Silver Center
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Silver Center of Arts and Science has been the name of New York University's original Main Building since 2002. It is a familiar visual image behind the Washington Square Arch.[[1]] The building is most popularly called the "Silver Building" or just "Silver"; many also continue to be call the edifice "Main Building".
The current building was designed by Alfred Zucker, a German born and trained architect in 1892. Zucker maintained the foundation and many other features of the original building but not the Gothic facade, partially for sake of historic continuity. Nine other university buildings designed by Zucker were built in this formerly commercial area, as lofts and wholesale stores, only to be taken over later by NYU as its institutional functions increased. The Brown building (formerly the Asch Building) and the Waverly Building occupy the same block as Main Building. The buildings are internally connected at the ground floor as well as by stairway and elevator (with the idiosyncrasy of adjacent floors that do not correspond by floor number.)
Main Building (Silver Building) replaced architects' Town, Davis & Dakin's Gothic Revival structure from 1835. The use of prison labor from Sing-Sing sparked the Stonecutter's Riot in 1834, the first labor riot in NYC. Incidentally, the Brown building was the site of the horrible tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which also generated many of our current labor laws. In addition to serving as the main academic building, in former times the university rented out office, studio space and residential apartments within the building.
In the building, Samuel Colt developed the revolver and Samuel Morse invented the telegraph; John William Draper in 1840 took the first photograph in the United States at the building. Edgar Allen Poe, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman lived and taught and privately lectured here, Winslow Homer painted here, and architects Alexander Jackson Davis] and Richard Morris Hunt had offices here.
The building serves as home of the College of Arts and Science (CAS) as well as the Graduate School of Arts and Science (GCAS) though CAS and GCAS are also held in various other nearby buildings as well. Several administrators' offices are also in the building. The light brick, stone and terra-cotta edifice also used to house portions the schools of commerce, law and pedagogy as well as the offices of the American Book Company in the past. This combination of institutional and commercial tenants is apparent in the building's tripartite facade design. The presence of the University on the three top floors is marked by engaged Ionic columns capped by pediments.
In 1927, due to the pressures of a growing post-war student body, NYU ejected commercial tenants to use for class space. Main Building served as the home of NYU's satellite Washington Square College until the University returned to Washington Square after giving up its University Heights Campus (in the Bronx) in 1972.
Main Building was renamed the "Silver Center" in 2002 after Julius Silver, an alumnus of NYU, bequested $150 million to the university. Recent upgrades have dramatically upgraded the facility while maintaining the buildings many historic features.
