This is one of the earliest examples of a Gothic style terra cotta clad office building and counted the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad amongst its tenants. &nbsp;The penthouse 23rd Floor was occupied by the ‘Garrett Restaurant’ which marketed itself as the world's tallest restaurant.&nbsp;

It is believed that 90 West's heavy building materials and extensive use of terracotta inside and out helped serve as fireproofing and protected it from further damage and collapse.

The Gothic building, but severly damaged during the September 11, 2001 attacks.&nbsp;

90 West Street 'The Little Woolworth'

The New York Life Building, also known as 51 Madison, is the headquarters of the New York Life Insurance Company at 51 Madison Avenue, overlooking Madison Square Park in Manhattan. Designed by Cass Gilbert, it occupies a full city block bounded by Madison Avenue, Park Avenue South, and 26th and 27th Streets.Completed in 1928 on the former site of Madison Square Garden, the 615-foot tower blends Gothic Revival detailing with Art Deco massing. Its forty stories are topped by a distinctive gilded pyramidal roof, making it a prominent feature of the city skyline. Expanded and renovated in the mid-20th century.

New York Life Building

One of the last buildings by the elder Cass Gilbert, this courthouse combines a monumental portico with a tower topped by terra cotta and gold leaf, recalling the designs of Gilbert`s nearby Woolworth and New York Life buildings.Renamed in 2001 after the nation's 1st black Supreme Court Justice who was nominated by JFK to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in 1961.

Gilbert intended the pedestals to bear two monumental sculptural groups, but they were never executed. Ten four-story Corinthian columns form the imposing portico that shelters the entrance, and the frieze is carved with a detailed floral design.&nbsp;The ends of the entablature above are embellished with roundels, designed to resemble ancient coins, on which are carved the heads of four ancient lawgivers: Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes, and Moses. The Corinthian capitals crowning the columns of the portico return to top pilasters along the building's other primary facades. Minnesota granite, off-white in color and mottled with peach and gray, was used to finish the exterior elevations of the courthouse.

Sixteen courtrooms are original to the courthouse: five in the base and eleven in the tower, including the historic United States Court of Appeals courtroom  

The Greek key molding seen in the main hall also enframes the ceilings of the tower courtrooms. The Court of Appeals courtroom ceiling also depicts&amp;nbsp;nautical&amp;nbsp;symbols.  

Among the other motifs are grasshoppers apparently feeding on stalks of wheat, accompanied by the Greek word meta, meaning "to transform", which conveys the idea that change, even conflict, is essential to growth; there are also owls, representing wisdom, and acorns and oak leaves, signifying strength and endurance.  

Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse

 Architectural historian Gail Cornell talks about the history of the Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse in Foley Square. 

The Alexander Hamilton Customs House, now the National Museum of the American Indian, is a Beaux-Arts building designed by Cass Gilbert and erected 1899-1907. When the Federal Government established income tax in 1913, the Customs House became the country's largest collector. The facade's grand sculptures by Daniel Chester French, who also sculpted the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, represent the four continents, their whiteness providing a rich counterpoint to the structure's gray granite. The interior, which is also an NYC Landmark, includes a giant oval rotunda, embellished with Reginald Marsh's WPA (Works Progress Administration) commissioned murals project in 1938.

The United States Customs Service moved out of the building in 1974, and it sat abandoned for over a decade until renovations in the late 1980s.

In 1990, the Custom House was renamed to commemorate Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and its first Secretary of the Treasury.

The building contains the George Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian, as well as the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.The National Museum of the American Indian is the first national museum dedicated to the preservation, study, and exhibition of the life, languages, literature, history, and arts of Native Americans. Established by an act of Congress in 1989, the museum works in collaboration with the Native peoples of the Western Hemisphere to protect and foster their cultures by reaffirming traditions and beliefs, encouraging contemporary artistic expression, and providing a platform of engagement for the Indian voice.

It is also the home to the National Archives in New York City.

Unlike most custom houses, which face the waterfront, the Alexander Hamilton Custom House faces inland toward Bowling Green.

