451 Washington Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 451 Washington Street by Carter Horsley

This extremely handsome, 6-story building at 451 Washington Street in TriBeCa was erected in 1891 as a warehouse by Fleming Smith and designed in neo-Flemish style by Stephen Decatur Hatch. 

It was converted in 1979 by Scott Henson Architects to six co-operative apartments.  

According to a May 26, 2010 article at Tom Miller's great website, Daytonianinmanhattan.com, it was "the first commercial TriBeCa building to be converted to residential use. 

It is known as the Fleming Smith Warehouse and also as 135 Watts Street. 

It is one block south of Canal Street and two blocks south of the great crystalline Spring Street Salt Shed designed by Dattner Architects just to the north of Canal Park on West Street that was erected in 2016.

Bottom Line

One of TriBeCa's great late 19th Century commercial buildings that was converted in 1979 to only 6 co-operative apartments, the yellow-brick, neo-Flemish style edifice reeks in gables, arches, rusticated quoins and fan windows and has an elevated and canopied sidewalk cafe.

Description

Mr. Miller's website provides the following commentary about Hatch's design: 

"...his neo-Flemish building looks much more like a decorative 1890s school building than a commercial warehouse.  Using, granite, sandstone and brick with copper ornamentation, Hatch created a near-whimsical façade.  His grouped windows and large Romanesque arches allowed light to pour into the building.  In the last decade of the century, Flemish revival was sweeping the city as builders gave a nod to Manhattan's Dutch roots.  Substantial buildings designed in the style, like the West End Collegiate Church, as well as lesser town houses and stables dotted the city.  Five stories of yellow brick rise above the rusticated stone first floor, culminating in fanciful copper-lined stepped gables.  Between the great gables, ornamental copper dormers topped by weather vanes project from the façade.  On the west side, enormous copper numerals in the gable proclaim the date, 1891, while Fleming Smith's monogram entwines above them." 

Its only architectural "impurity" is an elevator "house" set back on the roof in the middle of its long street frontage. 

The pinnacles of the gables have thin weathervanes and the building has numerous decorative small tie-backs on its façade. 

Some of the windows have red two-story surrounds and the third-story windows are set above five-arch lintels. 

There is a bandcourse above the fourth floor.  

The small copper dormers project a bit from the façades.

Amenities

The building has an elevator.

Apartments

The third floor unit is a two-bedroom unit that has a 56-foot-long dining area with a 14-foot-long kitchen with a curved wall and an island and a 47-foot-wide living room. 

Apartment 2A is a two-bedroom unit with has a large living room with an open kitchen with an island.