
- Empire Building
- 1 Wall Street Building
- Continental Bank Building
- New York Stock Exchange
- Trinity Church and Graveyard