The Roebling Building, 169 Hudson Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 169 Hudson Street by Carter Horsley

This very handsome, 8-story, red-brick building at 169 Hudson Street between Laight and Vestry Streets was erected as two separate but joined commercial structures in 1893 by John H. Wray and designed by James Edward Ware. 

In 2000, BDB Development, of which Charles Dunn, Sam Waksal and Jarrett Posner, converted the building to 12 residential condominiums.  The conversion, which included the creation of a large courtyard, was designed by Joseph Vance. 

The mid-block building is quarter of a block north of Laight Street, the northern terminus of St. John's Park, which is divided into six landscaped parts with some of the curved roadways of the Holland Tunnel. 

The building's is named after John Augustus Roebling, the builder of the Brooklyn Bridge who took over the building in 1912 as a warehouse for this cable manufacturing business.  The building sports the Roebling name in bronze letters on the central partition above the cornice. 

The building is convenient to several subway lines.

Bottom Line

A very handsome red-brick building in the heart of TriBeCa with very and grand apartments, many arched windows, fireplaces, a 24-hour doorman and a very long marquee over its former loading docks.

Description

The building has a very long canopy supported by cables and elaborate brackets above the raised loading docks on the first floor. 

It has arched windows on the second floor and windows with lesser arches on the third through the sixth floors.  

The top floor has decorative terracotta shells above its windows that are separated by impressive one-story columns above a thin bandcourse supported by large terracotta brackets.  The colonnade and shells give the top floor an "arcade" appearance and they are surmounted by the building's large cornice that supports a central partition with "Roebling" emblazoned in large bronze letters.  The central partition has a flagpole.

Amenities

The building has a 24-hour doorman, a full-time superintendent, a wine cellar and tasting room, a gym, a keyed elevator, and basement storage.  It is pet friendly.

Apartments

Apartments have fireplaces and washers and dryers. 

Penthouse 7N is a three-bedroom triplex with 5,000 square feet of interior space and 2,500 square feet of outdoor space. The lower floor has an entry foyer that opens onto a 44-foot-long living/dining room with a staircase, an open, 22-foot-long kitchen with an island and large pantry and two bedrooms.  The middle floor has a 15-foot-long library, a 21-foot-long den, a master bedroom. and a 27-foot-wide sun room that opens onto a 35-foot-wide terrace with stairs to the unit's roof deck that has a 27-foot-wide terrace and steps to a higher, landscaped terrace with two pools and a spiral staircase to the middle floor.  

Apartment 6S is a three-bedroom unit with a 10-foot-wide entry foyer that opens onto a 40-foot-long living room adjacent to a 22-foot-long dining room and an 12-foot-wide open kitchen with an island and a 15-fooot-wide media room. 

Apartment 4N is a three-bedroom unit with an entry foyer that opens onto a 44-foot-long living/dining room with an open kitchen with an island and a 33-foot-long gallery with entry, one of three, to a 39-by-29 planted terrace.  The unit also has a 14-foot-wide den. 

Apartment 6N is a three-bedroom unit with a 15-foot-long entry foyer that opens onto a 33-foot-long living room next to an open 18-foot-long dining room across from an 18-foot-wide open kitchen with an island. 

Apartment 5S is a three-bedroom unit with a 32-foot-long living room that is open to a 20-foot-long dining area and a 14-foot-long open kitchen. 

Apartment 2S is a one-bedroom unit that has a 18-foot-long dining room that leads past a 15-foot-long open kitchen to a 52-foot-long living room. 

History

On January 30, 2012, Tom Miller devoted a long article at his great website, daytonianinmanhattan.blogspot.com/2012/01/lost-1807-st-johns-chapel-varick-near.html, to the extremely impressive St. John's Chapel that dominated the Hudson Square area near this building.  The "magnificent" church building was completed in 1807 and was designed by John McComb who had designed City Hall with Joseph-Francois Magnin. 

"A near-copy of London's St. Martin-in-the-fields," it had "a prominent double-height portico, supported by carved Corinthian sandstone columns," beneath "a glorious 214-foot-tower." 

"St. John's Park, anchored by the chapel, became the most fashionable residential neighborhood of the city....[but] One-by-one the grand brick homes were either razed or converted to warehouses and offices  as their owners fled the neighborhood.  In 1890, The Real Estate Record and Guide noted that fashionable citizens thought 'it vulgar to live among the packing boxes, and to inhale the odor of fresh fish and tarpaulines.'  John McComb's refined Georgian edifice now sat among decided unfashionable structures.  In 1892,  the vestry of Trinity announced its intention to raze St. John's Chapel" and in 1908 Trinity Church closed the chapel "saying it 'was not good business or religion to continue services where the attendance was so small." 

"Things worsened in 1912 when the Board of Estimate planned the widening of Varick Street - the portico of St. John's Chapel sat squarely in the path of the road improvement.  Yet, Borough President George McAneny took up the church's cause with a brilliant scheme.  He proposed that the structure be preserved with the sidewalk simply running under the portico.  The plan was based on the identical treatment of St. Michael's and St. Philip's churches in Charleston, South Carolina.  The city was in agreement. All that was necessary was the consent of the corporation of Trinity  Church. But the Church was still in the business of business.... 

"On October 6, 1918, The New York Times mourned, 'In the demolition of St. John's Chapel New York has lost not only a revered landmark but one of the choicest specimens of Georgian church architecture in the United States...Architects have agreed that St. John's had few if any superiors of its kind either in England or this country, and it has been said that neither the justly admired St. Michael's Church in Charleston, Christi Church in Philadelphia, nor King's Chapel in Boston surpassed it in simplicity of proportion or exquisite refinement of architectural detail.'  Within two years Trinity Church Corporation got its wish when it sold the land to Adolph Pricken of Coastwise Warehouses for a $2 million warehouse."  

In his August 22. 2012 column on this building, Mr. Miller observed that 

"Until two years after the end of the Civil War St. John’s Park was the most elegant residential neighborhood in Manhattan.   Refined Federal-style mansions and the beautiful Georgian-style St. John’s Chapel overlooked the idyllic park.  But then Trinity Church, owner of the land, sold the park to the Hudson River Railroad Company which replaced the park with a freight terminal. And there went the neighborhood. By the approach of the turn of the century the mansions had been demolished or converted for commercial use - mostly storehouses that took advantage of the convenient location near the freight yard.  In 1893 John H. Wray joined in the development....When John Wray transferred the title to the warehouse to his wife, Eliza T. Wray on December 20, 1900, the valuation of the property had increased to $165,000.  The couple was living in Laurel Hill, Long Island at the time. Twelve years later Eliza would sell the building, prompting The New York Times to note “it marks the first change of ownership in the property for over sixty years.”  The newspaper waxed nostalgic about the site, saying “Diagonally opposite is the large New York Central freight depot covering what was formerly St. John’s Park and around which seventy-five years ago some of the most fashionable residences of the city were located....The buyer of the building remained unknown for a few months, until Electric World announced a few months later that it was the John A. Roebling Sons Company....The Roebling firm was operated by the sons of the German-born civil engineer John Augustus Roebling who became famous for his wire rope suspension bridges, most notably the ground-breaking Brooklyn Bridge.    The sons, Washington, Charles and Ferdinand, expanded their father’s wire rope manufacturing business.  Their success was visibly evident when the town of Roebling, New Jersey sprang up around their company steel mill. 

The very large residential condominium, "most around 4,383 square feet, with penthouse duplexes measuring 6,450 square feet, became home to well-known residents including Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs; Chris Heinz, the son of socialite Teresa Heinz Kerry; and actor Waksal’s daughter Aliza."