240 Centre Street

240 Centre Street is in the Little Italy neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The Odd Fellows Hall is directly across Grand Street to the south, while the Stephen Van Rensselaer House on Mulberry Street is one block to the southeast. The building's western frontage on Centre Street is long, while the eastern frontage on Centre Market Place is long. The site measures wide along Grand Street to the south, and wide on Broome Street to the north. Before the development of the present building at 240 Centre Street, the site was occupied by a public market called the Centre Market, which had operated there since 1817. ==Architecture==

The building was designed by the firm Hoppin & Koen. After being converted into a luxury co-op building in 1988 by Ehrenkranz Group & Eckstut, it is known as the Police Building Apartments. A writer for GQ magazine described the building as being designed in a mixture of the Baroque and Renaissance Revival styles. The New York Times and the New York Daily News likened the building's design to that of the Old Bailey courthouse in London. In designing the building, Francis L. V. Hoppin of Hoppin & Koen said the structure's design had taken inspiration from that of New York City Hall, rather than from other police buildings. Facade The structure is clad in limestone and granite. All the windows were replaced with double-glazed panels when the structure was renovated in the 1980s. The building is split into two wings by a central hall that is topped by a gilded dome and a cupola. Due to the uneven dimensions of the site, the southern wing is wider than the northern wing; however, the facades to the west and east are symmetrical. There are bas reliefs on three elevations of the facade. The main entrance is flanked by a set of pillars, which are topped by figures measuring the five boroughs of New York City. just above the main doorway. The central figure is a personification of a woman holding a staff of authority in one hand and the scales of justice in the other. The Manhattan figure measures tall and was carved from one block of stone weighing . The dome is supported by pairs of columns, some of which protrude outward. Each of the clocks is set within oeils-de-boeuf (small rounded windows). The two wings extend off either side of the central portico. Some of steel were used in the building's construction. There is about of space, spanning five above-ground stories and two basement levels. The main entrance and first-story hall were made of Vermont marble, while the other stairs were made of cast iron. In addition, the spaces were decorated with white oak. Police rooms The original plans for the building included a shooting range in the sub-basement, with rifle ranges measuring long. each measuring across. There were also a storage room and safes in the basement's northern section, while the southern section had a detectives' lounge with bathrooms, showers, and lockers. and the NYPD's printing staff worked on that level as well. The basements also had space for a garage, where the commissioner's vehicle could be stored, and which was accessed from the Broome Street porte-cochère. The first three stories were used almost exclusively as clerical offices. The double-height entrance lobby had marble columns and a coffered ceiling, and chandeliers were suspended from the ceiling's coffers. A grand staircase ascended from the entrance hall to the top floor. There was also a police library on the third floor, in addition to the deputy commissioner's office, which was decorated with a Greek Revival–style fireplace. Most of the units are studio apartments and one- to four-bedroom apartments ranging from . each of which has high ceilings and a small mezzanine. Many of the original decorations were salvaged in the renovation, and all of the apartments have different layouts due to the building's shape. and has a private elevator. In addition to a living room, the dome apartment has a lower level with two wings; four terraces on its third level; and a fourth level surrounded by the building's clocks. The dome apartment was combined with one of the other apartments in the 2000s. The radio room apartment has a ceiling with a shallow partial dome. == History ==

The very first police office was established in 1642 at Stadt Huys, the town hall of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam. The legislation created precincts for each of the city's 17 wards, including a precinct headquartered at Centre Market in Little Italy, Manhattan, which was one of the NYPD's first police stations. The NYPD's original central office was at New York City Hall; the department's first standalone building was constructed at 300 Mulberry Street and opened in 1862. The Mulberry Street building was expanded in 1868 and again in 1869. Following the 1898 consolidation of the five boroughs into the City of Greater New York, the NYPD absorbed the outer boroughs' police departments and, as such, needed a new headquarters building. and McLean suggested that the Centre Market site be converted into a location for a new police headquarters. At the time, Centre Market was described as having a "broken and dangerous" floor, and the market had only four remaining merchants. In July 1903, NYPD