27. U.S. Customhouse
AKA: Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House; National Museum of the American Indian
Location: 1 Bowling Green
Built: 1913
Architect: Cass Gilbert; Daniel Chester French
National Register Number: 72000889
Listed: January 31, 1972
Visited: August 5 and 26, September 1 and 29, and October 6, 2007
I am mad for this building.
The primary way the United States generated revenue before the income tax was through custom duties, and as New York City was once the largest port in the country, a huge hunk of this money funneled through it. And just a glimpse of it will amply demonstrate that this building was designed to overwhelm all those within eyeshot with the fact of its importance.
It has a city block all to itself, and has been blessed by neighbors that, whatever their shortcomings, don't crowd or dwarf their Beaux-Arts elder. Above, on the entablature, statuary representing twelve great seafaring nations of the West, from Greece and Rome to France and England, loom over the building and its operations like guardian angels.
Yet ruling over them all sit the symbols of the United States: its shield on a large cartouche, an eagle, the flag. And although such eclecticism is completely characteristic of Beaux-Arts architecture of the time, it is worth noting that the building cannibalizes many details from the history of the architecture of power: thick Corinthian columns from the Classical world, rusticated stonework of an Italian palazzo, Mansard roofs redolent of the Second French Empire. Through this sea of references, the building claims its role in the development of American Empire, and America's role as inheritor of all that came before it. Including Europe's babysteps into the New World -- as noted before, the building sits in front of the site where, as legend had it, Peter Minuit "bought" Manhattan for $24 bucks.
Which makes the building perfect place for the New York branch of the Smithsonian's Museum of the American Indian. Housed here are beautiful artifacts (none of which I can show you -- art is lit dimly, and flash is disallowed, meaning photos of suck), marred a little by your typical explanatory blather: "Native Americans have demonstrated a distinguished ability to integrates new materials and design motifs into their creations, yet make them uniquely and culturally identifiable." Yeah, and like every other culture, EVER. The museum itself, encrusted with the exhaustingly beautiful works of human hands, its Gustavinao skylight and Tiffany'd suites, serves as the greater caption: in here, craft pays perfectly equitable service to craft, art to art.
Location: 1 Bowling Green
Built: 1913
Architect: Cass Gilbert; Daniel Chester French
National Register Number: 72000889
Listed: January 31, 1972
Visited: August 5 and 26, September 1 and 29, and October 6, 2007
I am mad for this building.
The primary way the United States generated revenue before the income tax was through custom duties, and as New York City was once the largest port in the country, a huge hunk of this money funneled through it. And just a glimpse of it will amply demonstrate that this building was designed to overwhelm all those within eyeshot with the fact of its importance.
It has a city block all to itself, and has been blessed by neighbors that, whatever their shortcomings, don't crowd or dwarf their Beaux-Arts elder. Above, on the entablature, statuary representing twelve great seafaring nations of the West, from Greece and Rome to France and England, loom over the building and its operations like guardian angels.
Yet ruling over them all sit the symbols of the United States: its shield on a large cartouche, an eagle, the flag. And although such eclecticism is completely characteristic of Beaux-Arts architecture of the time, it is worth noting that the building cannibalizes many details from the history of the architecture of power: thick Corinthian columns from the Classical world, rusticated stonework of an Italian palazzo, Mansard roofs redolent of the Second French Empire. Through this sea of references, the building claims its role in the development of American Empire, and America's role as inheritor of all that came before it. Including Europe's babysteps into the New World -- as noted before, the building sits in front of the site where, as legend had it, Peter Minuit "bought" Manhattan for $24 bucks.
Which makes the building perfect place for the New York branch of the Smithsonian's Museum of the American Indian. Housed here are beautiful artifacts (none of which I can show you -- art is lit dimly, and flash is disallowed, meaning photos of suck), marred a little by your typical explanatory blather: "Native Americans have demonstrated a distinguished ability to integrates new materials and design motifs into their creations, yet make them uniquely and culturally identifiable." Yeah, and like every other culture, EVER. The museum itself, encrusted with the exhaustingly beautiful works of human hands, its Gustavinao skylight and Tiffany'd suites, serves as the greater caption: in here, craft pays perfectly equitable service to craft, art to art.
Labels: Cass Gilbert, Financial District
posted by Michael at
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