The Woolworth Building long ago lost its title as tallest in the world. But its grand arcade, designed by Cass Gilbert, has never lost the distinction of being the most sumptuous office lobby in New York, with a dazzling mosaic ceiling that brings a delectable taste of the Byzantine Empire to Lower Manhattan.
“Its owner thought of it as a monument for public view,” the Landmarks Preservation Commission said in 1983, when declaring the tower an official city landmark, “and Cass Gilbert brought to the interior the same type of treatment he accorded public monuments.”....
The Woolworth Building long ago lost its title as tallest in the world. But its grand arcade, designed by Cass Gilbert, has never lost the distinction of being the most sumptuous office lobby in New York, with a dazzling mosaic ceiling that brings a delectable taste of the Byzantine Empire to Lower Manhattan.
“Its owner thought of it as a monument for public view,” the Landmarks Preservation Commission said in 1983, when declaring the tower an official city landmark, “and Cass Gilbert brought to the interior the same type of treatment he accorded public monuments.”
One problem: The grand arcade has been off limits to the public for more than a decade.
Oh, you can walk through the Woolworth lobby if you look purposeful enough and are destined for one of the building’s tenants. But don’t dare pause for even a moment to contemplate what the commission called “one of the finest skyscraper interiors in New York and one of the most significant nationwide.”
As Mr. Gilbert’s great-granddaughter, Helen Post Curry, put it, “If your jaw drops, you’re out of here.”
In a 2006 sampling of landmark interiors downtown, I found that the Woolworth security staff was the quickest to bar entry, only 12 seconds after I walked through the door.
To emphasize the ban, the Witkoff Group, which bought the building in 1998 from the remnants of F. W. Woolworth & Company, posted a sign outside the main entrance on Broadway: “Tourists are not permitted beyond this point.”
Lately, however, visitors have found a heartening addendum: “Guided lobby tours are offered at www.woolworthtours.com.”
Quietly and promisingly, a partnership has developed between Witkoff and Ms. Curry, an interior designer and color consultant in New Canaan, Conn.
It began in the planning of the building’s centenary in 2013, when Ms. Curry met with Roy A. Suskin, the vice president for development at Witkoff, who knows the tower inside and out. (He can even tell you that the building may not be 792 feet tall, as just about every reference work states, since the plans indicated that it would be 787 feet 6 inches from a benchmark at the northwest corner of the building.)
At first, the idea was to give a day of tours during the April celebration. Those were subscribed so quickly, Ms. Curry said, that she asked Mr. Suskin if two days of tours might be offered. He agreed. “Fortunately,” she said, “it went off perfectly. People were thanking him.”
Then it was Mr. Suskin’s turn to approach Ms. Curry, about a month later. “If you want to organize tours on a regular basis, we should talk,” she recalls him saying. Did she ever. “There is a tremendous pent-up demand,” Ms. Curry said.
Woolworth Tours now offers 30-, 60- and 90-minute tours almost every day, conducted by a number of knowledgeable and well-recognized guides. The group cautions in advance that walk-ins cannot be accommodated, that no restrooms are available and that there is no place to sit during the tour.
On the other hand, photographs are permitted, which ought to delight anyone who has been waiting more than a decade to zoom in on the scarlet parrots of the mosaic vaults, or the delightful sculptural grotesques depicting Frank W. Woolworth, holding one of the nickels that created his five-and-dime empire, and Mr. Gilbert, contemplating a model of his tower.
(The tours will not affect a separate new lobby planned on Park Place as part of the residential conversion of the upper 30 stories by Alchemy Properties, which bought the top of the building from Witkoff and its partner in 2012.)
Tours range from $20 to $45. Ms. Curry said she and her brother, Charles, pay a “small” fee to Witkoff for each visitor and also pay the guides.
Mr. Suskin said the guided tours, which had been suggested by one of his interns, Lisa Renz, allowed people to see the lobby while not interfering with operations or security. He said the management had no choice but to impose a no-sightseeing rule in the late 1990s, when the entrance to the grand arcade grew so crowded with tourists that tenants could barely get through.
“Tenants have a higher priority than anyone,” Mr. Suskin said. “Like everyone else, they have to get to work and have free access to their offices.” Magnificent as it is, the grand arcade is so narrow that it takes only one admirer blocking the doorway to tie up lobby traffic.
The landmarks commission said through a spokeswoman that it was “very pleased” that the grand arcade was once again publicly accessible. Though the agency has little power to compel greater public access, Robert B. Tierney, the chairman under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, had tried to use his powers of persuasion with Witkoff.
