Brown Building

Year: 1901
Style: Renaissance Revival
City: Manhattan, NY

The Brown Building at 23-29 Washington Place is a ten-story iron-and-steel building constructed in 1900-01 in the Renaissance Revival style, originally known as the Asch Building. It's best known as the site of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of March 25, 1911, which killed 146 workers, most of them female immigrants; the Triangle Fire Memorial now stands there. The building is now part of New York University's campus.

the building

"Fireproof" rooms. The Asch Building was marketed for its supposedly fireproof rooms, a feature that drew garment manufacturers including the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.

the style

Built in the neo-Renaissance style, the building's ornament and construction reflected the era's confidence in modern fireproof commercial building, a confidence the 1911 fire exposed as false for its occupants.

significance

The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and named a National Historic Landmark in 1991, then designated a New York City landmark in 2003 on the 92nd anniversary of the fire.

nearby

Colonnade Row 0.1 mi · Greek Revival
Judson Memorial Church 0.2 mi · Renaissance Revival
Astor Place 0.2 mi · Beaux-Arts
The Public Theater building 0.2 mi · Romanesque Revival · 1849
Building at 376-380 Lafayette Street 0.2 mi
DeVinne Press Building 0.2 mi · Romanesque Revival · 1886

All 413 buildings in Manhattan