Manhattan Municipal Building
The David N. Dinkins Municipal Building (originally the Municipal Building and later known as the Manhattan Municipal Building) is a 40-story, 580-foot (180 m) building at 1 Centre Street, east of Chambers Street, in the Civic Center neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The structure was built to accommodate increased governmental space demands after the 1898 consolidation of the city's five boroughs. Construction began in 1909 and continued through 1914 at a total cost of $12 million (equivalent to $269,713,000 in 2023).
Designed by McKim, Mead & White, the Manhattan Municipal Building was among the last buildings erected as part of the City Beautiful movement in New York. Its architectural style has been characterized as Roman Imperial, Italian Renaissance, French Renaissance, or Beaux-Arts. The Municipal Building is one of the largest governmental buildings in the world, with about 1 million square feet (93,000 m2) of office space. The base incorporates a subway station, while the top includes the gilded Civic Fame statue.
The Municipal Building was erected after three previous competitions to build a single municipal building for New York City's government had failed. In 1907, the city's Commissioner of Bridges held a competition to design the building in conjunction with a subway and trolley terminal at the Brooklyn Bridge, of which McKim, Mead & White's plan was selected. The first offices in the Municipal Building were occupied by 1913. In later years, it received several renovations, including elevator replacements in the 1930s and restorations in the mid-1970s and the late 1980s. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building a landmark in 1966, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. In October 2015 the building was renamed after David N. Dinkins, New York City's first African-American mayor.
History[edit]
Previous plans[edit]
By the late 19th century, New York City governmental functions had outgrown New York City Hall.[85] At the time, the city government's agencies rented space in various buildings from Downtown Manhattan up to Midtown Manhattan, with the number of such arrangements increasing by the year. In the 1884 annual report of the City of New York, mayor Franklin Edson declared that more space was urgently needed for governmental functions. He also noted that City Hall's "style of architecture was such that without marring its present symmetry, it couldn't be enlarged to the required extent."[6] Edson suggested buying 280 Broadway, at the corner with Chambers Street, for use by the city government.[86]
The government, desiring to cut down the amount of rent paid to private landlords, ultimately held four design competitions for a new, massive building that would be suitable to house many agencies under one roof.[6] As early as 1885, a commission was empowered to look for plots of land where such a structure could be built,[87] and by 1887, authorities were considering erecting a structure adjacent to City Hall itself, in City Hall Park.[88] Mayor Abram Hewitt appointed a commission to study suitable plans and plots of land in 1888,[89] although Hewitt opposed putting such a building anywhere except City Hall Park.[90] The commissioners of the Sinking Fund initially approved a municipal building east of the Tweed Courthouse, at the park's northeastern corner.[91] An architectural design competition was commenced for this new building,[88] and seven architects submitted plans.[92] Charles B. Atwood's winning proposal called for a pair of seven-story pavilions flanking City Hall.[93] The public generally opposed the idea of development in the park, and the plan was voted down by the New York State Senate in February 1890.[93][88][94]
The law authorizing the new building was modified in 1890 so that the new structure would be able to house other city agencies as well.[95] Mayor Hugh J. Grant proposed a large municipal office building in early 1890,[88] and that July, a committee of the city government was created to look for alternate sites.[92] The committee published a report in October 1890, outlining three possible sites on Chambers Street. The first option was southwest of Chambers Street and Broadway; the second, northwest of Chambers and Centre Streets; and the third, northeast of Chambers and Centre Streets (at the current building's location).[88][96][f] The committee recommended the third option, which would be the cheapest and offer the most floor area, as well as provide an opportunity for redevelopment at that location.[88][97] However, the city government decided in March 1893 that the municipal building would instead replace City Hall, with two wings extending north to flank the Tweed Courthouse,[93][98] despite the committee's recommendation and public objections to a City Hall site.[88] The committee ultimately received 134 plans for such a new building,[93][99][74] with six of these being selected as finalists.[100] In response to opposition to City Hall's demolition,[88] the New York governor signed a law in 1894 that once again prohibited the municipal building's construction.[101] The six finalist submissions were supposed to receive monetary prizes,[102][103][104][g] but ran into difficulty even collecting their awards, since the city had never formally accepted the committee's report on the finalists.[104]
