Doc. Toolbox
How to Photograph
Measure & Document
Interviews
Landmarks
Village Survey
|
|
|
|
Chase Manhattan Bank
Surveyor's Name: Michele Boyd
Date of survey: July/August 2000
Building Address: 22 Grace Avenue
Block/Lot: 197/138, 438-439, 234-236, 440
Building type: Commercial building
Owner's name: Chase Manhattan Bank
Building name: Chase Manhattan Bank
Historical name: Chase Manhattan Bank
Date of construction: 1961
Architect: Benjamin Thompson and Paul Dietrich, The Architect’s Collaborative (TAC) based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Building dimensions: 83’ X 89’
No. of floors: One and basement
Decorative features: Chase Manhattan signage on north and east elevations
Siding material(s): Poured concrete, brick, and tinted glass
Roof style: “Waffle” slab
Roofing materials: Poured concrete
No. of entrances & placement: Front entrance at north elevation on Grace Avenue; side entrances on east and west elevations
Chimneys & placement: None
Architectural integrity: High
Architectural style: Modern
Description: This low white, rectangular, structure of bush-hammered, poured concrete has a parasol-style “waffle” roof supported by 16 concrete columns. The colonnade evokes a modernist classicism. Transparent walls of gray glass alternate with freestanding solid walls of water-struck brick. Clerestory windows framed in bronze and tinted gray surround the main banking room. A drive-in teller service is located at the south elevation.
The original design called for a wraparound plaza with concrete planters and benches facing Grace Avenue. The benches are not extant. A wooden “park” bench sits at the front of the building on Grace Avenue facing Barstow Road. TAC designed landscaping that preserved and complemented the original trees on the site, and included plantings of flowering pink and white dogwood, Higan weeping cherry, Royal azalea, snow azalea, Rosebay rhododendron, mountain laurel, drooping leucothoe, inkberry, big leaf wintercreeper, and bowles variety myrtle. These plantings have not been maintained, and the plaza is a barren space today.
Interior: The exterior roof forms the interior ceiling. Four interior columns mirror those on the exterior and create a large open central banking area with enclosed spaces on the perimeter for offices and conference rooms. The original brown Welch quarry tile flooring is extant.
The first floor originally consisted of the safe deposit vault, an area for officer’s desks, a conference room, a customer waiting area, the loan teller’s office, a long teller’s desk and work area (along the rear, or south wall), and two staircases to the basement at the east and west sides of the building. This layout has been changed somewhat. For example, the long teller’s desk is extant but the safe deposit boxes are now located in the basement.
In the original design, a community room with a kitchenette, projection equipment, and meeting space for 100 people, installment loan room, and employees’ lounge were located in the basement. A tunnel from the basement lead to a separate drive-in teller service to the rear of the building.
TAC designed all the furniture, including the bank officers’ desks, made of walnut with removable butcher-board tops and interchangeable units of drawer and filing space. The plans included an interior clock with a faceplate of black anodized aluminum and white porcelain enamel hands.
Historical information: A gas station on this site was demolished to create the parking lot for the bank. This was the first suburban Chase branch in Nassau County, built as a result of a 1961 Omnibus Banking Act of the New York State Legislature, which allowed New York City banks to open offices in Nassau and Westchester counties. Chase wanted a prototype for future branch buildings in keeping with its image as modern institution and sponsor of “the best in modern architecture.”
Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius founded the Architect’s Collaborative (TAC) in 1946 with a group of partners. TAC is still in existence. Benjamin Thompson, one of the original founders, separated from TAC in 1966. His firm, Benjamin Thompson Associates (BTA) of Cambridge, Massachusetts, designed Fanueil Hall Marketplace and many other award-winning projects. Paul Dietrich left TAC in 1962 to form Cambridge Seven Associates, also in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which specializes in museum design.
The Encyclopedia Britannica on line provides the following on TAC:
Among the works cooperatively designed through TAC teamwork were the Harvard University Graduate Center (1949-50); the U.S. Embassy in Athens (1956); the Arts and Communications Center and the Evans Science Building (both 1959) at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass.; and the University of Baghdad (design accepted 1960). Gropius was active with TAC until his death in 1969.
TAC’s concept was that banks should go back to “looking and acting like banks,” rather than “supermarkets or shoe salons.” The architects sought to express the practical function and serious purpose of the building in the solidity of its structure. They also wanted to reflect the liveliness of the building’s role as a community gathering place in its pattern and texture.
Some of the building’s features were said to be experimental and subject to elimination in future branch buildings due to cost considerations. These included the community room and drive-in teller service.
In 1969, a portion of the lobby to the safe deposit vault was converted to a conference room.
Sources:
VGNP Building Department file.
“Bank for the Suburbs,” Architectural Forum 117 (1962): 126-129.
Encyclopedia Britannica on Line, www.britannica.com/seo/t/the-architects-collaborative.
Benjamin Thompson Associates (BTA) website, www.bta-architects.com.
|
|
