Shared by: @urbanarchiveny 155 Rivington was purpose-built as a bank by Adolph Mandel, but it would later become a knishery and the headquarters of Kickstarter.

Shared by: @pointsandplans Established in 1869, the Empire Stores is a series of seven separate warehouses. Shipping merchant James Nesmith built the first phase of four-story warehouses which were then known as “Nesmith & Sons Empire Stores.” The warehouses stored raw materials such as cotton, lemons, jute, tobacco, sugar, and coffee imported on cargo ships from Africa, South America, and Cuba.

Shared by: @kathleensab The main structure of the world-renowned venue, Carnegie Hall was built in 1891 and designed in the Renaissance Revival style by William B. Tuthill with Richard Morris Hunt and Dankmar Adler as consultants. Funded by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, it was originally called Music Hall (it would be renamed Carnegie Hall two years later.) The official opening night performance on May 5, 1891 was a concert conducted by famed Russian composer Tchaikovsky.

Shared by: @nelehj09 The Old New York County Courthouse is better known as Tweed Courthouse, for the infamous Tammany Hall political boss who oversaw its funding (and the rampant kickbacks associated with construction costs). The massive Italianate courthouse, designed by architect John Kellum, quickly ran over its initial budget, with inflated materials costs used to fill Tammany coffers.

Shared by: @lolodunco The Orpheum Theatre opened on December 31, 1900, and presented live performances to an auditorium that sat nearly 2000 people. The B.F. Keith-Albee chain took over the venue between 1912 and 1929 and hosted mostly vaudeville. For its last 24 years, RKO operated the theatre.

Shared by: @iannamangelo Completed in 1950, the Look Building set a new standard for minimalist Modern office buildings. Needing to comply with zoning codes regarding setbacks, the 21-story structure renders those setback through uniform rows of windows and white brick, with tightly-curved corners. Its massing and setbacks give it a wedding-cake-like silhouette similar to a number of other Modern buildings in the city, namely the Starrett Lehigh Building. Designed by the firm of Emery Roth & Sons (by then led by the sons, as Roth died in 1948), the project was developed by Uris Brothers (also a second-generation firm).

Shared by: @garrettpmcgrath 195 Broadway is an important address in the history of business communication. The monumental scale of the current landmark dates from a second building campaign in 1924 that completed the imposing mass. The building was constructed in two phases. In the first, it had narrow frontages on both Broadway and Fulton Street, as AT\&T did not have title to the corner. The tower was expanded out to the corner when the company was able to acquire that property.

Shared by: @lacievans The Memorial Hospital (now part of Memorial Sloan Kettering) moved to its new location following a donation of land and millions of dollars from John D. Rockefeller Jr. amongst others. Officially reopening in 1939, the Memorial Hospital was one of the city's leading cancer hospitals.

Shared by: @gabrielvidal44 Constructed in 1892-1895 as the Main Building of the New York University campus replaced a previous 1835 Gothic Revival structure on the site. Alfred Zucker, the German-born architect of the building retained the foundation and a number of elements of the early structure. The impetus for this new building was perhaps less pedagogical than one might imagine. According to the AIA Guide, the new building was constructed to accommodate a well-paying tenant, the American Bank Note Company (though they would be phased out after World War 2.)

Shared by: @mare\_bearrrr The Fraunces Tavern, built-in 1719 as a mansion for the family of Stephen De Lancey, was opened as the Queen’s Head Tavern in 1762. A meeting place for Loyalists during the British occupation of New York, it was the site of Governor DeWitt Clinton’s Evacuation Day celebrations in 1783, when remaining British troops departed New York. Shortly thereafter, the Fraunces Tavern — named for its owner and proprietor, Samuel Fraunces, who may have been a spy for the Continental Army during the British occupation — hosted General George Washington’s farewell meeting with his officers.

Shared by: @seantmcmanus Built on the site of the Capitol Theater, the Uris Building was built in 1970. Designed by Emery Roth and Sons, the 48 story tower was developed and owned by the Uris brothers. Following a series of vacancies in the 70s, the building was sold to Paramount.

Shared by: @caitlinbiggers Built for the Cooper Union, the Foundation building features the rolled wrought-iron beams Peter Cooper invented and produced. Another quirky feature of the structure is its round elevator shaft, which was completed prior to the invention of the elevator. Cooper believed that the elevator would soon be invented in a cylindrical shape. The Foundation Building was the tallest when it was completed in 1859 and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961.

Shared by: @aschmiedicke Built in 1926 for the Farmers' Loan and Trust, 475 Fifth Avenue was designed by Starrett & Van Vleck, who built in the Italian Romanesque Style.

Shared by: @quesit03 42 Broadway was designed and built by Henry Ives Cobb, a prominent architect from Chicago. At the time of its completion in 1903, 42 Broadway at 21 stories was one of the tallest buildings downtown. It was quickly filled with finance and real estate funds.

Shared by: @redmelly Opened in 1966 to replace the original 1883 Metropolitan Opera House at Broadway and 39th Street, this Mid-Century Modern building was designed by Wallace K. Harrison. Plans for a new opera house were discussed as early as the 1920s and plans were made to include a new venue into the development of Rockefeller Center, but financial troubles related to the stock market crash of 1929 halted those plans. In the early 1960s, the Met and the New York Philharmonic Society commissioned Wallace, one of the architects in charge of Rockefeller Center, to create their new home and the centerpiece for the larger Lincoln Center complex.

Shared by: @alexanderaugustphoto Built in 1908, 928 Broadway was created as industrial loft space.

Shared by: @pinkbrownstone Spanning 219 acres, the Brooklyn Navy Yard was the largest shipbuilding facility in the country. It supplied the Navy with floating workshops, tank-landing ships (LSTs), aircraft carriers, and battleships. At the height of wartime production, the Yard operated 24 hours a day, employing 75,000 men and women.