commissioner Francis Vinton Greene announced that he had hired Francis L. V. Hoppin of Hoppin & Koen to design a police headquarters at 240 Centre Street, on the Centre Market site. The original plans called for a six-story, Colonial–style stone-and-brick building covering an area of . The New York City Board of Estimate initially would not give the NYPD an appropriation for the new headquarters, saying the city's Sinking Fund Commission had to approve the plans. That August, the Sinking Fund Commission granted its approval, allowing Greene to begin soliciting bids for the building's construction. Initially, the building was to cost $500,000, but the Finance Department engineer said the building's construction would cost more than the original estimate. That November, the Board of Estimate voted to issue $750,000 in corporate stock for the building. City alderman Timothy P. Sullivan opposed the appropriation because he wanted the headquarters to be built on Cooper Square instead. The city's Municipal Art Commission also approved the designs in December 1903. By early 1904, the plans called for an English Renaissance-style building with a main entrance on Centre Street. Despite Sullivan's opposition, the Board of Estimate moved to issue stock for the building that February, and mayor George B. McClellan Jr. approved the stock issue the following month. Meanwhile, William McAdoo, who had taken over as the city's police commissioner that year, wanted to build the headquarters elsewhere. That March, McAdoo asked that the NYPD headquarters be built in Midtown Manhattan, preferably near Times Square, because the Midtown area had more police activity and crimes. He also wrote to McClellan, saying that the headquarters should be between 23rd and 60th streets in Midtown. McAdoo and McClellan toured alternative sites in Midtown that April, but the mayor was unconvinced that the headquarters should be moved. The Board of Estimate rejected McAdoo's alternate site suggestion in June 1904, directing the NYPD to instead construct the building at Centre Market. Start of construction McAdoo solicited bids for the NYPD headquarters' construction in July 1904, but all the bids he received were over budget. McAdoo requested an additional $65,000 for the building, but his request was denied, so McAdoo rejected all the existing bids. Contractors submitted revised bids that December, and the low bidder, Gillespie Brothers, proposed erecting the building for $630,000. Thus, the NYPD requested construction bids for the third time in January 1905, and Gillespie Bros. received the contract for the building and was paid $662,000. Levering & Garrigues received the structural steel subcontract, while Harris H. Uris received the ironwork contract. Hoppin & Koen submitted plans for the headquarters to the Manhattan Bureau of Buildings that February, A groundbreaking ceremony took place on May 6, 1905; at the time, the headquarters was projected to cost $700,000. According to several NYPD historians, a time capsule was buried under the cornerstone at the building's southwest corner, though a later owner questioned whether the capsule even existed. The city solicited bids for the building's stonework and ultimately selected the designs of an unidentified "young German". the burst was caused by the presence of quicksand at the site. In May 1906, the Board of Estimate approved another $15,000 for the headquarters' construction. Delays and completion By the beginning of 1907, almost all of the exterior stonework was completed, That July, the Municipal Art Commission approved the designs for the building's ironwork. The construction contractors installed all of the statuary on the building's facade without receiving approval from the Municipal Art Commission, but this discrepancy was not discovered until mid-1907. Simultaneously, the New York City Subway's Centre Street Loop was being constructed on Centre Street, which prevented the contractors from completing the main entrance. Gillespie Bros. filed for bankruptcy at the end of 1907, further delaying the building's completion. The company's creditors appointed a committee of three men to oversee the NYPD headquarters' completion. causing either $8,000 or $10,000 in damage. An investigation found that the arch had collapsed because of displacement in the porte-cochère's wall. Bingham also wanted $15,000 for a clock atop the building, which the city controller recommended that the Board of Estimate not fund. The Municipal Art Society announced in November 1908 that it would donate two bronze tablets, one on either side of the main entrance; these tablets were installed the next year. T. L. U. Hoppin of Hoppin & Koen also said that November that the new NYPD headquarters could be opened within two months if the city government paid the contractors $70,000. However, the building's opening was delayed once again in January 1909, as the main entrance, northern facade, and interiors were still incomplete. That April, Francis Hoppin said the contracts for the heating system and interior murals were about to be awarded. The Board of Aldermen appropriated $75,000 for furnishings in May 1909, and work on the heating and electric systems was underway by that September. Although Bingham's successor William