The David N. Dinkins Municipal Building (originally the Municipal Building and later known as the Manhattan Municipal Building) is a 40-story, building at 1 Centre Street, east of Chambers Street, in the Civic Center neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, United States. 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 ().
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 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.
Site
The Manhattan Municipal Building is located on the eastern side of Centre Street, in the Civic Center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It occupies the length of two city blocks, between Duane Street to the north and the Brooklyn Bridge ramps to the south. The west–east Chambers Street has its eastern terminus at Centre Street, at the center of the building's base. The site had a frontage of approximately on Centre Street to the west, on Park Row to the southeast, on Duane Street to the northeast, and on Tryon Row to the east; except for Centre Street, all of these streets have been relocated or removed. Near the Municipal Building are the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse and St. Andrew Church to the northeast; 1 Police Plaza and the Metropolitan Correctional Center to the east; Surrogate's Courthouse and Tweed Courthouse to the west; and New York City Hall to the southwest.
Prior to the Municipal Building's construction, several streets passed through the building site, which had been located at the south end of the Five Points neighborhood. New Chambers Street continued east through the center of the building, while the west-east Reade Street continued eastward through what is now the building's northern edge. City Hall Place (now Cardinal Hayes Place) originated at the intersection of Chambers and Centre Streets, crossing southwest–northeast through the building site. The area to the south of the Municipal Building was once known as Tryon Row, a one-block east–west street between Centre Street and Park Row. The Municipal Building's site was occupied by buildings including the old headquarters of the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung. Immediately to the south were two elevated railway stations: the Park Row Terminal of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (closed 1944) and the City Hall station of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (closed 1953).
After the Municipal Building was finished, New Chambers Street ran through the building's central archway. Park Row bounded the building to the southeast and Duane Street abutted it to the northeast. Park Row was rerouted in the mid-20th century, and New Chambers and Duane Streets were closed in 1971 as part of the construction of 1 Police Plaza. These streets subsequently became part of a pedestrian plaza surrounding the Municipal Building and 1 Police Plaza.
Architecture William M. Kendall of the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White designed the Municipal Building. Two of the firm's other partners, Burt L. Fenner and Teunis J. van der Bent, were tasked with leading construction, while the city's Department of Bridges supervised the project. Alexander Johnson was chief engineer, and Purdy and Henderson were consulting engineers. In addition, the Thompson–Starrett Company was the general contractor. The Mount Waldo Construction Company provided the granite, while Robert Wetherill & Co. installed the original elevators. The foundations were dug by the Foundation Company. The building's architectural style, influential in the civic construction of other American cities, has been "variously described as Roman Imperial, Italian Renaissance, French Renaissance, or Beaux-Arts", according to architectural writers Sarah Landau and Carl W. Condit. Its construction marked the end of the City Beautiful movement in New York.
The Municipal Building is one of the largest governmental buildings in the world, with about of interior space and 2,000 employees. Of this, about is used for offices. The Municipal Building was the first in New York City to incorporate a subway station, the Chambers Street station, below its base. The approved building plans in 1909 also called for three basement levels within the volume not occupied by the subway station. The building features various types of sculpture and relief. These include the large gilded Civic Fame statue at the top of the building; smaller sculptural groups; and plaques and coats-of-arms representing the various governments that have ruled Manhattan.
Form
The building is shaped like a ten-sided "C", although the lot that it occupies is an irregular hexagon. The main facade, along Centre Street to the west, is long, while the eastern facade is long. The building has a width of , measured from west to east. The northeastern and southeastern sides accommodated the diagonal paths of Duane Street and Park Row, respectively. The floors' north–south axes are longer than their west–east axes; the wings of the "C" face west. This floor plan ensured that all of the building's windows would be able to receive direct sunlight and eliminated the need for an interior light court.
