The 15-story building at 1 Wall Street Court, which is also known as 129-141 Pearl Street and 82-92 Beaver Street, is being converted to 126 residential condominiums.
An official individual city landmark, it was designed in neo-Renaissance-style by Clinton & Russell and built in 1904 by the Century Realty Company as a speculative office building.
The plan of the building is flatiron and it is tucked away in one of Lower Manhattan's nicer crannies just a few feet south of Wall Street, close to many of the world's most famous skyscrapers.
According to the Landmarks Preservation Commission's February 13, 19906 designation report on the building "The design has the tripartite arrangement of base-shaft-capital common to many of New York's early skyscrapers, with a stone base, a midsection faced in brick laid in bands of tan and buff shades, and a top section richly ornamented with glazed terra cotta in shades of green, cream, and russet, incorporating both classically derived and abstract geometric motifs."
"The Beaver Building," the commission's report continued, "is a notable example of the design solution for turn-of-the-century New York skyscrapers in which each section of the tripartite scheme is differentiated by color and materials. It is also a very early example of the use of boldly polychromatic glazed terra cotta, as well as a signficant survivor of this period of terra cotta development. Carved ornament depicting beavers, representing the name of the building, is found over the Beaver Street entrance and below the primary cornice of the base. The building was the headquarters from 1904 until 1921 of the Munson Steamship Company, a prominent shipping line active in the Cuban and South American sugar and lumber trade; the company owned the building from 1919 to 1937. From 1931 to 1972, one of the building's primary tenants was the New York Cocoa Exchange, the world's first and foremest cocoa futures market."
Clinton & Russell was the architectural firm for numerous important buildings in the city including the Astor Apartments at 2141 Broadway, the Apthorp Apartments at 2201 Broadway, the Langham Apartments at 135 Central Park West and the demolished Astor Hotel in Times Square.
The plan of the building is a flatiron and its rounded
corner, which is closest to Wall Street, has a 10-step-up entrance.
The Cocoa Exchange moved from the Beaver Building to 127 John Street in 1872 and subsequently merged with the New York Coffee & Sugar Exchange to form the Coffee, Sugar and Ccoa Exchange in 1979.
After the Bowery Savings Bank disposed by the property in 1942, it changed hands numerous times. Harry B. Helmsley was an owner from 1951 to 1981 and in 1985 London & Leeds Realty Corporation became a renovation of the building and gave it a new address 1 Wall Streeet Court.
In 1994, Cocoa Partners LP, based in Cohasset, Massachusetts, acquired the building and Cocoa Condominium Sales LLC is the sponsors of the current conversion.
Colum McCartan is the designer for the renovation, which will be highlighted by its landscaped rooftop terrace and a lobby of rosewood, Venetian plaster, chiseled Botticino marble slab walls, and an aluminum leaf ceiling.
Some studio apartments will be as small as 340 square feet and some three-bedroom apartments will have 1,374 square feet.
Occupancy is scheduled for this spring.
An official individual city landmark, it was designed in neo-Renaissance-style by Clinton & Russell and built in 1904 by the Century Realty Company as a speculative office building.
The plan of the building is flatiron and it is tucked away in one of Lower Manhattan's nicer crannies just a few feet south of Wall Street, close to many of the world's most famous skyscrapers.
According to the Landmarks Preservation Commission's February 13, 19906 designation report on the building "The design has the tripartite arrangement of base-shaft-capital common to many of New York's early skyscrapers, with a stone base, a midsection faced in brick laid in bands of tan and buff shades, and a top section richly ornamented with glazed terra cotta in shades of green, cream, and russet, incorporating both classically derived and abstract geometric motifs."
"The Beaver Building," the commission's report continued, "is a notable example of the design solution for turn-of-the-century New York skyscrapers in which each section of the tripartite scheme is differentiated by color and materials. It is also a very early example of the use of boldly polychromatic glazed terra cotta, as well as a signficant survivor of this period of terra cotta development. Carved ornament depicting beavers, representing the name of the building, is found over the Beaver Street entrance and below the primary cornice of the base. The building was the headquarters from 1904 until 1921 of the Munson Steamship Company, a prominent shipping line active in the Cuban and South American sugar and lumber trade; the company owned the building from 1919 to 1937. From 1931 to 1972, one of the building's primary tenants was the New York Cocoa Exchange, the world's first and foremest cocoa futures market."
Clinton & Russell was the architectural firm for numerous important buildings in the city including the Astor Apartments at 2141 Broadway, the Apthorp Apartments at 2201 Broadway, the Langham Apartments at 135 Central Park West and the demolished Astor Hotel in Times Square.
The plan of the building is a flatiron and its rounded
corner, which is closest to Wall Street, has a 10-step-up entrance.
The Cocoa Exchange moved from the Beaver Building to 127 John Street in 1872 and subsequently merged with the New York Coffee & Sugar Exchange to form the Coffee, Sugar and Ccoa Exchange in 1979.
After the Bowery Savings Bank disposed by the property in 1942, it changed hands numerous times. Harry B. Helmsley was an owner from 1951 to 1981 and in 1985 London & Leeds Realty Corporation became a renovation of the building and gave it a new address 1 Wall Streeet Court.
In 1994, Cocoa Partners LP, based in Cohasset, Massachusetts, acquired the building and Cocoa Condominium Sales LLC is the sponsors of the current conversion.
Colum McCartan is the designer for the renovation, which will be highlighted by its landscaped rooftop terrace and a lobby of rosewood, Venetian plaster, chiseled Botticino marble slab walls, and an aluminum leaf ceiling.
Some studio apartments will be as small as 340 square feet and some three-bedroom apartments will have 1,374 square feet.
Occupancy is scheduled for this spring.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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