Mr. Suskin said the lobby could not operate efficiently with groups of tourists showing up unannounced. “It is no different,” he said, “than anyone else finding it a problem to have 45 people standing in their front door when they are trying to get to work.”
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/01/nyregion/off-limits-for-over-a-decade-lobby-of-woolworth-building-is-open-for-tours.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=fb-nytimes&bicmst=1409232722000&bicmet=1419773522000&smtyp=aut&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id&_r=0
“Its owner thought of it as a monument for public view,” the Landmarks Preservation Commission said in 1983, when declaring the tower an official city landmark, “and Cass Gilbert brought to the interior the same type of treatment he accorded public monuments.”
One problem: The grand arcade has been off limits to the public for more than a decade.
Oh, you can walk through the Woolworth lobby if you look purposeful enough and are destined for one of the building’s tenants. But don’t dare pause for even a moment to contemplate what the commission called “one of the finest skyscraper interiors in New York and one of the most significant nationwide.”
As Mr. Gilbert’s great-granddaughter, Helen Post Curry, put it, “If your jaw drops, you’re out of here.”
In a 2006 sampling of landmark interiors downtown, I found that the Woolworth security staff was the quickest to bar entry, only 12 seconds after I walked through the door.
To emphasize the ban, the Witkoff Group, which bought the building in 1998 from the remnants of F. W. Woolworth & Company, posted a sign outside the main entrance on Broadway: “Tourists are not permitted beyond this point.”
Lately, however, visitors have found a heartening addendum: “Guided lobby tours are offered at www.woolworthtours.com.”
Quietly and promisingly, a partnership has developed between Witkoff and Ms. Curry, an interior designer and color consultant in New Canaan, Conn.
It began in the planning of the building’s centenary in 2013, when Ms. Curry met with Roy A. Suskin, the vice president for development at Witkoff, who knows the tower inside and out. (He can even tell you that the building may not be 792 feet tall, as just about every reference work states, since the plans indicated that it would be 787 feet 6 inches from a benchmark at the northwest corner of the building.)
At first, the idea was to give a day of tours during the April celebration. Those were subscribed so quickly, Ms. Curry said, that she asked Mr. Suskin if two days of tours might be offered. He agreed. “Fortunately,” she said, “it went off perfectly. People were thanking him.”
Then it was Mr. Suskin’s turn to approach Ms. Curry, about a month later. “If you want to organize tours on a regular basis, we should talk,” she recalls him saying. Did she ever. “There is a tremendous pent-up demand,” Ms. Curry said.
Woolworth Tours now offers 30-, 60- and 90-minute tours almost every day, conducted by a number of knowledgeable and well-recognized guides. The group cautions in advance that walk-ins cannot be accommodated, that no restrooms are available and that there is no place to sit during the tour.
On the other hand, photographs are permitted, which ought to delight anyone who has been waiting more than a decade to zoom in on the scarlet parrots of the mosaic vaults, or the delightful sculptural grotesques depicting Frank W. Woolworth, holding one of the nickels that created his five-and-dime empire, and Mr. Gilbert, contemplating a model of his tower.
(The tours will not affect a separate new lobby planned on Park Place as part of the residential conversion of the upper 30 stories by Alchemy Properties, which bought the top of the building from Witkoff and its partner in 2012.)
Tours range from $20 to $45. Ms. Curry said she and her brother, Charles, pay a “small” fee to Witkoff for each visitor and also pay the guides.
Mr. Suskin said the guided tours, which had been suggested by one of his interns, Lisa Renz, allowed people to see the lobby while not interfering with operations or security. He said the management had no choice but to impose a no-sightseeing rule in the late 1990s, when the entrance to the grand arcade grew so crowded with tourists that tenants could barely get through.
“Tenants have a higher priority than anyone,” Mr. Suskin said. “Like everyone else, they have to get to work and have free access to their offices.” Magnificent as it is, the grand arcade is so narrow that it takes only one admirer blocking the doorway to tie up lobby traffic.
The landmarks commission said through a spokeswoman that it was “very pleased” that the grand arcade was once again publicly accessible. Though the agency has little power to compel greater public access, Robert B. Tierney, the chairman under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, had tried to use his powers of persuasion with Witkoff.
Mr. Suskin said the lobby could not operate efficiently with groups of tourists showing up unannounced. “It is no different,” he said, “than anyone else finding it a problem to have 45 people standing in their front door when they are trying to get to work.”
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/01/nyregion/off-limits-for-over-a-decade-lobby-of-woolworth-building-is-open-for-tours.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=fb-nytimes&bicmst=1409232722000&bicmet=1419773522000&smtyp=aut&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id&_r=0