The Manhattan Municipal Building is 34 stories tall; the main structure consists of 26 stories, and a tower rises eight stories above the center of the structure. The top of the main structure is about above ground level. The tower rises to around above ground level; including the Civic Fame statue, the building stands at around tall. Atop the northern and southern wings of the "C" are pavilion roofs, which are connected to the central tower with roof decks and a stone cornice. The central tower is composed of a two-story square section. Atop this is a circular section flanked by four circular turrets, one above each corner of the square. The circular section of the central tower is composed of two layers: an enclosed space surrounded by columns, atop which is a smaller peristyle.
Civic Fame
On the Municipal Building's roof is Civic Fame, a statue installed in March 1913. The statue is a gilded copper figure, made from about 500 pieces of hammered copper executed by the Manhattan firm of Broschart & Braun. The statue is variously reported to be supported on an iron skeleton and made over a steel frame. Civic Fame has been variously described as the largest or second-largest statue in Manhattan, depending on whether the larger Statue of Liberty is considered as being in Manhattan. It is similar in style to the Statue of Liberty.
The statue was designed by Adolph Alexander Weinman (1870–1952). It was commissioned by the New York City government at a cost of $9,000 () to celebrate the consolidation of the five boroughs into the City of New York. The figure is barefoot and balances upon a globe. She carries various symbolic items: a shield bearing the New York City coat of arms, a branch of leaves, and a mural crown, which she holds aloft. The mural crown has five crenellations or turrets, which evoke city walls and represent the five boroughs. The crown also includes dolphins as a symbol of "New York's maritime setting". Audrey Munson posed for the figure; she had also posed for a very large number of other important allegorical Beaux-Arts sculptures in New York, including those at the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, New York Public Library Main Branch, Manhattan Bridge Colonnade, and USS Maine National Monument at Columbus Circle.
The left arm was repaired in 1928 after cracks were detected on that side. After Civic Fame's left arm broke off, fell through a skylight, and landed on the 26th-floor cafeteria in February 1935, the statue was renovated, with metal rods being used to hold up the left arm. The sculpture was refurbished and re-gilded starting in July 1974 at a cost of $294,500, as part of the interior renovations of the Municipal Building; the restoration was completed by the end of the year. In early 1991, while the facade was undergoing renovations, Civic Fame was removed for six months and re-gilded by New Jersey metalwork shop Les Metalliers Champenois. After the restoration was completed at a cost of $900,000, Civic Fame was reinstalled in October 1991.
Facade The building is divided vertically into 25 bays on its western elevation; 25 bays combined across the northeastern, southeastern, and eastern elevations; and three bays on its northern and southern elevations. Each bay contains either one or two windows on each story. The facade is made of ashlar granite, except for the details above the 23rd floor, which are made of terracotta. A three-story colonnade of Corinthian columns runs across the base along Centre Street, and the rest of the building is set back behind the colonnade. The colonnade averages tall, including pedestals, and is topped by a carved entablature. The central portion of the colonnade is freestanding and is flanked by 16 three-quarter columns, each measuring about wide and tall. Early plans called for statuary above the colonnade, similar to the statuary above St. Peter's Basilica. There is also a false colonnade on the facade above the 22nd floor.
Weinman sculpted the rectangular allegorical bas-relief panels at the base of the building, which are located above the side arches. Civic Duty, above the smaller arch to the right (south) of the center arch, shows a female representation of the city alongside a child holding the city seal. Civic Pride, above the smaller arch to the left (north), depicted the city as a woman "receiving tribute from her citizens". These are respectively topped by medallions representing Progress, a nude kneeling man with a torch in one hand and a winged sphere in the other, and Prudence, a half-nude kneeling woman holding a mirror while a serpent is curled around her right arm. The medallions each measure about wide and are placed immediately below the colonnade's architrave. There are heroic-scaled winged figures in the spandrels above the main arch: Guidance, a depiction of a female in the left spandrel, and Executive Power, a depiction of a male in the right spandrel.