The Schumacher

1885 printing house, converted, 20 residences across 7 floors.

36 Bleecker Street, 10012

The Schumacher was built in 1885 to a design by Edward Raht as a printing house for Schumacher and Ettlinger, and converted to 20 residences by Morris Adjmi Architects.

It is red brick, industrial Romanesque with a Second Empire mansard above, and the ground floor carries a cast iron storefront that was restored rather than replaced. The building had lost its pediment, and Adjmi based a replacement on a drawing Raht had made for an unrelated competition.

Inside, the conversion kept barrel vaulted ceilings, the oversized arched windows and exposed brick walls, and laid wide plank white oak floors. The vaults and the arched heads work as they do at The Shephard, which is to say they remove the flat ceiling plane and the square window opening that most fittings assume.

Exposed brick is the other governing surface. It is the structure, so it takes no chases and no flush mounting, and anything running along an outside wall is either surface fixed to masonry or held off it on a frame.

Within walking distance

Building facts

New York City Primary Land Use Tax Lot Output, version 26v1. Tax lot 1005217505.