City Looks Into Store Windows on Former Stock Exchange Building

Twenty-six-foot-high storefront windows were proposed for the Greenwich Street side of the former American Stock Exchange building as part of a conversion of the landmark to a hotel, with commercial spaces on the ground floor. Rendering: Morris Adjmi Architects via The Tribeca Trib

The austere limestone-and-granite  faces of the former American Stock Exchange building will be sporting big, bright storefront windows. But not as big as its owner, Allan Fried, had in mind.

The fortress-like 14-story building (actually two interconnected buildings, one at 84 Trinity Pl., the other at 123 Greenwich St.) is slated to become a 174-room hotel with up to 100,000 square feet of commercial space. Architect Morris Adjmi’s design called for six new windows, nearly 15 feet high, on the building’s Trinity Place side, and five windows that would rise 26 feet on Greenwich Street. (That would be about four feet and 15 feet taller, respectively, than the building’s current windows.)

The building, landmarked by the city last year, dates back to 1921 (Greenwich Street) and 1931 (Trinity Place). Their architects, Starrett and Van Vleck, were content with small windows on the first floor because it was the second-story, high-ceilinged trading floor that needed the large windows for sunlight.

Following Adjmi’s presentation to the Landmarks Preservation Com­mis­sion last month, the commissioners praised the developer’s efforts to bring a new use to the building while keeping much of its historic look. But they called for a design that retained more of the building’s original, un­a­dorned lower section and asked him to return with a revised plan before voting on it.

Under Adjmi’s design, the new windows on the Greenwich Street side would rise 26 feet and replace a row of small windows beneath the high-arched windows on the second floor. Com­missioner Michael Goldblum called for those little windows to remain, along with some five feet of original masonry separating them from the first-floor windows. In doing so, he said, the building would “still get the amount of light that’s necessary, and retain that original fabric there.”

Goldblum was no less concerned about the proposed windows overpowering the Trinity Place side of the building. “There is a massiveness and a starkness about the existing base that really is in­vaded upon with the massive windows on that side,” he said.

The commission’s vice chair, Pablo Vengoechea, found the size of the windows acceptable but suggested that they be raised in order to “add more solidity to the base.”

The commission had no objections to proposed “blade” signs—tall, thin vertical signs with businesses’ names—that would protrude from the building. (There would be a maximum of three on Greenwich Street and six on Trinity Place.)

Last month, Community Board 1’s Landmarks Committee, advisory to the commission, expressed concern that the signs would end up advertising fast-food franchise tenants. (The committee otherwise liked the design.)

“I would suggest you let the size of those windows speak for themselves rather than have a silly Subway sign,” commented committee co-chair Roger Byrom. 
Fried, who bought the building in 2011 with partner Michael Steinhardt, said he anticipated higher-class tenants.

“Hopefully, God willing,” he said, “it won’t be Subway and McDonald’s.”

—Aline Reynolds contributed reporting.