3 Hanover Square: Review and Ratings

Review of 3 Hanover Square by Carter Horsley

This elegant, 24-story building was erected in 1926 as an office building and was converted in 1985 to a cooperative apartment house with 205 units.

Hanover Square is a small open area in Lower Manhattan that is dominated by the very handsome but small India House, the small palazzo-style landmark at One Hanover Square between Pearl and Stone Streets that was erected in 1854 and housed over the years the Hanover Bank, the Cotton Exchange and W. R. Grace & Company before becoming a private club.

Hanover Square originally was the city's first "printing house square," but the great 1835 fire wiped much of it out and many of the major newspapers moved their headquarters north later to Park Row facing City Hall.

This elegant structure is in easy walking distance of many of the world's finest skyscrapers such as 20 Exchange Place, 70 Pine Street and 40 Wall Street. It is also close to Water Street, which has several of the city's most interesting "modern" medium-size office buildings such as 77 Water Street and 127 John Street, and not far from the South Street Seaport, several blocks to the north.

One of the more elegant former office buildings to be converted to residential use, its early residents were pioneers and the area did not have a lot of typical residential amenities. A great many more buildings were converted in the 1990s and brought with them a variety of restaurants and other amenities to the area. The city's tightened office market at the end of the 20th Century, however, indicated that the number of such conversions may begin to dwindle as demand for office space and office rents increased substantially.

Lower Manhattan, of course, is Manhattan's crowning glory and because of the remarkable renaissance of the properties in nearby TriBeCa and SoHo and the continued development of the very impressive Battery Park City, its future is secure and residences in the few elegant pre-war office buildings are likely to be highly valued.