The Morse Building, 140 Nassau Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 140 Nassau Street by Carter Horsley

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously designated the 14-floor Morse Building at 140 Nassau Street as an individual landmark September 19, 2006.

The building was designed by Benjamin Silliman and James Farnesworth and was completed in 1880 as an 8-story office building with two hydraulic elevators, gas lighting and fireplaces. It had been developed by G. Livingston Morse and Sidney E. Morse, nephews of Samuel F. B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph and a prominent artist.

An early tenant was the American Vitagraph Company, an early motion picture concern.

In 1902, the top two floors were reconstructed and four more were added in a Neo-Classical style designed by William P. Bannister and Richard M. Schell. That alteration made the building 14 stories tall. The masonry façades of the upper floors show considerable wear and tear compared with the older, middle section of the building, which has an attractive black cornice.

In 1965, the lower two floors were remodeled in a renovation that also included the removal of a balcony on the 10th floor, but the commission s designation did not indicate who the owner or architect was at the time.

In 1980, the building was converted to apartments and is now a cooperative.

In an August 20, 2006 article in The New York Times, Christopher Gray wrote that "One distinctive feature that has survived the decades is the alternating red and black brickwork above the windows." His article also indicated that in 1881, the Real Estate Record & Guide "praised the rounded Romanesque-style arches and the Victorian Gothic contrast of the red and black brick," but added that "that the lack of a separate tower or other feature 'is of course the misfortune of the building, and not the fault of the architects,' who had suggested a 'steep roof,' probably a mansard."

The building has 39 apartments, a video intercom, a landscaped rood deck, private storage (for a fee), a keyed elevator, a super, and a lobby with very attractive decorative mosaic murals.. It has no doorman, no sidewalk landscaping, and no garage.

Nassau Street between Spruce and Beekman Streets is a stunning ensemble of late 19th Century and early 20th Century commercial buildings.

This building and 150 Nassau Street, just to its north, both are at the west end of the very large development site where Forest City Rattner plans to erect a very major mixed-use tower designed by Frank O. Gehry.

Pace University is half a block to the north and City Hall Park is one block to the west.

There is good public transportation just two blocks away. Tribeca is to the west, SoHo is to the North, and the Financial District and Seaport is to the South and East.