Baker wanted permission to buy the furnishings without a public bidding process, the Board of Aldermen declined Baker's request, instead forcing him to acquire furnishings via a public bidding process. Use as police headquarters 1900s to 1920s The NYPD began relocating furniture, documents, and other objects into the new 240 Centre Street headquarters on November 24, 1909. Over the following days, the NYPD also began moving its various bureaus to the new building. The first sixty prisoners were transported to the headquarters early that December. At that time, the city controller agreed to issue a $150,000 dividend to Gillespie Brothers' creditors. The city government retained 300 Mulberry Street for several more decades, using it as a courthouse. The Centre Street building attracted visiting policemen from San Francisco and London, A journalists' press office was established directly across Centre Market Place as well. The NYPD began moving some of the offices from its Brooklyn borough headquarters to 240 Centre Street in 1911; the NYPD had moved everything out of the Brooklyn headquarters within two years. A "police hall of fame" was added to the building in May 1911, commemorating police officers who had died in the line of duty. The commemorative memorial tablets at the building's entrance were dedicated the next year. Subsequently, the NYPD hosted annual ceremonies at the headquarters, commemorate police officers who had been killed while on duty. The building was slightly damaged in 1915 after an anarchist detonated a bomb near the detectives' bureau. With the number of employees at the new headquarters increasing, police commissioner Richard Edward Enright requested $4 million in February 1924 for an annex immediately across Centre Market Place to the east. By then, there were 1,115 officers and civilian staff working at 240 Centre Street, and the NYPD had formed several additional divisions, which all had to share space. Had this proposal succeeded, the existing headquarters would have been used by the New York City Board of Health. Proposals to relocate the headquarters were brought up again in 1929, when NYPD commissioner Grover Whalen requested funding to study the possibility of relocating the headquarters to Midtown Manhattan. Whalen claimed at the time that the Centre Street building "wastes thousands of hours of police time" because it was not centrally located, and that the NYPD's offices inside were so haphazardly scattered that they posed a fire hazard. the NYPD agreed to lease the factory for its police college the same December. Whalen requested $3 million from the Board of Estimate in 1930 for the acquisition of land for the new headquarters. Ultimately, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 forced these plans to be canceled. 1930s to 1950s In the 1930s, The New York Times described the NYPD headquarters as "really one of the quieter spots in New York"; its duties largely consisted of clerical work, police training, and prisoner lineups. The NYPD's printing bureau and property clerk's office, which had been moved to the adjacent 400 Broome Street, was relocated back to 240 Centre Street in 1934 after the department vacated the Broome Street structure. Subsequently, the NYPD acquired 400 Broome Street and renovated it into an annex of the Centre Street police headquarters. After the renovations to the annex were complete in 1939, several of the NYPD's departments—including the emergency service, women's, records, and criminal identification bureaus—were moved from the Centre Street headquarters to the annex. In addition, the radio antenna atop the building's dome was replaced in 1938; the NYPD used the antenna to broadcast radio messages to other Manhattan precinct. The NYPD dedicated a press building immediately to the east in 1940, which was intended to accommodate the police headquarters' press office. In addition, the NYPD's civilian-defense training center was originally headquartered at 240 Centre Street during World War II, though the training center was moved to 300 Mulberry Street in 1942. During this decade, the Centre Street headquarters also contained offices for the Police Athletic League of New York City. The NYPD's missing-persons bureau moved from 240 Centre Street to the annex in 1946 to make way for a planning bureau at 240 Centre. There were also plans to build a new headquarters in Manhattan's Civic Center, replacing 240 Centre Street. NYPD commissioner Arthur W. Wallander had requested that the New York City Planning Commission set aside the Collect Pond site for the new headquarters. and nothing further came of the proposal. The clock atop the building, which had stopped working during World War II, was also restored and re-illuminated in 1951. The idea of replacing the police headquarters was again discussed in 1954, when NYPD commissioner Francis W. H. Adams suggested relocating the headquarters to Midtown, citing the fact that the Centre Street building was becoming old and antiquated. The same year, Adams requested $380,000 for a television-broadcasting system at the Centre Street headquarters. Kennedy instead sought funding from the Board of Estimate in 1956, seeking to relocate the NYPD headquarters to First Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. He