Puck Building

The Puck Building is at 295–309 Lafayette Street, and SoHo neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. It occupies an entire city block between Lafayette Street to the west, Houston Street to the north, Mulberry Street to the east, and Jersey Street to the south. The land lot is quadrilateral and measures around . Across the street to the southeast are St. Patrick's Old Cathedral and St. Patrick's Old Cathedral School. There are glass-and-iron vaulted sidewalks around the building; Prior to the construction of the Puck Building, the site had been occupied by St. Catherine's Convent, which was built by the Order of the Sisters of Mercy in 1848. The convent was located at 35 East Houston Street, and the adjacent House of Mercy was at 33 East Houston Street. When the building was erected in the 1880s, it was at the southern end of Manhattan's printing district, These firms had settled in the neighborhood in part because of their proximity to the New York and New Haven Railroad's freight terminal, which was several blocks south on Canal Street between Centre and Lafayette streets. At the time of the building's construction, Lafayette Street did not exist at the intersection with Houston Street. What is now known as Lafayette Street was two separate streets: Lafayette Place to the north and Elm Street to the south. These two streets were connected between 1897 and 1905. Because of the construction of Lafayette Street, part of the original building has been demolished. Before the original building was truncated, it carried an address of 31–39 East Houston Street. == Architecture ==

The Puck Building was designed by Albert Wagner and was built for Puck magazine and the J. Ottmann Lithographing Company. It was constructed in two parts: The north section was built in 1885–1986 and the south addition in 1892–1993. was widened. Herman Wagner was the architect for the renovated facade. The Lafayette Street elevation is stylistically similar to the original facades of both the original building and the annex. The building's facade includes gilded statues of Shakespeare's character Puck, from ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''; the sculptor Henry Baerer created two such statues for the building. Every elevation of the facade is divided vertically into bays of uniform width. The southern elevation on Jersey Street is clad in plain brick and has a small number of window openings with iron shutters. The bays are separated vertically by projecting brick piers, which rise atop granite pedestals. The rest of the facade is made of red brick, except for the cast iron window frames and statues, as well as the wrought iron entrance gates. Some terracotta and sandstone is also incorporated into the facade. All four corners of the building are chamfered, with small diagonal cutouts. On Mulberry Street, there are two wrought-iron fire escapes, one each in the annex and the original building. At the ground story of the archway are two rectangular doorways, which are separated by a cast-iron column and flanked by smaller cast-iron piers. In front of each doorway is an ornate Art Nouveau wrought-iron arch with a set of wrought-iron gates. A transom bar runs above the doorways, and a statue of Puck stands atop the center of the transom bar. Above the transom bar is a lunette window. The entrance at the northeast corner of the building, at Houston and Mulberry streets, included a pair of doorways until 1899. the phrase printed on Puck magazine covers; When the building's entrance was located at this corner, the column stood in front of the entrance. Upper stories On the third to seventh stories, the piers are narrower than on the lower stories. As with the third-and-fourth-story windows, each arch is divided by narrow brickwork piers with patterned capitals. Interior The ceilings on the first floor are high, shrinking to on the upper stories. The interior's architectural features included a cast-iron elevator. cast-iron staircases, wooden wainscoting, and open plan spaces with cast-iron columns. The columns were decorated with motifs such as rosettes, fluting, bosses, and bands. The brick vaults were strong enough to accommodate the weight of the building's printing presses. The ground (first) floor was originally used by the J. Ottman firm, and it also included a stair leading to the Puck company offices on the upper stories. The building had 24 or 30 printing presses as well. After the original building was finished, ''King's Handbook of New York City'' characterized the building as being among the largest printing-plant structures in the world. A lobby for commercial tenants was added during the 1980s renovation. On average, each of the modern-day building's floors covers about Large masonry walls, measuring thick, split the interiors into thirds. Penthouse apartments At the top of the building are six penthouse apartments collectively known as the Puck Penthouses; The apartments are accessed through their own entrance and