New York Central Railroad Yards, April 22, 1931.

Starrett-Lehigh Building ARCHITECT: Cory & Cory; Yasuo Matsui DATE: 1930-31 STYLE: Industrial, Modernism The Starrett-Lehigh Building is an enormous warehouse building that occupies the entire block bounded by West 26th and 27th Streets and 11th and 12th Avenues. A cooperative venture of the Starrett Investing Corporation and the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and built by Starrett Brothers & Eken, the structure served originally as a freight terminal for the railroad with rental manufacturing and warehouse space above. A structurally complex feat of engineering with an innovative interior arrangement, the Starrett-Lehigh Building is also notable for its exterior design of horizontal ribbon windows alternating with brick and concrete spandrels. Considered in the forefront of modern architecture in New York City at the beginning of the 1930s, the building combined the practical functionalism of American industrial architecture with the influence of the horizontal aesthetic of European Modernism of the 1920s. Today it continues to provide rental office, manufacturing, and warehouse space.

27th Street, Eleventh to 13th Avenues (Before reconstruction), date unknown.

Starrett-Lehigh Building. Considered one of New York City's oldest 'modern' buildings, Starrett-Leigh was constructed in 1930-1931 as a joint venture between the Starrett real-estate company and the Lehigh Valley Railroad. It was a massive (26 million cubic feet of space) freight terminal, warehouse, and office building constructed over the Lehigh Valley Railroad's active freight yards. Some of the buildings more unique features include nearly floor to ceiling windows, 30-foot deep elevators (for the movement of whole trucks), and rounded corners and deep setbacks. It was one of only a few buildings by a non-major architect featured in the genre-defining 1932 "Modern Architecture: International Exhibition" show of the Museum of Modern Art. Architectural critic Lewis Mumford said in 1931: "the contrast between the long, continuous red-brick bands and the green-framed windows, with sapphire reflections or depths, is as sound a use of color as one can see about the city."

Man and boy at fire hydrant, around 28th Street and 11th Avenue, with Empire State Building (1931) visible in background

Constructed on the Hudson River Front between 1979 and 1986, the Javits Center is the most contemporary building on our tour. I.M. Pei and Partners designed the conference center to evoke the crystal palaces at the center of 19th-century World’s Fairs in London and Paris. Unfortunately, the Javits Center, has been enmeshed in controversy since its nascence. The project was finished two years behind schedule andmore than $111 million dollars over budget, and was investigated by the U.S. attorney’s office for its links to corrupt, mob-dominated unions. The glass exterior was constructed without any thought to cleaning, and the defining feature of the proposed design, a glittering entrance hall that would have opened onto the Hudson River, was never constructed due to budgetary constraints. In 2015, FXFOWLE completed a major renovation of the Javits Center which greened the building and made the glass façade safer for birds. Javits has been disparagingly likened to a tinker-toy set, a mausoleum, and Darth Vader. New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff went so far as to list the building as one of his “top candidates for demolition” in New York City. With such vitriol surrounding the Javits Center, could a building like this ever warrant historic preservation? Surprisingly, the answer is yes. Historic and cultural significance are accrued over time. Buildings can only be considered for historic designation once they have turned 50, which also happens to be the average lifespan of an American commercial building. A building is most at risk for demolition when it is between 30 and 40 years old. The Javits Center is 34. Should preservationists begin to reconsider the architectural contributions of this building? Probably – I.M. Pei is a significant Chinese-American architect whose work will be studied by many generations to come. With its clear nod to 19th-century architecture, the building embodies many of the ideals of the postmodernism movement and fulfills criteria for cultural significance. Time is the most precious resource in historic preservation – how can we better guess which buildings will be significant before they are at high risk for demolition?

Starrett-Lehigh Building ca. 1990 The Starrett-Lehigh Building on Manhattan's west-side waterfront stretches a full block between 26th and 27 th streets was the first Modern building of its scale in New York City. Designed by Architects Cory & Cory, in association with Yasuo Matsui and engineers Purdy & Henderson, the Starrett-Lehigh features long, horizontal layers punctuated by continuous glass windows and bands of red brick and concrete spandrels. Each floor was rented to a different tenant, including printers, doll makers, and clothing manufacturers with the promise of easy access to transportation. Along with its connection to the waterfront and a railway hub on the ground floor, the building allowed trucks to drive into the building on W. 27th Street and into elevators located in the central core, deliver their goods upstairs, then exit onto W. 26th Street.

Starrett-Lehigh Building, July 14, 1936. The Starrett-Lehigh Building was a much heralded modernist experiment in industrial architecture. Completed in 1931, this massive factory-warehouse offered a novel solution to freight distribution: with tracks leading directly from the piers into the building, freight cars could be moved in 30-foot elevators to truck pits on upper floors. The building was also a dramatic example of International Style architecture, with horizontal bands of windows and cantilevered concrete floors sweeping around the perimeter of a huge city block. Abbott photographed the Starrett-Lehigh Building twice. In a street-level view of the northeast corner, she left uncorrected the converging perspective created by her wide-angle lens, thus exaggerating the building’s bulk and likening it to the prow of a ship. Two years later, she photographed the entire building from a pier on the far side of the new West Side Express Highway. With the decline of the waterfront, this innovative building never fulfilled its promise. A protected landmark, it is 30 percent vacant.

Pennsylvania warehouse at the northwest corner of Eleventh Avenue and 28th Street, August 25, 1940.

12th Avenue, at the northeast corner of West 34th Street and northeastward. Shown at the corner is a diner under the New York Central Railroad's elevated roadbed. It was completely removed in 1936.

Terminal Stores, date unknown. The fortress-like Terminal Stores, which originally occupied the entire city block from 11th to 12th Avenues between 27th and 28th Streets, was completed in 1891. This waterfront area was once teeming with large such warehouses that utilized the nearby cross-Hudson railroad-car ferries and freight lines.The facility was not meant for long term storage, but for the quick movement of goods. The complex of building was designed by George B. Mallory, an engineer and naval architect. The large opening, seen at right, was deigned for the movement of the twin rail lines that traveled through the buildings from the docks to surface-level freight at Eleventh Avenue. In 1910-1912, a few of the mid block structures were replaced with taller buildings. Following the movement of the street-level rail from Tenth and Eleventh Avenue in the late 1920s, the importance of these warehouses diminished as their direct connection to the freight lines had disappeared. Sine the late 20th century the one of the buildings has been occupied by a mini storage company. Today, other tenants include architectural firms, the driving service Uber, and event and art showrooms.