again requested funding for a new headquarters in 1958, asking the City Planning Commission for $1.197 million. The same year, the pistol range in the cellar was destroyed in a fire. 1960s and 1970s By 1960, Kennedy wanted to relocate the NYPD headquarters to Pearl and Madison streets in the Civic Center. The new site, which became One Police Plaza, received the City Planning Commission's approval in 1961, and the replacement headquarters itself was approved in 1963. By then, the New York Herald Tribune wrote that the NYPD officers had "grown to hate the headquarters' pretentious exterior [...] and its unlovely interior". Patrick Murphy, who served as the NYPD's deputy commissioner, described the building as lacking air-conditioning and relying on direct current for electricity. The NYPD also installed a fax system at the building in 1966, allowing officers to electronically check fingerprints against the New York State Identification and Intelligence System. During the late 1960s, the NYPD spent $1.3 million constructing a communications center in the building; the project involved replacing each borough's emergency telephone numbers with a single emergency line. The communications center was dedicated in July 1968, After the NYPD installed an electronic computer system in the building's communications center in 1969, the building's dispatchers could send out patrol vehicles as soon as they received emergency calls. The same year, the NYPD spent $410,000 installing an electronic command post on the building's third floor, where closed-circuit television footage from cameras across the city was displayed. In 1970, the building was bombed, injuring several people and damaging the community relations office and an elevator shaft; the militant group Weather Underground took credit for the bombing. The NYPD also began allowing the public to tour the building's communications center. NYPD staff began relocating to the new headquarters at One Police Plaza in September 1973, and the NYPD press office was moved the next month. The NYPD stopped using 240 Centre Street when One Police Plaza was dedicated on October 16, 1973. By then, the old building's facade was so decrepit that the building was surrounded by sidewalk sheds, which caught falling debris. Over the following decade, there were two unsuccessful attempts to convert the building into a community center and a hotel. Cultural center proposal By June 1974, the Little Italy Restoration Association (LIRA) proposed converting the old police headquarters into a cultural center for Italian Americans, given the building's location in Manhattan's Little Italy neighborhood. There also would have been a piazza next to the building. The cultural center was part of the ("resurgence") plan to preserve the neighborhood, which was announced that September; the local Italian community largely supported the plan. At the time, although the surrounding neighborhood was part of Little Italy, the area's Chinese population was expanding. The National Endowment for the Arts funded a study into the possible reuse of the building. Initially, LIRA members disagreed on whether the cultural center should highlight only Italian culture or whether it should also showcase the neighborhood's Chinese, Hispanic, and Jewish populations. Sixteen rooms in one wing of 240 Centre Street were renovated and repainted, and the roof, railings, and two boilers were repainted. The roof terrace was converted to a dance room, while the commissioner's office became a bar. Oscar Ianello, LIRA's leader at the time, anticipated that the entire building would eventually contain community rooms, art studios, rehearsal space, and a swimming pool. Despite the plans to use 240 Centre Street as a cultural center, LIRA was unable to raise sufficient funds. The building could not be converted into a prison, casino, club, or discotheque, among other uses. Of the 200 respondents, only three had in-depth plans for the building, and only two of these three developers paid a deposit to have their plans reviewed. Meanwhile, the old police headquarters remained vacant, and thieves began taking copper, wood, pipes, and wires from the building. The presence of guards failed to deter trespassers, leading the city government to begin stationing attack dogs there in early 1981. Additionally, 240 Centre Street was still surrounded by scaffolding. Hotel proposal and continued abandonment By February 1981, the city government had tentatively selected a proposal by Canadian developer Trans-Nation Inc. to convert the building into a 125-room luxury hotel. Trans-Nation and the city government signed an agreement that October. As part of the agreement, Trans-Nation would spend $15 million converting the building into the Hotel de Ville, and it would pay the city $350,000 a year in rent, plus payments in lieu of taxes. A local firm, Sculpture in the Environment, was hired to renovate 240 Centre Street into a hotel. Renovations had still not commenced by early 1982, while Trans-Nation continued to negotiate with the city government. The building remained decrepit, as the areaway around it was filled with garbage, and there were homeless people and rats. Neighborhood residents complained about the stench, while business owners claimed that the garbage and vagrants were driving away business. