218 West 57th Street

218 West 57th Street is on the southern side of 57th Street, between Broadway and Seventh Avenue two blocks south of Central Park, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The site covers approximately . It is wide, with a depth ranging from on the eastern side to on the western side. The area contained several headquarters of organizations such as the American Fine Arts Society, the Lotos Club, and the ASCE Society House. Furthermore, in the 20th century, the area was part of Manhattan's "Automobile Row", a stretch of Broadway extending mainly between Times Square at 42nd Street and Sherman Square at 72nd Street. In the late 1900s and early 1910s, several large automobile showrooms, stores, and garages were built nearby, including the U.S. Rubber Company Building at 1790 Broadway, the B.F. Goodrich showroom at 1780 Broadway, and the A. T. Demarest and Peerless Motor Company showrooms at 224 West 57th Street. ==Architecture==

The original building, constructed from 1896 to 1897, was designed by Cyrus L. W. Eidlitz in the French Renaissance Revival style, as the headquarters of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The annex, built from 1905 to 1906, was designed by Eidlitz and Andrew C. McKenzie. The original structure was constructed by Charles T. Wills, The design was meant to complement the American Fine Arts Society and Carnegie Hall. The building contains four stories and a basement, although the third and fourth stories are smaller and only occupy the front portion of the lot. As viewed from 57th Street, the three vertical bays on the left, or eastern side, are part of the original building. The two bays on the right, or western, side are part of the annex. The central bay of the original building, the second-easternmost in the current design, is wider than the other bays. The facades of the original building and annex have vertical quoins at their edges. In the original design, the central entrance on the first floor contained a stoop, with two-part windows on either side. The annex also originally had a pair of windows at ground level. The first floor was clad in stone during a 1918 renovation, and the original windows were placed with large display windows. is painted on the eastern wall. Electricity was provided by two gas engines. When Lee's Art Shop renovated the building in 2002, escalators were added between the first, second, and third floors, and an elevator and staircase were built from the first to the fourth floors. ==History==