are served by a concierge. The penthouse lobby has an imported European cast-iron fireplace mantel, and the private elevator has a depiction of Puck. Each of the apartments is designated with a Roman numeral apartment number. The Puck Penthouses retain the spaces' original large windows, cast-iron columns, and vaulted brick ceilings. The apartments have custom stoves, window frames, door hinges, and other appliances, materials that were selected specifically to give the penthouses an industrial ambiance. The builders hardware is made of materials such as marble and nickel. There are also electronic devices, such as hidden televisions in the bathroom mirrors. One of the penthouses is within a dormer structure, which has a steel frame and is structurally connected with the frames of the original structure and annex. == History ==

Puck ownership 's character Puck above the original entrance at the building's northwest cornerThe building was the longtime home of Puck magazine, a humor cartoon. Joseph Keppler and Adolph Schwarzmann had founded Puck as a German-language publication in 1876 and started publishing in English in 1877. Puck magazine was originally situated near the Manhattan end of the Brooklyn Bridge. Puck and the J. Ottmann Lithographing Company, which printed out Puck cartoons, were situated on Warren Street in Manhattan's Civic Center by 1880. The magazine's circulation had grown to 80,000 by then, and it needed a larger building. Development and opening In February 1885, Keppler, Schwarzmann, and J. Ottmann agreed to acquire the Institution of Mercy at the southwest corner of Mulberry Street and Houston Street. The sale was finalized the next month; the three men paid $140,000 () for the site. Keppler, Schwarzmann, and J. Ottmann borrowed $130,000 () from the Franklin Savings Bank. The George A. Fuller Company was the main construction contractor. The Puck Building was completed in 1886. At the time, it had of space. The building caught fire again in early 1888, although the blaze was extinguished before a large amount of flammable material in the basement could catch fire. By the late 19th century, Puck employed 400 people at the building. announced a tentative route for the subway's first line in June 1890. The building would have to be reconfigured so that it had a facade along the new street. At the time, the irregularly-shaped site on Mulberry Street contained a three-story tenement, which Keppler and his partners planned to demolish and replace with an annex to the Puck Building. The same month, Thomas Weatherby sold four houses on the north side of Jersey Street, immediately west of Schneider's plot, to Keppler and Schwarzmann. Wagner was rehired to design the annex, which was to rise nine stories. W. Arnott was hired as the stonemason for the annex, In January 1893, the city government agreed to widen and extend Elm Street northward, which would require demolishing about one-third of the existing building; several property owners, including Keppler, expressed objections to the street's extension. That year, Keppler, Schwarzmann, and Ottmann borrowed $300,000 for the annex from the Brooklyn Savings Bank (). The annex was ultimately completed in 1893. Though the building's owners were still opposed to the street's extension as late as December 1894, they had come to support the proposal by the following year. To make way for the section of Elm Street between Houston and Jersey streets, the city government decided to raze the building's westernmost section in 1897. A city commission was appointed to determine how much each property owner should be compensated. They determined that the owners of the Puck Building would receive $464,000 in compensation (). In September 1897, the Puck Publishing Corporation filed plans for $275,000 worth of alterations to the Puck Building (). Wagner was again hired as the architect for these modifications, and Hanlon Brothers were hired to demolish part of the building. Materials salvaged from the building were reportedly reused in a four-story building at 163 Crosby Street. The modifications to the Puck Building were completed in 1899, A fire in November 1905 caused $50,000 in damage (). The fire had started after a can of turpentine caught fire inside a finishing room where workers were producing Christmas cards. In 1912, six people were severely injured after one of the building's elevators fell seven stories. The Manhattan Ladies' Hat Company leased some space in the building in 1912, followed by Teitelbaum & De Marinis the following year. The Puck Building remained Puck magazine's headquarters until 1917, when Hearst Communications took over the magazine. Puck was discontinued in September of the following year. Mid-20th century Though Puck magazine had been discontinued, the building remained suitable for firms in the printing industry, as its floor plates had been built to accommodate heavy printing presses. the Paulus-Ullmann Printing Corporation on the fifth floor, and the Paulus & Howell