Continental Bank Building

The Continental Bank Building is a 50-story Art Deco skyscraper at 30 Broad Street in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City. It is next to the New York Stock Exchange Building.

1. History


1. = Origins =

In 1929, a new 50-story building was announced at 30 Broad Street (location of the former 15-story Johnston Building) to house the Continental Bank and Trust Company and various brokers. The site extends along Broad Street at 87 feet 7 inches (26.70 m), the length of Exchange Place runs 149 feet 8.5 inches (45.631 m) from New Street, and runs 88 feet (27 m) along New Street. The building site was once owned by the Dutch Reformed Church which had erected the city's second almshouse on the site before 1659.

1. = Architecture and construction =

The estimated cost of the new building was $20 million. The project was the largest single cooperative building venture undertaken to that time. Cross and Cross were announced as the building's planners. An "unusual" feature of the building was a sub-basement clearing house where owner-tenants each have floor space and can transact business with other owner-tenants in the building by a system of pneumatic tubes to exchange receipts. Architects Morris and O’Connor completed drawings for the building in 1931. The demolition of the Johnston building was planned from May 5 to July 13. The 15-story structure had exterior masonry that bore walls composed of granite (some pieces weighing as much as 10 tons) that were up to three feet thick at the lower walls. The exterior was ashlar granite while the interior was common brick backup laid in cement mortar. Its steel internal skeleton was only designed to carry the floor loads, because the exterior was self-supporting.

1. = Opening and owners =

The building opened for occupancy on April 27, 1932. The commercial real estate services company Cushman & Wakefield established a branch office here in 1932. The City Investing Company bought the building in 1943.

1. Architecture

The building was designed as a skyscraper rising 48 stories, 564 feet (172 m) above street level with a "simple" architecture. According to the architects, the structure is designed to express straightforward business of the highest class without excessive ornamentation. The first three stories of the façade are clad in limestone with the remainder made up of light-colored brick and dark brick at the spandrels. The building footprint rises from street level to the 20th floor, where the first setback is made; another setback exists at the 23rd floor. The building tower then rises from the 24th to 48th floors. The top of the building is flat (having no ornament). The building's lobby runs through from Broad Street to New Street with two elevator banks which serve the building, one set from the lobby to the 20th floor and the other from the lobby to floors 21 through 47. The 48th floor is accessed by stairs from floor 47. Total rentable space is announced as 300,000 square feet (28,000 m2). The building columns sit on new footings which rest upon rocks. The average depth of the new foundations is 46 feet (14 m) below Broad Street. However, the Broad Street side of the building rests on existing caissons. An adjoining structure along the southern property line required triple cantilever plate girders to provide headroom for the elevator doors. There are three floors below ground. The total building weight is estimated at 55,000 tons (7,000 tons of steel).

1. In popular culture

30 Broad Street appears as the "Larrabee Building" in the original 1954 version of the movie Sabrina, as the headquarters of the family business empire. Its address is prominent in a scene late in the movie with Audrey Hepburn standing on the sidewalk outside its entrance. The building and Broad Street are also seen in an early scene when William Holden parks his car out front. The building is also used as a location in the opening scene of the 1954 film Executive Suite, also starring William Holden. A businessman walks out of the building, hails a taxi, then drops dead on the sidewalk, setting the movie's plot into motion.

1. References

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Broad Exchange Building

The Broad Exchange Building, also known as 25 Broad Street, is a residential building at Exchange Place and Broad Street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The 20-story building was designed by Clinton & Russell and built between 1900 and 1902. The Alliance Realty Company developed the Broad Exchange Building as a speculative development for office tenants. The Broad Exchange Building is either 20 or 21 stories tall. Its articulation consists of three horizontal sections similar to the components of a column, namely a base, shaft, and capital. The lowest three stories of the facade are clad with rusticated granite blocks; the fourteen-story shaft is clad with brick; and the top stories are clad with granite and terracotta, topped by a copper cornice. Inside, the building originally contained office space, but as of 2019, has 307 residential units. With 326,500 square feet (30,330 m2) of rental space in total, the Broad Exchange Building was Manhattan's largest office building upon its completion. Due to the Broad Exchange Building's proximity to the New York Stock Exchange Building, many financial firms sought space in the building. The Broad Exchange Building was sold off numerous times in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The Broad Exchange Building was gutted and renovated into apartments in the late 1990s, and a southern wing of the building was demolished in the early 21st century. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1998, and was designated a city landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2000. It is also a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, a NRHP district created in 2007.

Historic Site Landmark

51 m

Léman Manhattan Preparatory School

Léman Manhattan Preparatory School is a private school located in the Financial District, Manhattan. Students are ages two years old through eighteen years old. There are two Lower Manhattan sites. Founded in 2005 as Claremont Preparatory, the school was acquired by the Meritas family of schools in 2011, and subsequently renamed to Léman Manhattan Preparatory School. Several Meritas schools such as Collège du Léman which locates in Switzerland and Léman International School Chengdu which locates in China have incorporated the name Léman. In 2011, Léman joined Meritas, an international network of college preparatory schools. In 2015, Léman Manhattan was left out of a transaction that took in Léman Switzerland, and Léman Chengdu, and did not become an affiliate school of Nord Anglia Education as part of an acquisition deal. Nord Anglia currently maintains two other schools in Manhattan, Nord Anglia International School New York (ages 2-14) and the other school Avenues New York (ages 1-18) neither of which have an on site boarding facility. Léman Manhattan Preparatory School has students from over seventy countries. Tuition for K-12 day students and the boarding tuition is listed on their website.

School University

Mills Building (New York City)

The Mills Building was a 10-story structure that stood at 15 Broad Street and Exchange Place in Manhattan, with an L-shaped extension to 35 Wall Street. It wrapped around the J. P. Morgan & Company Building at 23 Wall Street, on the corner of Broad and Wall Streets. George B. Post was the architect of the edifice. D.O. Mills, a San Francisco, California banker, owned the property. Mills built a palatial home in New York City, while maintaining a villa in Millbrae, California.

Landmark

Blair Building

The Blair Building, also known as the Blair and Company Building, was an early skyscraper in Lower Manhattan, New York City.

Landmark