The ASCE was founded in 1852 and held its first meetings at the Croton Aqueduct Department building in City Hall Park, Manhattan. The meetings occurred regularly through 1855 when the society suspended its activities until 1867. The reconvened ASCE met at the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York until 1875 when the society moved to 4 East 23rd Street. The ASCE moved again in 1877 to 104 East 20th Street and in 1881 to 127 East 23rd Street. By the 1890s, the ASCE's headquarters on 127 East 23rd Street were becoming overcrowded. A historian for the society wrote that many regular meetings were standing-room only, while its annual conventions had to be held in a church because the headquarters were insufficient. Planning and construction In May 1895, the ASCE sent a circular to all members concerning the need for a new Society House. At the society's annual convention the following month, the ASCE's members responded overwhelmingly in favor of a new Society House, and the matter was forwarded to ASCE's Board of Direction. By October 1895, the board had selected a site at 218–220 West 57th Street. The site was near the established arts hub on 57th Street and was well-served by public transit, and the eastern border of the site faced what was then the Central Presbyterian Church. The ASCE acquired the site in January 1896 for $80,000. Immediately afterward, the society convened a committee to oversee the design, contract procurement, and construction of its new Society House. The committee was led by George A. Just and contained seven other members, including William Rich Hutton. The total cost of the project was $45,000 greater than the cost advertised on the circular, so the ASCE started soliciting for subscriptions to fund the building. By March, the ASCE board instead decided to host an architectural design competition in which ASCE members and a few "specially invited" architects could participate. Twelve plans were submitted, and the committee picked Eidlitz's design in May 1896. Excavation at the Society House's site started on July 9, 1896, and cost $4,500. At the time, The New York Times reported that the building would be made of brick and granite, with terracotta detail. Due to uncertainties over funding, the ASCE building committee delayed the awarding of construction contracts until a new president was elected in late 1896. By November, the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York agreed to fund the project, The next month, the ASCE's new president Thomas Curtis Clarke announced that a construction contract had been awarded to Charles T. Wills for $86,775. ASCE headquarters behind the former ASCE Society House The ASCE Society House officially opened on November 24, 1897, and ultimately cost $206,284 (). At the building's opening, Benjamin M. Harrod, ASCE's president, stated that the building had been designed as a headquarters of a professional association rather than as a clubhouse. The ASCE stated in a pamphlet that the Society House was the first building in the United States to be built "solely for the use of a professional engineering society". In 1903, Andrew Carnegie offered to donate $1 million for the construction of the new Engineering Societies' Building on 39th Street. The ASCE and several other engineering societies were invited to participate in construction. However, the ASCE's members voted against joining the Engineering Societies' Building in March 1904. Instead, the board decided to purchase an additional lot to the west of the existing ASCE Society House, measuring about . Plans for the annex were filed in May, and the next month, the ASCE purchased the additional lot from the Island Realty Company for over $100,000. That December, the ASCE created a committee to oversee the construction of an annex. A contract was awarded to William L. Crow in May 1905. Automobile Row After the ASCE's relocation, the Federal Food Board immediately leased the space, moving to 218 West 57th Street in December 1917. Another tenant, the National Agricultural Prize Commission, had offices in the building between 1917 and 1918. Subsequently, Arnold W. Brunner modified the ground floor into Ajax's tire showrooms, and the renovation was completed by January 1919. The building thus came to be one of several automotive and tire showrooms on Automobile Row. Elias A. Cohen leased the underlying from the ASCE in 1926, intending to replace the old Society House with a skyscraper, though the plans did not come to fruition. A Stearns-Knight and Willys-Knight vehicle showroom was opened on the ground floor in July 1927. Willys, manufacturer of Stearns-Knight and Willys-Knight vehicles, subleased the salesroom from Ajax the next month. The Stearns-Knight salesroom only operated for one year. Ajax subsidiary Racine Rubber Company, as well as the Stearns-Knight Sales Corporation, remained in the building through at least 1935. Schrafft's and offices The F. G. Shattuck and Company leased the entire building in March 1928. Twelve months later, the company opened its 500-seat Schrafft's restaurant on the first and second floors of the building. The restaurant was near both Carnegie Hall and Manhattan's Theater District, operating more than sixteen hours a day. It included a second-story grill catering exclusively to men, as well as spaces that could be rented for events. After Prohibition in the United States was repealed in 1933, Shattuck requested a liquor license for the 57th Street restaurant the next year. The bar, known as the Columbus Room, opened in 1936. and Bloch & Hesse renovated the restaurant's interior the next year. Two years later, the Arlen Realty and Development Corporation acquired 218 West 57th Street from Horn for about $1 million, and also purchased several adjacent plots to the east. The adjacent plots were used for the development of a skyscraper on 888 Seventh Avenue, which was completed in 1971. Arlen preserved 218 West 57th Street, and built a privately owned public plaza separating the old Society House from the new skyscraper, to receive a zoning credit that allowed the skyscraper's maximum height to be increased. Xenia Clubs International subleased in the building the next year for its executive offices. Lee's Art Shop Lee's Art Shop rented space at 218 West 57th Street in 1975. The family-owned store, founded by Gilbert and Ruth Steinberg in 1951, had previously been located across the street in the Osborne. The move had been necessitated because Lee's needed ten times the space of its previous location, which required an open-plan layout for the store. The relocation included the renovation of the barrel-vaulted space and the installation of full-height display windows. Lee's initially occupied only the first floor, while the upper floors remained in use as offices. The Steinbergs bought 218 West 57th Street from Arlen Realty in 1994 or 1995. Following Gilbert and Ruth Steinberg's deaths in 2008, ownership of the building passed to their children David Steinberg and Jill Isaacs, who continued to operate Lee's Art Shop. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated 218 West 57th Street as an official city landmark on December 18, 2008. Besen & Associates, brokers, had first inquired about the Steinbergs' willingness to sell the store in 2005, to which the family declined. However, the Steinberg children were more willing to sell the store after they took over operations of the shop. The lawsuit was subsequently dismissed, and in 2014, Thor Equities and General Growth Properties (GGP) went into contract to the building for $85 million. This prompted Safdieh to sue Thor and GGP for allegedly conspiring against him in the sale, Steinberg and Isaacs, in their contract with Thor and GGP, had requested two and a half years to wind down their operations, Thor and GGP ownership Thor and GGP finalized the building's purchase, along with of air rights around and above the property, in June 2016. Thor and GGP planned to renovate the interior into luxury retail space for $20 million. To maximize retail income at 218 West 57th Street, the new owners opted to wait until after 2019, when the Nordstrom store in the neighboring Central Park Tower was set to open. The next year, 218 West 57th Street was rethemed to the film Trolls and the accompanying web television series Trolls: The Beat Goes On!, for one year. In April 2025, it was announced that an immersive show named Masquerade, based on the Broadway musical The Phantom of the Opera, would open in the Lee's Art Shop space. Masquerade was originally supposed to open at 218 West 57th Street on July 31 and run for six weeks, but its run was later extended several times to March 2026. == Critical reception ==

The Real Estate Record and Guide, in an 1897 piece criticizing various works of architecture on West 57th Street, lauded the building for complementing the American Fine Arts Society. The Iron Age and the Times both praised the building's "richly carved" Indiana limestone facade. The Iron Age described the building as a "notable addition to the ever increasing list of New York's handsome buildings". Architectural critic Christopher Gray wrote in 2001 that "the light, sophisticated front of the building fit right in with the artistic ambience of West 57th" when it was completed. ==See also==