Continental Bank Building

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[edit] Origins

In 1929, a new 50-story building is announced at 30 Broad Street, location of the 15-story Johnston Building, to house the Continental Bank and various brokers. The site extends along Broad Street 87 feet 7 inches, the length of Exchange Place for 149 feet 8.5 inches back to New Street and runs 88 feet along New Street. The building site was once owned by the Dutch church which had erected the city’s second almshouse on the site sometime before 1659. Broad Street was originally a canal known first as “Common Ditch” then later “The Prince’s Ditch”. The canal was filled in 1676 and it was first paved in 1693. Estimated cost of the new building is $20 million. The project is the largest single cooperative building venture undertaken up to this time. Cross and Cross architects are announced as the building’s planners. An “unusual” feature of the building is a sub-basement clearing house where owner-tenants each have floor space and can transact business with other owner-tenants in the building via a system of pneumatic tubes to exchange receipts.

[edit] Design and construction

Architects Morris and O’Connor completed drawings in 1931 indicating 48 stories, 564 feet above street level with “simple” architecture. According to the architects, the structure is designed to express straightforward business of the highest class without excessive ornamentation. The first three stories of the façade are clad in limestone with the remainder made up of light-colored brick and dark brick at the spandrels. The building footprint rises from street level to floor 20 where the first setback is made until floor 23 where another setback is located. The building tower then rises uninterrupted from floor 24 to floor 48. The top of the building is flat and without ornament. The building’s lobby runs through from Broad Street to New Street with two elevator banks which serve the building, one set from the lobby to floor 20 and the other from the lobby to floors 21 through 47. (48th floor is accessed via stairs from floor 47) Total rentable space is announced as 300,000 square feet.

[edit] Structural facts

The building columns sit on new footings which rest upon rock. The average depth of the new foundations is 46 feet below Broad Street. However, the Broad Street side of the building rests on existing caissons. An adjoining structure along the southern property line required triple cantilever plate girders to provide headroom for the elevator doors. There are three floors below ground. Total building weight is estimated at 55,000 tons (7,000 tons of steel). Demolition of the Johnston building spanned May 5th to July 13th. The 15-story structure had exterior masonry bearing walls composed of granite (some pieces weighing as much as 10 tons) and up to three feet thick at the lower walls. The exterior was ashlar granite while the interior was common brick backup laid in cement mortar. The steel structure was only designed to carry the floor loads because the exterior was self-supporting.

The building opened for occupancy on 27 April 1932.