Press on the eighth floor. All of the usable space had been rented by the end of 1917, when Acme Steel Goods Company took the seventh floor. Other tenants in the late 1910s included the American Paper Mills, clothing manufacturers Zeeman & Grossman, Raymond Engineering Corporation, and a store operated by Olney & Warrin. A ladies' hat manufacturers' association moved into the building in the 1920s, and Comfort & Company, Inc., leased a large part of the building in 1935. The building's other tenants in the mid-20th century included the bookbinder J. C. Valentine Company (which moved out in 1931 after four decades there); the printing company Lehmaier Press; the Parker-Wilson Printing Company; the printing company Costa & Aliani; and the Pioneer Scientific Corporation. An office stationery company, S. Novick & Son, occupied the second floor; its salesmen included former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Alger Hiss. In 1937, the Puck statue above the main entrance was cleaned. In 1947, the Puck Building was sold to a client of David Rapaport; this was the first time the building had changed ownership in half a century. By the 1950s and 1960s, the building also housed such tenants as the Empire Bookbinding Company, Prospect Press, Sample Service Corporation, and the garment-industry-ticket producer Keller Ticket Company. After Coney Island's Steeplechase Park was closed in 1965, part of the amusement park's fence was moved to the Puck Building, where it was rebuilt. Serra and Gee ownership Paul Serra's family bought the Puck Building in 1978; at the time, the building was fully occupied. Serra and his partner Peter Gee, who ran a company called Peter, Paul and Puck, Additionally, Gee said "there are too many problems involved with the city and dealing with people's personal lives" when it came to residential tenancies. Workers regilded the Puck statues, renovated the elevator cabs, added interior wainscoting, and installed new wiring and HVAC systems; The renovation ultimately cost $14 million and mostly involved cosmetic changes. The Puck Building's renovation, along with the construction of other residential buildings nearby, helped attract retailers to Lafayette Street, which had been a frequent hangout for drug dealers. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated it as a city landmark in April 1983, and the structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places the same year. which included artifacts from the building that were discovered during its renovation. To attract tenants, Serra and Gee offered to split up existing condo units and install new floors, and they gave commercial tenants their own lobby. Three years after the renovation, none of the condos had been sold, prompting Serra and Gee to sell the Puck Building. Skydell's partners in the syndicate included George Gellert, Charles Kushner, and Joel Seiden, Skydell and his partners spent another $9 million on the building, Sonnenblick-Goldman Corporation, borrowed $26.3 million to pay for the building's renovation and purchase. whose founders, Graydon Carter and Kurt Andersen, had specifically wanted to establish a magazine in the former Puck headquarters. The Pratt Institute opened its Manhattan Center campus on the building's second floor in 1986, relocating several of its graphics and illustration departments there. In addition, the New York City government rented four floors, three of which were occupied by the Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Transportation; the city's Civilian Complaint Review Board also had offices in the Puck Building, The New York Press magazine moved into the building as well. The Puck Building's ballroom became a popular venue for fashion shows, in part due to the ballroom's relatively low rental rates and plain architectural design. Other events hosted in the building during the late 20th and early 21st centuries included the National Black Fine Art Show and the Outsider Art Fair. Skydell owed $2.2 million on the Puck Building and another structure by the early 1990s. Because of the ownership syndicate's financial troubles, Kushner's firm Kushner Companies had to take over the Puck Building. Kushner Companies thus became the sole owner of the structure. Additional tenants moved into the building during the decade. and Pratt expanded into some of the city government's former space on the fourth floor. By 1998, Kushner Companies contemplated converting the ballroom spaces on the lower stories into retail space, as the Puck Building did not have any stores at the time. The city government rezoned the building's land lot the same year, changing it from a manufacturing zone to a mixed commercial and residential zone. The structure was valued at $80 million by 2000. and New York University leased at the building two years later, becoming the structure's largest tenant. NYU relocated its Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and sociology department into the building; at the time, the other