 Bounded by&amp;nbsp;Bowling Green&amp;nbsp;to the north,&amp;nbsp;Whitehall Street&amp;nbsp;to the east, Bridge Street to the south, and State Street to the east.   the Museum

The Whitehall Street and State Street&nbsp;elevations&nbsp;are 300 feet (90&nbsp;m) wide; the main elevation on Bowling Green is 200 feet (60&nbsp;m) wide; and the rear elevation on Bridge Street is 290 feet (88&nbsp;m) wide. David Sundberg/Esto

Seven stories high with an interior steel frame   National Museum of the American Indian

The building sits on the site of Fort Amsterdam, constructed by the&amp;nbsp;Dutch West India Company&amp;nbsp;to defend their operations in the&amp;nbsp;Hudson Valley.&amp;nbsp;   the Museum

The Fort Amsterdam became the nucleus of the&amp;nbsp;New Amsterdam&amp;nbsp;settlement, and in turn, of&amp;nbsp;New York City. Bowling Green, immediately to the north, became the oldest park in New York City.   the Museum

offers workshops and lectures for registered groups such as educators, student field trips, genealogists, community groups, and more.

presents original records related to New York from National Archives holdings across the country.

featured records from our New York holdings.

Alexander Hamilton Custom House (National Museum of the American Indian)

Russel Shorto speaking at ‘It Happened Here - 1600’s Symposium: The Beginning of the City’ on July 3, 2025

This building has the distinction of being Cass Gilbert`s first completed design in New York. It was the first of several that Gilbert designed in the city including the US Customs House and the Woolworth Building.The office building had Otis Elevators, communal bathrooms on each floor. It was a steel building clad in fireproof materials designed to resist high wind pressures.The facade incorporates one of Gilbert's trademarks, the extensive use of architectural sculpture on the cornice of the arcade at the top of the building, which includes the heads of lions and women. Numerous windows were used in the design because almost all of the stories were divided into several small rooms.

Broadway-Chambers Building

Initially built in 1909 as the East River Savings Bank, became a hub for political and Mafia activity in Little Italy. Albert Marinelli, an ally of Lucky Luciano, established his political headquarters at 225 Lafayette Street, marking a pivotal shift in Tammany Hall's power. With Luciano's backing, Marinelli became the first Italian-American District Leader in NYC. His partnership with Luciano flourished, evident in their shared attendance at the 1932 Democratic Convention. However, Marinelli's wealth and influence drew scrutiny from Special Prosecutor Thomas Dewey, who accused him of corruption and voter fraud. This pressure led to Marinelli stepping down, making way for John DeSalvio to assume leadership.Under scrutiny from Special Prosecutor Thomas Dewey, Albert Marinelli stepped down as District Leader, succeeded by John DeSalvio. Meanwhile, Jimmy Doyle Pulmeri and Johnny Dio Dioguardi ran the Five Boroughs Trucking Service Association from the same building, using extortion to control Garment Center trucking. A violent internal dispute left Doyle and his partner Dominick Didato wounded, with Didato later found dead. Following the Castellammarese War, Pulmeri and Dioguardi aligned with the Lucchese Crime Family, further entrenching their influence.

Transformed from the East River Savings Bank into luxury residences in 2004.&nbsp;

The 14-story building offers one- to three-bedroom apartments with modern designs, high ceilings, walk-in closets, and state-of-the-art kitchens. Amenities include a 24-hour concierge, private roof deck, and basement storage. A penthouse with a wrap-around terrace was added during the renovation. Located in NoHo, it is surrounded by shops and restaurants.

225 Lafayette

In keeping with much of downtown's transformation to residential, the building became mixed use with the top 30 floors converted into 33 luxury condominiums including a five-level penthouse dubbed the “townhome in the sky,” to be sold for $110 million, highest ever downtown.

F. W. Woolworth, an entrepreneur who had become successful because of his "Five-and-Dimes" (5- and 10-cent stores), began planning a new headquarters for the F. W. Woolworth Company in 1910. It was the tallest building in the world when it was completed at 792'. The title lasted 21 years. The skyscraper was unusual because it was financed entirely in cash. The highlight of the opening ceremony featured United States President Woodrow Wilson throwing a switch to illuminate the building. Much of the original terra-cotta cladding has since been replaced with cast stone.The lobby is one of the most impressive in the city. It features a shining mosaic barrel vault, stained-glass skylight, marble walls, bronze fixtures, mezzanine murals entitled Labor and Commerce, and carved gargoyle representations of Gilbert, Woolworth, and other figures key to the design, engineering and construction of this landmark.

