The Mutual Reserve Building, also known as the Langdon Building and 305 Broadway, is an office building at Broadway and Duane Street in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The 13-story building, constructed between 1892 and 1894, was designed by William H. Hume and built by Richard Deeves, with Frederick H. Kindl as chief structural engineer. It is just east of the Civic Center of Manhattan, and carries the addresses 305–309 Broadway and 91–99 Duane Street.
The Mutual Reserve Building was designed in a variant of the Romanesque Revival style inspired by the work of Henry Hobson Richardson. The building's articulation consists of three horizontal sections similar to the components of a column, namely a base, shaft, and capital. The facade is clad with granite and limestone, and includes arcades on its lower and upper stories, piers made of rusticated stone blocks, and decorative foliate motifs. The structure was one of the first in New York City to use a cage-like steel frame structure, an early version of the skyscraper.
The Mutual Reserve Building was originally named for its main tenant, the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association, and owned by the family of shipping magnate William Fletcher Weld. After the Mutual Reserve Association went bankrupt in 1909, 305 Broadway was renamed the Langdon Building, after the son of the owner. The Weld family sold the building in 1920, and through the rest of the century, the building's main tenants were in the publishing and paper industries, and it also served as the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission's first long-term headquarters from 1967 to 1980. The Mutual Reserve Building is one of several extant life-insurance buildings on the southernmost section of Broadway, and was designated a New York City landmark in 2011.
Site
The Mutual Reserve Building is in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan, just west of the Civic Center. It has frontage along Broadway to the east and Duane Street to the south. Nearby buildings and locations include the David S. Brown Store to the northwest; 311 Broadway and 315 Broadway to the north; the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building to the east; and the Ted Weiss Federal Building and African Burial Ground National Monument to the southeast. The building spans the addresses 305–309 Broadway and 91–99 Duane Street. The lot measures , with the longer side being on Duane Street.
Architecture
The Mutual Reserve Building is 13 stories tall, with a roof height of . It was designed by William H. Hume in a variant of the Romanesque Revival style inspired by the work of Henry Hobson Richardson. Richard Deeves was also involved as the main builder, Frederick H. Kindl was the chief structural engineer, Carnegie Steel Company was the steel supplier, and Hanlein & Co. was the stone contractor.
The design was inspired by that of R. H. Robertson's Lincoln Building at Union Square. Both structures used the Richardson Romanesque style, specifically multi-story round-arched arcades upon a stone facade. The design also had smaller cornices above the 6th, 8th, and 10th floors.
Facade
The eastern and southern facades are clad in limestone and divided into three horizontal sections: a base and shaft of six stories each, as well as a one-story capital. Small cornices run above the 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th floors. The northern and western facades are faced in plain brick, with window openings.
The building is split vertically into four bays on Broadway and six on Duane Street. The lowest five stories contain round-arched arcades supported by rusticated stone piers. The arches are located on the Broadway facade, as well as the outermost bays along Duane Street. These bays contain two rectangular windows on each floor, both within and above the arches. The center bays on Duane Street contain three windows on each floor. The top story is also arranged as a small arcade with arched windows. The top story runs below a parapet with a balustrade. As built, the entrance on Broadway contained a large arch, but this was eliminated in 1923.