The Puck Building is an historic building located in the Nolita neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It occupies the block bounded by Lafayette, Houston, Mulberry and Jersey Streets.
An example of the German Rundbogenstil style of Romanesque Revival architecture, the building was designed by Albert Wagner, and was constructed in two parts. The north section was built in 1885-1886, and the south addition in 1892-1893. The front of the building – on Lafayette Street – was relocated in 1899 when the street – then called Elm Place – was widened, this was supervised by Herman Wagner. The building was rehabilitated in 1983-1984 and further renovated in 1995 by Beyer Blinder Belle. The building sports two gilded statues by sculptor Henry Baerer of Shakespeare's character Puck, from A Midsummer's Night Dream, one on the northeast corner at Houston and Mulberry, and one over the main entrance on Lafayette.
The building is at the northwestern corner of Manhattan's NoLIta neighborhood, bordered by SoHo and the NoHo section of Greenwich Village. It is owned by Kushner Properties, the company of Charles Kushner, a major donor to Democratic politicians in New Jersey, and his son Jared Kushner, the owner of The New York Observer.
Since 2004, the building has been used by New York University for the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and the department of sociology. The building contains both office space as well as ballrooms for large events on both the top and ground floors, the latter of which also has retail space, which was added when the building underwent a large=scale renovation beginning in October 2011.
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Famous quotes containing the word building:
“A building is akin to dogma; it is insolent, like dogma. Whether or no it is permanent, it claims permanence, like a dogma. People ask why we have no typical architecture of the modern world, like impressionism in painting. Surely it is obviously because we have not enough dogmas; we cannot bear to see anything in the sky that is solid and enduring, anything in the sky that does not change like the clouds of the sky.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)