105 Hudson Street

1892 Powell Building, converted in the 1970s, 16 apartments across 11 floors.

105 Hudson Street, 10013

ALSO KNOWN AS The Powell Building

105 Hudson Street is the Powell Building, designed by Carrère and Hastings and completed in 1892 as the New York headquarters of Walter Baker and Company. It is light brick over two storeys of rusticated stone, with Renaissance Revival terra cotta worked into the elevation.

It was built with seven floors. Alexander Powell bought it in 1903 and had Henri Fouchaux add four more and extend the building twenty five feet to the north, so what stands is two campaigns stacked. The joint is legible outside and it matters inside: the upper floors belong to the later frame and do not always align with the bays below them.

The conversion of the mid 1970s left 16 apartments and 24 offices in one building. That is the governing fact for work here. A residence can sit directly above or below a commercial tenancy, so separation is a floor problem rather than a party wall problem, and the hours a contractor can work are set by a building that is still half commercial.

Masonry loft construction of this date carries its load on the perimeter wall and on interior columns, so the window openings are fixed and the reveals are deep, deep enough to detail into rather than line out. Ceilings are high by the standard of a residential building because they were drawn for manufacturing.

Bone Levine restored the exterior in 2000. The building has survived a change of purpose twice without losing the elevation Carrère and Hastings drew, which is the argument for the historic district it sits in.

Within walking distance

Building facts

New York City Primary Land Use Tax Lot Output, version 26v1. Tax lot 1001870030.