Housing and Residential Development

14th Street experienced five distinctive waves of residential development that correspond to four of the economic periods that governed the general development of the street. While these residential waves are best understood as corresponding to economic periods on 14th street, they are also reflections of greater social and political trends that drove development in the city on the whole.

6. James McCreery house, 2006.

7. Spingler house, 1860s.

8. Tenements on East 14th Street, 1939.

The first wave of residential development on 14th Street occurred between the mid-1840s and mid-1860s. This period was characterized by an upper class migration to the largely undeveloped and unpopulated area north of the city’s early-ninteenth-century urban core. The affluent inhabitants relocating to the area mostly moved to speculatively built row houses (Figure 6). Some of the more prominent residents, such as the VanBurens and the Spinglers built mansions as their new residences (Figure 7). The transition of 14th Street from the extremity of the city’s limits, to the center of it, occurred between 1839 and 1860. By 1853, Union Square was entirely residential and 14th Street was described as a “noble thoroughfare...from river to river.” During this period, 14th Street was home to some of the city’s most prominent merchants. Consequently, these residences were built in the most fashionable style for their day — the Greek Revival and Italianate. The later portion of this residential wave is characterized by the conversion of some of the fashionable townhouses to first floor storefronts and multiple dwelling units. As the area became more commercial, many of the original upper-class residents left to find more desirable, quieter and cleaner locations uptown, effectively ending the first wave of residential development.

The second wave of residential development began just as the first ended, and incorporated commercial development into its scheme more comfortably than did the first wave. Following the Civil War, development and industry resumed in New York and consequently overpopulated industrial areas like the Lower East Side expanded north and began to change the character and use of 14th Street. The changes caused by the increase in industrial activity were coupled with changes caused by an explosion in immigration to the city. 14th Street became home to many of the new immigrants, primarily Irish and German, who sought the jobs provided by the industrial centers as well as the safety and comfort the ethnic neighborhoods that began to form on 14th Street. Many of the row houses built on 14th Street during the first residential wave were converted to boarding houses of apartments, while others were replaced by tenements built to accommodate the large immigrant population. At the same time, improvements in transportation led to the expansion of commercial activity, contributing to overcrowding and congestion (Figure 8). Tenements built during this period fall into three categories: “prelaw” tenements that had little consideration of light and air (1860s-1879), “old-law” or dumbbell tenements (1879-1901), and “new-law” tenements that required a certain amount of light and air reach each apartment for the health and safety of the resiedents (1901-1917). This residential wave ended just before World War I as the influx of immigrants slowed down and many of the industries moved to locations outside of Manhattan.

The third wave of residential development occurred many years after the conclusion of the second wave, following a lull in residential activity. This wave began after World War II and it is characterized as an ‘urban renewal’ effort that was initiated by the city and supported by a private investor. This type of residential development is only seen in one major example on 14th Street—Stuyvesant Town. Stuyvesant Town was built by The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in 1947 as a response to a city-wide postwar housing crisis. The housing of the urban renewal development wave is a direct reaction to the realities created by the squalid conditions of the second residential wave. The third residential wave, more than any other one, marks a correspondence to larger city trends rather than correspondence to economic life on 14th Street. The urban renewal project serves as a demonstration of the contemporary social aims of eliminating the ‘blight’ that centered around the city’s decaying former industrial centers. Stuyvesant Town, like many of its counterparts in the city, was built as a series of modular “tower-in-thepark” structures, and in this way uses its architecture to express its social function (Figure 9).

9. Stuyvesant Town, 1947.

10. The Victoria, 2006.

11. Zeckendorf Towers, 2006.

The fourth residential wave is the “luxury apartment” wave of the 1950s and 1960s. The rise of residential development in this period directly correlated with the decline of commercial development of the time. This residential wave would have been impossible were it not for the vacancies left by many of 14th Street’s commercial mainstays- businesses that were forced to leave the area as sales lagged. Hearns, Hechts, and the Van Buren Estate all made sales of large lots in 1958, making way for a new type of development on the street: the “white brick” apartment building. The developers of the luxury apartment buildings targeted uppermiddle-class residents and built massive white brick apartment buildings that were similar in square footage and comfort to the public housing of the third wave of residential development (Figure 10). The overall design of many of these buildings was considered by some to be undistinguished and “tasteless.” The interior plans were also criticized as poorly designed with their lowceilings, box-like rooms, and blind hallways. Despite their purported ‘tasteless’ appearance and mediocre accommodations, these buildings were extremely successful and satisfied the growing need for high-end real estate that existed in their day.

A fifth residential wave that began in the mid 1980’s is still occurring on 14th Street. This wave began in response to the economic revitalization that occurred following the implementation of the BID. The initial improvements to the street were mostly commercial, however with time residential life began to improve as well. As 14th Street’s physical appearance improved so too did its reputation, spurring an interest in real estate for residential uses on the street. This wave has been characterized by largescale apartment and dormitory buildings (Figure 11). Institutions have been key in this wave of development, as have large development corporations. The area is now attracting young professionals, young families, as well as students. The rise of this new demographic can be seen in the change in the type of retail that characterizes the street. The effects of this residential wave can bee seen on the western and central section in the new buildings that have appeared, however on the eastern end of the street this shift is seen in a more subtle way. The increase in residential popularity on the eastern end of the street can be seen not in new buildings, but in the long waitlists of young professionals who wish to move into Stuyvesant Town.