It consists of a 30-story base topped by a 30-story tower.&amp;nbsp;  

By September 1910, Gilbert had designed an even taller structure, with a 40-story tower on Park Place adjacent to a shorter 25-story annex, yielding a 550-foot-tall building.After the latest design, Woolworth wrote to Gilbert in November 1910 and asked for the building's height to be increased to 620 feet, which was 8 feet taller than the Singer Building, Lower Manhattan's tallest building. This design, unveiled to the public the same month, was a 45-story tower rising 625 feet, sitting on a lot by 105 by 197 feet.On December&nbsp;20, 1910, Woolworth sent a team of surveyors to measure the Metropolitan Life Tower's,&nbsp;then the tallest building in New York City and the world, height and come up with a precise measurement, so he could make his skyscraper 50 feet taller.By January&nbsp;18, 1911, the final site for the project was acquired at a total cost of $4.5&nbsp;million; the lot measured 152 feet on Broadway, 192.5 feet on Barclay Street, and 197.83 feet on Park Place.&nbsp;In order to fit the correct architectural proportions, Gilbert redesigned the building to its current 792-foot height.

Some of the Woolworth Building's windows are set within arch-shaped openings. Most of the building's&amp;nbsp;spandrels, or triangles between the top corners of the window and the top of the arch, have golden Gothic tracery against a bright blue backdrop. On the 25th, 39th, and 40th&amp;nbsp;stories, the spandrels consist of iconography found in the&amp;nbsp;royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom. Gold-on-blue tracery is also found on the 26th, 27th, and 42nd&amp;nbsp;floors.  

and installation of the building's terracotta began on February&amp;nbsp;1, 1912. The building rose at the rate of&amp;nbsp;1+1&amp;frasl;2&amp;nbsp;stories a week&amp;nbsp;  

The decision to use terracotta for the facade was based on both aesthetic and functional concerns. Not only was terracotta fireproof, but Gilbert believed it would be a purely ornamental addition, clarifying the Woolworth Building's steel construction.The&nbsp;Atlantic Terra Cotta Company&nbsp;provided the original terracotta cladding.

Woolworth Building

Within a landmark Cass Gilbert designed warehouse in New York City is a new home for Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST), the world`s largest LGBTQ Jewish congregation and a progressive voice in Judaism. The new synagogue embodies the community`s core values through an architecture of accessibility, transparency, and warmth. The renovation created spaces for worship, community life, and social justice activism. The first floor includes a multipurpose lobby, offices, and a sanctuary defined by a ribbed concrete wall that is canted to admit daylight. 

The Cass Gilbert

Congregation Beit Simchat Torah

 The renovation and expansion of Dia Art Foundation`s three adjacent buildings in Chelsea establishes a greater street-level public presence for Dia. The design adds new facades and extensive building systems that respect the integrity of the buildings` original spatial, structural, and material qualities. The six-story easternmost building contains a new ground floor entry, bookstore, and a flexible &ldquo;talk space&rdquo; for 150 people. Connected to the lobby by new openings cut into their adjoining walls, the one-story middle and western buildings provide integrated 10,000 SF of exhibition space. 

Dia Chelsea

A treasured icon on the Manhattan skyline. O.H. Ammann engineered this timeless bridge and Cass Glbert designed it. When it was built, it doubled the record for the longest span of any bridge in the world; even today it sees the most car traffic of any bridge in the world.

George Washington Bridge

Jean Parker Phifer, NYC architect and author of Public Art New York, reads a selection on the Lighting of the George Washington Bridge, designed by Domingo Gonzales (lighting designer) for the millennium celebrations of 2000.

 The historic building in the Landmark District of Chelsea is getting transformed into New York Campus for Avenues K-12 education. The building was designed by Cass Gilbert for a wholesale grocery company and was completed in 1928. Perkins Eastman architects have designed an adaptive reuse solution for the ten-story structure in adherence to their sustainability principles. 

Avenues: The World School, New York City Campus

Located in the collectors office of the U.S. Custom House.

Brooklyn Army Terminal

West Virginia Capitol

Austin Nicholas House

Cass Gilbert (1859 – 1934) was a prominent American architect. An early proponent of skyscrapers in works like the Woolworth Building, Gilbert was also responsible for numerous museums, libraries, state capitol buildings, and public architectural icons.

Cass Gilbert Gravesite 

Cass Gilbert Summer Home

Introduction to the HarlemNOW walking tour of Audubon Terrace and its surrounding areas.

This marks the first end of the tour.  Decide to continue or leave Audubon Terrace.

The end of the HarlemNOW walking tour of Audubon Terrace and its surrounding areas.

A description of Audubon Terrace, named after John James Audubon, and its history.

A description of the buildings surrounding Audubon Terrace.

A description of the Academy of Arts and Letters and its architecture.

Cass Gilbert

SITES

PLAYLISTS CURATED by Cass Gilbert