Apple Bank Building

The Apple Bank Building is at 2100–2114 Broadway, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, New York, US. It occupies a trapezoidal city block bounded by Broadway to the west, 74th Street to the north, Amsterdam Avenue to the east, and 73rd Street to the south. The land lot covers , with a frontage of on Broadway and a depth of . The building is near several other structures, including The Ansonia apartments to the west, The Dorilton apartments one block south, and the Hotel Beacon and Beacon Theatre to the north. The southern part of the site, formerly lot 26, was previously occupied by the five-story Sherman Apartments. James Butler and Peter McDonnell had bought these structures in 1905. ==Architecture==

The Apple Bank Building, originally the Central Savings Bank Building, was designed by bank architects York and Sawyer for the Central Savings Bank. The structure was designed in the Renaissance Revival and palazzo styles and was patterned after an Italian Renaissance-style palazzo. Prior to the building's construction, York and Sawyer had designed the Bowery Savings Bank Building at 110 East 42nd Street, the Greenwich Savings Bank Building, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Building. The building was constructed by general contractor Hegeman-Harris Company. Though the Central Savings Bank Building was designed as a neighborhood branch (as contrasted with the Bowery Savings Bank or Greenwich Savings Bank buildings), its architecture evoked that of a large headquarters such as the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The Apple Bank Building houses a branch of the Apple Bank for Savings (previously the Central Savings Bank). In addition, there are 29 condominiums on the upper floors. Though the Apple Bank Building originally contained six full stories excluding mezzanines, the ceilings were so high that the structure was equivalent to an eight- or nine-story building. Facade Each elevation, or side of the building, has a different arrangement of window openings. The facade is divided horizontally into four sections on all elevations: a one-story base, two intermediate sections, and a seventh-story attic. The northwestern corner is a diagonal chamfer. Ground floor The base of the facade is made of rusticated blocks of limestone. Above the ground floor is a frieze with a torus molding. There are entrances along 73rd Street, 74th Street, and Broadway, A secondary entrance to the building's apartments is at the north end of the Broadway elevation, with the address 2112 Broadway. The southern entrance on 73rd Street contains a recessed doorway with a grille in front. the firm of Ricci and Zari carved the clock and lion out of Indiana limestone. The east elevation on Amsterdam Avenue has square windows with grilles; there are no entrances. A sign displaying the time and temperature is also placed on the 73rd Street elevation. The keystones above these arches have cartouches shaped like shields. Each shield contains a depiction of a caduceus, Above the arches, the fourth story has fourteen rectangular windows on Broadway, eighteen on Amsterdam Avenue, eight on 74th Street, and five on 73rd Street. On all sides, there is a horizontal band course above the fourth-story windows. An entrance foyer, between the Broadway entrance vestibule and the rest of the bank, curves 40 degrees. Vestibules On the west side of the ground floor, leading from Broadway, is a vestibule shaped as an irregular quadrilateral. This vestibule has a floor of polychrome marble strips, surrounded by a black slate border. The walls are made of sandstone paneling above black-slate baseboards and have wrought-iron radiator grilles. The metal double doors facing Broadway are flanked by sidelights, which are held in place by iron mullions. The coffered ceiling is made of plaster, which is painted to appear like iron, and contains an iron lantern at its center. The New York Times described the screens as resembling a "particularly elegant torture device from the time of Savonarola". In addition, a wrought-iron cresting runs beneath the entire counter. The three central arches on the west wall form a loggia, behind which is the mezzanine level. The west wall's outermost arches are blind openings, with inscriptions commemorating the Central Savings Bank's trustees. Underneath the blind openings are architraves of Mondragone marble, beneath which stairways lead up to the mezzanine. The arches on the east wall correspond to the large windows on Amsterdam Avenue, with heating grilles just beneath each window. A frieze with Greek key motifs wraps beneath the arches on the west and east walls. Both the piers and the walls are topped by a cornice with dentils. The main barrel-vaulted ceiling is suspended from the upper stories via a steel frame, even though the piers give the appearance of holding up the ceiling. Each medallion is decorated with three acanthus leaf wreaths, a frieze, and a border of rosettes and Greek key motifs. The friezes contain Latin inscriptions related to banking. Mezzanine The stairs from the mezzanine lead from the northernmost and southernmost arches of the banking room's west wall. Six travertine steps lead westward from the banking room to an intermediate landing. The bank's basement contained vault doors weighing each. The basement covers and is used as a baseball and softball facility, which opened in 2000. Residences In 2006, the seven upper stories were converted into a residential condominium development known as Apple Bank Condo. The residential section of the building is accessed by its own entrance at 2112 Broadway, with a concierge area designed by Beyer Blinder Belle. There are 29 apartments in the building, each with a different arrangement. The apartments below the duplexes have ceilings and are illuminated by windows. Each of the duplexes has an interior courtyard, which corresponds to the locations of the ceiling trusses inside. ==History==

