‘Don’t Forget to Look Up!’: The Broadway You Haven’t Seen…Part 2 Chinatown to Union Square

Starting this week from Canal Street Station where I stopped last time on Don’t Forget to Look Up, I walked up through SoHo and NoHo to Union Square. At the beginning the architecture was the same, more columns and Classical inspired buildings, but as I got to the SoHo area, amongst the bustle of shoppers I discovered lots of treasures. Here are a couple of the beautiful bits you don’t see when shopping in Soho:

This weeks route: through SoHo, NoHo and past NYU to Union Square

427 Broadway was the first building which caught my eye this week: it continues the classical inspiration with the arcaded facade and the pedimented top, using the arches as windows gives the building a very light, open feeling.

427 Broadway

434 Broadway’s large pilasters spanning four floors, contrasted by the tiny colonnettes on each floor make for a visually interesting façade:

434 Broadway

What I liked so much about the facade of 446 was how dirty and run down it looked. It just gave the building a bit of character, as well as half the façade being covered by a fire escape!

446 Broadway

When viewed from this angle pedestrians get to see the contrast between the simple brick of 487 Broadway and the ornate façade which is supposed to hide that from the public:

487 Broadway by John Townsend Williams

Any New York building with a pitched roof fascinates me. The New Era Building, built in the Art Nouveau Style gains a French feel with its copper mansard roof and stands out amongst all the Italian inspired buildings in the area.

495 Broadway-The New Era Building

The building on the corner of broadway and Broome perfectly sums up the Italian Palazzo inspired architecture in the area:

443 Broome Street

512 Broadway offers another architectural type with a simpler facade decked with Art Deco features. It was refreshingly simple amidst all the columns and ornamentation in the area:

512 Broadway

I’m a big fan of ornamentation and the next few blocks were filled with beautiful buildings with a lot of detail:

520 Broadway

530 and 532 Broadway

Details of the façades of 530 and 532:

Again, in a completely different style to the surrounding ornate Italianate architecture, the simple stone carved facade of 540 offers variation to the skyline. The looping carving reminded me more of a celtic ironwork than anything else:

540 Broadway

Caryatid like sculptures watching from above on the façade of 542:

542 Broadway

The two toned façade of 537/541 helps to distinguish the two addresses from each other:

537/541 Broadway

Another pitched roof which drew my eyes heavenwards the Rouss Building at 549-555 by William Jacob Dilthy:

549-555 Broadway  or as it is better known, the ‘Charles Broadway Rouss’ building by William Jacob Dilthy

You can’t miss the little decorations at the top of the building reaching up into the sky:

609 Broadway

The simplicity of having just huge towering pilasters on 636 make for a simple yet effective façade:

636 Broadway

The block between Bleeker and Bond has two contrasting rows of facades. Whereas the right hand side of the street continues with the arcading and columns, the left hand side although uniformed is encrusted with elaborate architectural features and balconies:

Right side of the Street

Left Side of the Street

The two long brickwork façades at the corner of Bond and Broadway really make a statement both for the color of the building as well as the sheer length of it:

The Corner of Bond and Broadway

Although similar to the previous façades with tall columns and high arches what differentiates the façade of E 4th and Broadway is that all of the decoration is set into the brickwork of the building, including pilasters rather than columns separating the arches:

The Corner of E4th and Broadway

The NYU buildings certainly get a beautiful view of 706-710:
706-710 Broadway  

The Keller Building at 722 Broadway designed by Francis A. Minuth clings tall and skinny to its modern neighbor. Victorian era faces in the façade watch passers by from the pitch roofed building.

722 Broadway

What intrigued me most about 752 Broadway were the scrolls underneath the cornice of the building looking a bit like giant architectural cinnamonrolls!

752 Broadway

The corner of E11th and Broadway added another country of inspiration with a more Ottoman/Venetian feel with the windows on the upper three floors:

Corner of E11th and Broadway

Everyone know the ‘Strand’ bookstore…but how many people know what it looks like above?

What you don’t see when you visit the ‘Strand’ Bookshop at 828 Broadway

And when you come out of the Strand Bookshop look up to 828 Broadway towering over you with the giant arches set into the facade:

828 Broadway

My final stop before reaching Union Square was the corner of W13th and Broadway with the seemingly giant acorn at the top of the corner-this ‘little’ feature certainly makes you look at the building being a curiosity in the skyline:

Corner of W13th and Broadway

Stay tuned for the next article in the series, “Don’t Forget to Look Up”!