The Bennett Building is a cast-iron building in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The building is on the western side of Nassau Street, spanning the entire block from Fulton Street to Ann Street. While the Bennett Building contains a primary address of 93-99 Nassau Street, it also has entrances at 139 Fulton Street and 30 Ann Street.
The building was designed by Arthur D. Gilman in the French Second Empire style, with expansions by James M. Farnsworth that closely followed Gilman's original design. The Bennett Building contains a fully realized cast-iron facade, the largest known such example in the world, and is one of two remaining Second Empire-style office buildings south of Canal Street with cast-iron faces. The building's three fully designed facades face Fulton, Nassau, and Ann Streets, while the fourth side faces an adjacent property and is made of plain brick.
The building's namesake was James Gordon Bennett Jr., who commissioned the project as an investment. The original structure designed by Gilman was seven stories tall, including a mansard roof. Real estate investor John Pettit bought the building in 1889, and he hired Farnsworth to design two expansions. The original mansard roof was demolished to allow the addition of the top four stories between 1890 and 1892, while an eleven-story annex was erected on Ann Street in 1894. After Pettit disappeared in 1898, ownership of the Bennett Building passed to several other companies and individuals, who made minor modifications to the building. In 1995, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building a New York City landmark. The Bennett Building is also a contributing property to the Fulton–Nassau Historic District, a National Register of Historic Places district created in 2005.
Site
The Bennett Building is located in the Financial District of Manhattan. The building faces Nassau Street to the east, Fulton Street to the south, and Ann Street to the north. Having frontage on all three streets, it has three street addresses: a primary address at 93-99 Nassau Street, as well as alternate addresses at 139 Fulton Street and 30 Ann Street. Nearby buildings include the Fulton Center to the west; the Keuffel and Esser Company Building to the southeast; 5 Beekman Street and the Park Row Building to the north; and St. Paul's Chapel to the west. A staircase to the New York City Subway's Fulton Street station (served by the ) is outside the Bennett Building's southern facade.
The Bennett Building's plot is "L" shaped, measuring about on Fulton Street, on Nassau Street, and on Ann Street. According to the New York City Department of City Planning, the lot covers . When built, the Bennett Building occupied a smaller lot, quoted as being on Nassau Street, on Fulton and Ann Streets, and on the western lot line. The annex has a frontage of about on Ann Street and is deep.
Architecture
The Bennett Building is a cast-iron loft building designed in the French Second Empire style. It contains ten full stories as well as a two-story penthouse. The Bennett Building was originally seven stories, with the top story as a mansard roof. The original section was designed by Arthur D. Gilman and is the only remaining building in Manhattan that he designed. The mansard was a characteristic of the Second Empire style, but the cast-iron facade was a new design at the time of its completion. The top three floors and penthouse was added in 1890–1892, and an 11-story extension of the building on Ann Street was added in 1894, both to designs by James M. Farnsworth. Both of Farnsworth's additions carefully followed Gilman's original design. The Bennett Building is largely a commercial and office building, with 159 units, seven of which are residential.
With a height of , the Bennett Building was described in The New York Times as being probably the world's tallest building with a facade made of cast-iron. In addition, it is one of two remaining Second Empire office buildings in Manhattan south of Canal Street with a cast-iron facade, the other being 287 Broadway. Although there are other cast-iron buildings from the same era south of Canal Street, such as the Cary Building and 90–94 Maiden Lane, they were used for other purposes, mainly mercantile.