tenants included Swanke Hayden Connell Architects and the catering firm New York Caterers. In addition, the building's owner sought to lease out the structure's event space to a food emporium. New retail space and penthouses The outdoor-gear store REI leased in the building in 2010, with plans to open a three-story store there. Kushner Companies refinanced the building with an $80 million mortgage the same year. Part of the ground floor was cut away to make way for a staircase, and some of the original lower-story finishes were restored. Some materials such as wood ceilings, floor joists, and wainscoting were removed and reinstalled elsewhere within the storefront space, while equipment like flywheels and printing tablets was preserved. The storefront renovation was designed by the architecture firm of Callison and included an area that showcased the history of the Puck Building. The REI store opened in early December 2011, becoming the building's first retail tenant in over a century. Kushner Companies' chief executive Jared Kushner announced plans that August to add penthouse apartments atop the building and hired PKSB Architects to design the residences. and the Puck Building was among the neighborhood's most prominent structures. Kushner submitted revised plans for two glass penthouse dormers in October, The agency declined to accept a further modification that November for a similar reason. The LPC conditionally approved a downsized dormer in December 2011 and formally approved the renovation later that month. Ultimately, Kushner Companies met with the LPC five or six times. In the final plan, the dormer was downsized by and shortened by . Kushner began marketing the condos in September 2013, asking $21 million to $60 million. At the time, Kushner anticipated that the residences would attract "connoisseurs, collectors, and those with a youthful exuberance". the Kushner family's firm Thrive Capital, along with numerous startups funded by Thrive Capital; and several media- and internet-related firms. the sale was finalized the following year. The first completed penthouse was placed for sale in January 2014, and the remaining penthouses were finished that March. Kushner placed two more penthouses on sale for $57 million the same year. The Chefs Club restaurant opened within the building's first floor in late 2014. The next penthouse was not sold until early 2016, and the fourth penthouse was placed for sale that March. Kushner Companies replaced the penthouses' original brokerage, Sotheby's International Realty, with the Corcoran Group the same year. Kushner and Trump had originally wanted to move into one of the apartments, Kushner's brother Joshua and Joshua's wife Karlie Kloss bought one of the building's penthouses in 2019 before reselling it; the couple purchased the last remaining penthouse two years later, The Chefs Club restaurant closed during the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, and the Major Food Club took over the space, opening the Torrisi restaurant there in 2022. After NYU relocated part of its Wagner Center out of the building in 2023, about of its space was leased to the hedge fund Quadrature. In addition, OpenAI rented , nearly half of the building's space, in 2024. At the time, the building's other office tenants included Thrive Capital, Plaid Inc., and Cadre. prompting Kushner Companies to seek new tenants. == Impact ==

The 1893 ''King's Handbook of New York City described the Puck Building as "a fitting monument" to Puck'' magazine and the J. Ottmann Lithographing Company, particularly praising the facade as giving an impression of "strength combined with lightness and graceful simplicity". and another writer for the same newspaper said in 1983 that the building "seems to fit right in with the cast-iron structures" around it. Following the building's 1983 renovation, a New York Daily News writer referred to the Puck statues as "the most outstanding feature of the building". similarly, Eric Nash wrote in his 1995 book ''New York's 50 Best Secret Architectural Treasures'' that the Puck Building was a "premier example of the Rundbogenstil". Before the Puck Building was preserved as an official city landmark, it was depicted in the Municipal Art Society's 1982 exhibit "Landmarks That Aren't". After Wagner designed the Puck Building, he reused its design details for a structure at 140 Franklin Street in Tribeca. The Puck Building has been shown in various works of popular culture, For example, an exterior shot of the Puck Building is seen in the American television sitcom Will & Grace, and it is also used as a setting in the 1989 film When Harry Met Sally.... The band The National recorded parts of their 2003 album Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers in an empty penthouse in the building; two of its members, Matt Berninger and Scott Devendorf, worked there at the time. The building is also depicted in a mural in the New York Public Library Main Branch's Periodical Room. == See also ==