The Lincoln Building aka 1 Union Square West

   The Lincoln Building, also known as 1 Union Square West because of its address located at 1 Union Square West in Manhattan, New York City, is a 8 story Romanesque Revival building that was built in 1887. I'm sure many people seen this beauty, but have no knowledge about the building. It became a landmark in 1988. The architect of the building was R.H. Robertson, the building was designed Romanesque rival style same style that he used for churches, and houses. The building is definitely a landmark because it was part of the new generation steel frame construction building that were reaching record breaking heights. While steel frame construction in today world is a normality back then this was a magnificent innovation. The building used masonry for its load bearing walls and an interior steel skeleton framing. The framing consisted of steel beams, steel girders and cast-iron columns. The masonry consists of granite, Indiana limestone and brick. What I find the most interesting about the building is the layering or stacking of the floors. Some of the floors have arcades of windows while others have columns. The detailing consists of terra cotta ornaments of griffins, human and lion heads, Byzantine, Norman and Celtic designs.  What is interesting is that the land where the building was built on used to be part of the Henry Springler farm.

Loving the detail

 Some of the building's first tenants were actually architects. Van Campen Taylor had an architecture office during the construction of the Chatham Hall. Other firms were Hubert, Pirrson&Company. Eyelet Buttonhole Attachment Co were also tenants of the building. The building had many tenants because it was a located in a very desirable location, which was being close to Broadway. Back then Broadway was the city's most important street. Most businesses were located on Broadway. Current tenant is a clothing brand Diesel

    I give  Kudos to R.H. Robertson for being a forward thinker because he mixed old and new. He designed a building with a traditional look but with modern materials.