The German Savings Bank was founded in 1859 and was originally housed in the Cooper Union Building in the East Village of Manhattan. The original name reflected the bank's clientele, the largely German population of the East Village. likely due to a wartime rise in anti-German sentiment. Each savings bank in New York was limited to one location until 1923, when the state legislature passed a law allowing savings banks to construct branches. The Central Savings Bank's directors organized a special committee to determine the feasibility of opening a new branch, as well as possible sites for such a branch. Development By July 1923, the bank's special committee had identified a site bounded by Broadway, Amsterdam Avenue, and 73rd and 74th Streets; bank president Hubert Cellis said it was "the choicest location on the West Side". In November 1923, the Central Savings Bank acquired the Sherman Apartments on the north side of 73rd Street, occupying the entire frontage between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, for the construction of an uptown bank branch. The bank paid James Butler and Peter McDonnell $1 million for the site. Meanwhile, Adolph Koppel had become the bank's new president and August Zinsser was appointed the vice president. The two men led a new-building committee, which released a detailed report of the new building in March 1926, including a banking room, which had been envisioned for three years. York and Sawyer created the designs for the new bank building, which the bank's directors approved. Zinsser became the bank's president and continued to oversee the development of the new building. York and Sawyer submitted plans for the bank building to the New York City Department of Buildings in December 1926. Zinsser hired Spencer, White & Prentis, Inc. to clear the site and excavate foundations in January 1927. The Central Savings Bank gave craftsmanship awards to 15 mechanics involved in the building's construction in March 1928. By that July, the National Park Bank had opened a branch in the building, and Wood, Dolson & Co. were renting out the completed upper floors as offices. The structure had a total estimated cost of $6.5 million. 1920s to 1970s The bank branch officially opened on December 8, 1928. Just prior to the building's opening, $170 million of deposits held by the Central Savings Bank were moved from the Union Square branch to the new branch, using 16 armored cars guarded by 60 heavily armed policemen. Early office tenants included real estate developer Ralph Ciluzzi, J.S. Ansorge & Co., and the Rosalind Realty Company. Many of the tenants were medical offices and dentists. The Chase National Bank operated a branch on the 74th Street side of the building by 1943. The bank submitted plans for a minor alteration of the building to the New York City Department of Buildings in 1947. Office tenants continued to occupy the Central Savings Bank Building, including the Atlantic District of the Lutheran Church in America, real-estate developer Arturo A. Campagna, and real-estate firm Mark Rafalsky & Co. in the 1950s and 1960s. Upon the bank's centennial in 1959, the New York City government presented the building with a scroll in 1959, recognizing the bank's "service to local economic welfare" by teaching local students about "thrift". Also in 1959, the bank's basement was flooded when a water main in the adjacent IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line subway tunnel broke. A sign displaying the time and temperature was mounted onto the southern facade of the building in 1961. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) proposed designating the building's facade and the banking room's interior as landmarks in 1974. The LPC had gained the authority to grant interior landmark statuses the previous year, and the Central Savings Bank was the first bank interior that the LPC considered. However, bank officials were skeptical that the interior had architectural or historical significance. The Central Savings Bank Building's facade was designated as a landmark on January 28, 1975, along with the neighboring Verdi Square; the New York City Board of Estimate ratified the designations that March. 1980s to present By the early 1980s, the Central Savings Bank was struggling financially and the Manhattan Savings Bank proposed taking over. At the time, the 2100 Broadway branch served as the Central Savings Bank's headquarters, and the bank had seven other locations in Manhattan and on Long Island. In 1981, the Central Savings Bank was merged into the Harlem Savings Bank, which had eight locations in Manhattan and on Long Island. The Harlem Savings Bank retained headquarters at 205 East 42nd Street, and 2100 Broadway became a neighborhood branch. To reflect its geographic expansion, the bank changed its name to Apple Bank in May 1983. The time-and-temperature sign on the facade was temporarily removed so the bank's new name could be installed. with officials citing the building's importance as "Manhattan's only free-standing bank building". and a 1989 auction of artwork to fund protests against Donald Trump's proposed development of the nearby Trump City. With the closure or downsizing of bank branches in the late 20th century, the LPC proposed designating several major bank interiors in 1990, including the Apple Bank Building, the Manufacturers Hanover Building, and the Greenwich Savings Bank Building. Apple Bank had retained the banking room's original design; in one case, the bank declined to place bulletproof glass on the tellers' counter because that would have required removing the wrought-iron screens. Even so, the LPC designated the banking room as an interior landmark on December 21, 1993. Apple Bank's sole owner Stanley Stahl died in 1999, but the Stahl Organization retained an ownership interest in the bank's operation. In 2004, Apple Bank indicated that it would let the leases of the building's office tenants lapse. Condo sales launched in July 2006, with prices ranging from $1.8 million to $6.7 million. Two-fifths of the condos had gone into contract by the end of the year. and basketball player Emeka Okafor, who bought a condo in 2013. The condominium conversion was completed in 2007, Meanwhile, the bank branch at the building's base remained in operation, even as the city's other massive banking rooms were converted into banquet halls or residential lobbies. == Reception ==

When the Central Savings Bank Building was completed, The New York Times described it as one of Broadway's "finest commercial structures". Architecture and Building characterized the building as "an ornament to its location". The building's architecture inspired that of the Laureate, a condominium building constructed nearby during the 2000s. ==See also==