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals found in late 1982 that four of the building's guard dogs also starved to death while the building lay abandoned. Trans-Nation reneged on its proposal to convert the building to a hotel in 1983, The city reviewed five proposals that November, each costing $1 million to $4 million. The city government estimated that 240 Centre Street would cost $10 million to renovate; the structure was extensively decaying, and most valuable metals had already been removed. Bill Lawrence, a former acting NYPD commissioner who toured the building, said the interior "was a total disaster", with nearly everything having been destroyed. After 240 Centre Street was sold, photographs and cold case documents from the building were discarded in the East River. The city government sold the still-vacant building in April 1984 to Fourth Jeffersonian Associates for $4.4 million. The new owners planned to convert the structure into 60 apartments, The conversion project, which was originally supposed to cost $11.5 million, Ehrenkrantz Group & Eckstut was hired to renovate the building, while Lydia dePolo—who was married to Fourth Jefferson Associates' general partner, Arthur Emil—designed the interiors. Les Metalliers Champenois was hired to replace the copper on the roof and install three large vases on the exterior. The dome alone was covered with over of copper. To ensure that the renovation was historically accurate, the restoration contractors labeled each piece of decoration. The renovation ultimately cost $30 million and was completed in 1988. as well as one of several co-op or condo buildings around Little Italy. By March 1988, at least 20 of the apartments had been sold, and Europeans comprised about half of the new apartments' owners. Though the neighborhood was characterized as "gritty", the building itself had begun to attract artistic tenants as well. and the film producer Daniel Melnick were among the first people to buy apartments there. After the renovation was completed, Ehrenkrantz Group & Eckstut received the City Club of New York's Albert S. Bard Award for architectural excellence in 1989, and the New York Landmarks Conservancy gave the building a "certificate of merit" the following year. The Dime Savings Bank of New York moved to foreclose on 26 of the unsold apartments in 1992 after Fourth Jeffersonian Associates defaulted on $15.39 million in mortgage loans. Emil negotiated with the bank to prevent the apartments from being auctioned off. Initially, the city government leased the basement space for $1 per month to the Organization of Independent Artists, Over the next three years, the gallery hosted works by more than 200 artists. and the models Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington, and Linda Evangelista. By 1995, the city was looking to lease the basement to another tenant, since the city had to pay carrying charges of $10,000 a month for the basement; In response, City Council member Kathryn E. Freed suggested that the basement could be converted to a methadone clinic. The Organization of Independent Artists also opposed its eviction from the basement, saying that the space was better suited for an art gallery than for a senior center. The co-op board claimed that the city government had delayed submitting plans for the site until May 1998, while supporters of Project Open Door claimed that the co-op board had been blocking the senior center from moving in. As part of the agreement, the basement space could not contain a soup kitchen, and the senior center would have its own entrance. 240 Centre Street's co-op board began reviewing plans for the basement senior center in 2002. the model Kelly Killoren Bensimon, and the film producer Megan Ellison. == Impact ==

Reception When the building was completed, the Brooklyn Eagle wrote that "the rooms of the commissioner remind one of the private office of a Wall Street banker, while the main staircase from the first floor would do justice to a first-class hotel". Conversely, Henry Hope Reed Jr. wrote for the same newspaper that the building's Centre Street portico and interiors gave a "palatial impression". After 240 Centre Street became a cultural center, a New York Times writer said that the building "fills its wedge-shaped plot with rare panache" and was a vestige of urban American architecture from before World War I. A Newsday writer said in 1987 that the building's decorations were more appropriate for a cathedral than for a residential structure. By contrast, a writer for New York magazine regarded the lobby as having "the gloomy splendor of a government reception hall in Naples". Landmark designations and media In 1974, the LPC began considering designating the building as an official city landmark; the landmark status was endorsed by Nevelson and Onassis. and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The building has also been the subject of media works. The 1982 movie Q was filmed in the building's dome; a large nest, a prop from that movie, remained in the dome for several years. In 1988, the Fujisankei Communications Group created a short film inside the building to advertise the apartments there. == See also ==