In 1899, architect George B. Post proposed a municipal office tower to be built at the northeast corner of Chambers and Centre Streets, while preserving City Hall, as part of a greater plan to rearrange Lower Manhattan's streets.[88][106] The next March, state senator Patrick H. McCarren proposed a bill that would construct the municipal building on the blocks bounded by Broadway and Reade, Centre, and Chambers Streets, north of the Tweed Courthouse and west of the current building's site. The structure would replace 280 Broadway and the old Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank Building, incorporate the then-under-construction Hall of Records, and would also entail destroying the Tweed Courthouse.[107] Several architects submitted proposals, the most elaborate of which was by McKim, Mead & White.[108] Additionally, in 1903, the city's bridge commissioner Gustav Lindenthal hired George Post and Henry Hornbostel as architects for a planned trolley hub at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, just east of City Hall. This plan also involved constructing a 45-story municipal office tower with a campanile at Chambers and Centre Streets.[106][109] The site would have cost $6.7 million.[110] The municipal building and trolley hub plans were deferred by the administration of mayor Seth Low when he left office at the end of 1903.[111]
The following New York City public offices are located in the Manhattan Municipal Building:[6]
The Office of the City Clerk was formerly housed in the Municipal Building; about 16,000 weddings were performed annually at the former Manhattan Marriage Bureau in the Municipal Building,[199] in civil ceremonies lasting about four minutes. The City Clerk's Office relocated to nearby 141 Worth Street in 2009.[6][200][201]
Incidents[edit]
Numerous accidents have occurred at the Municipal Building. In 1921, an elevator overturned, killing its two occupants.[202] A pile of coal stored in bunkers underneath the building caught fire in 1942,[203] and a 2005 fire slightly injured six firefighters.[204] Additionally, a flood on the fourth floor in 1959 destroyed brand-new machinery that processed the pay checks for the building's workers.[205]
Impact[edit]
Critical reception and influence[edit]
Lionel Moses, appraising McKim, Mead & White's work in 1922, said that "we have a building of 580 feet to the top of the figure, of superbly monumental character and classic beauty, every part of which attests the architectural knowledge of its designers".[206] In particular, Moses praised the fact that the firm could create a large office building on "a comparatively small plot of irregular shape", which could still accommodate a subway station, a public street, and mechanical equipment.[206] The 1939 WPA Guide to New York City stated that the facade "gains dignity through the bold treatment of the intermediate stories, despite the poorly related tower and the disturbing character of the Corinthian colonnade at the base".[61] In their 2004 book New York Artwalks, Marina Harrison and Lucy D. Rosenfeld described the Civic Fame statue as "a graceful and unusually charming sculpture in the allegorical style of municipal-building decorations".[37]
The building was also noted for its symbolism. A reporter for Newsday wrote in 1987: "It is the city not just as a metaphor—although it is certainly that, from Civic Fame (the name of the statue at the very top) right down to the stressful rumble underneath (six subway tracks where the basement would be). The Municipal Building is where the money is."[84]
The Municipal Building was the first of several ornately-designed civic office buildings,[207] influencing other structures such as the Terminal Tower in Cleveland, the Fisher Building in Detroit, the Wrigley Building in Chicago,[208] and the New York Central Building in Midtown Manhattan.[209] In particular, the base of the Municipal Building above Chambers Street was likened to the base of the New York Central Building, which spanned Park Avenue.[210] The base also inspired the General Motors Building in Detroit, while the tower stories influenced the "Tower of Jewels", designed by Carrère and Hastings for the Panama–Pacific International Exposition.[211] The arches of the Moscow State University's main building and of 550 Madison Avenue in Midtown Manhattan were also inspired by that of the Municipal Building.[84]
In popular culture[edit]
The Manhattan Municipal Building appears in several films, such as a key scene of the 1996 film One Fine Day, in which Jack Taylor (George Clooney) spots Manny Feldstein (Joe Grifasi) and chases him to the roof.[212] In "Crocodile" Dundee (1986), muggers inside the Municipal Building entrance to the subway station pull a knife on the title character (Paul Hogan) and his girlfriend Sue (Linda Kozlowski).[213] In Ghostbusters (1984), the team leaves to confront Gozer from the building.[212] In The Professional (1994), antagonist Stansfield, played by actor Gary Oldman, works for the DEA at the building, in office 4602.[214] Newsday wrote in 1987 that the structure was often used for film shoots where characters jumped off the building's roof.[84] Additionally, in the music video for the song Not Afraid, rapper Eminem is depicted standing on the edge of the building's roof in multiple shots.[215]
