90 Church Street is a federal

office building An office is a space where the employees of an organization perform administrative work in order to support and realize the various goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific du ...

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. The building houses the

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the federal governmen ...

's Church Street Station, which is responsible for the 10007 ZIP Code. The building takes up a full block between Church Street and

West Broadway West Broadway is a north-south street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, separated into two parts by Tribeca Park. The northern part begins at Tribeca Park, near the intersection of Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue), Walker Street ...

and between

Vesey Vesey is an English surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Agmondisham Vesey (died 1739), Agmondisham Vesey (1677–1739) Irish landowner and politician *Agmondisham Vesey (1708–1785), Agmondesham Vesey (1708–85) Irish politician an ...

and Barclay Streets.

History

90 Church Street was designed by

Cross & Cross Cross & Cross (1907–1942) was a New York City-based architectural firm founded by brothers John Walter Cross and Eliot Cross. History Cross & Cross was known as Old New York City Society's architectural firm of choice. John Cross (1878–1951) ...

, Pennington, Lewis & Mills and Louis A. Simon, who was

Supervising Architect of the Department of the Treasury The Office of the Supervising Architect was an agency of the United States Treasury Department that designed federal government buildings from 1852 to 1939. About The office handled some of the most important architectural commissions of t ...

at the time. The architectural style of the building is a mixture of

Neo-classicism Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative arts, decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiq ...

and

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

. It has two towers and the facade is clad in

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

. The ''

AIA Guide to New York City The ''AIA Guide to New York City'' by Norval White, Elliot Willensky, and Fran Leadon is an extensive catalogue with descriptions, critique and photographs of significant and noteworthy architecture throughout the five boroughs of New York City. ...

'' described the building as "a boring limestone monolith that has trouble deciding between a heritage of stripped down neo-Classical and a new breath of Art Deco." The building was completed in 1935. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1989. ''See also:'' The building was extensively renovated by Boston Properties, Inc from the early 1990s though 2000 by Architects

Swanke Hayden Connell Architects Swanke Hayden Connell Architects was an international architecture, interiors and historic preservation firm with U.S. headquarters in New York City. History The firm was founded in New York in 1906 by Alexander Stewart Walker (1876–1952) and ...

and Brannen Associates. In addition to housing the Postal Service, the 90 Church Street building contains offices of the New York State Public Service Commission, the New York State Health Department, and the

New York City Housing Authority The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is a public development corporation which provides public housing in New York City, and is the largest public housing authority in North America. Created in 1934 as the first agency of its kind in the ...

September 11 attacks

The building suffered moderate damage during the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

due to a remnant of one of the planes and other debris landing on top of the building. Following the collapse of the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are the hundreds of sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may also refer to: Buildings * World Trade Center (1973–2001), a building complex that was destroyed during the September 11 at ...

's twin towers, the building's facade was damaged, windows were broken, the roof was seriously burned and major

water damage Water damage describes various possible losses caused by water intruding where it will enable attack of a material or system by destructive processes such as rotting of wood, mold growth, bacteria growth, rusting of steel, swelling of composit ...

occurred throughout the internal structure. It was also extensively

contaminated Contamination is the presence of a constituent, impurity, or some other undesirable element that renders something unsuitable, unfit or harmful for the physical body, natural environment, workplace, etc. Types of contamination Within the scienc ...

with

asbestos Asbestos ( ) is a group of naturally occurring, Toxicity, toxic, carcinogenic and fibrous silicate minerals. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous Crystal habit, crystals, each fibre (particulate with length su ...

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

dust,

fungi A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one ...

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) is a common type of fibre-reinforced plastic, fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened i ...

dust, mercury, and

bacteria Bacteria (; : bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of Prokaryote, prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micr ...

. The building was entirely engulfed by dust after the collapse of both buildings, respectively, and was further damaged when

Building 7 7 World Trade Center (7 WTC, WTC-7, or Tower 7) is an office building constructed as part of the new World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The tower is located on a city block bounded by Greenwich, Vesey, Washington, and Barcl ...

collapsed later the same day. There was no major structural damage. During recovery efforts at

Ground Zero A hypocenter or hypocentre (), also called ground zero or surface zero, is the point on the Earth's surface directly below a nuclear explosion, meteor air burst, or other mid-air explosion. In seismology, the hypocenter of an earthquake is its p ...

, the United States Postal Service worked to return individual pieces of mail found by rescue workers to the addressees. In August 2004, the Church Street Station Post Office reopened, and mail was once again being processed there. Church Street Station also serves the 10007 ZIP code, covering portions of

Battery Park City Battery Park City is a mainly residential planned community and neighborhood on the west side of the southern tip of the island of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by the Hudson River on the west, the Hudson River shoreline on the nor ...

Tribeca Tribeca ( ), originally written as TriBeCa, is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. Its name is a syllabic abbreviation of "Triangle Below Canal Street". The "triangle" (more accurately a quadrilateral) is bounded by Canal Str ...

, and

Civic Center A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains of one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, ...

References

External links

* {{Tribeca 1930s architecture in the United States 1935 establishments in New York City Church Street Station Post Office Government buildings completed in 1935 Neoclassical architecture in New York City Art Deco architecture in Manhattan