433 Broadway is a new office building that sits on a prominent site that was a once vacant corner lot in New York City’s SoHo Cast Iron Landmark District. The site had remained vacant for decades, creating a singular void in the cohesive façades of lower Broadway between Houston and Canal Streets. The addition completes the very distinctive street wall of historically significant buildings. In this way, the building reinforces a strong sense of place and history. Using modern materials, the building’s facade interprets the rhythms and proportions established by surrounding cast iron buildings while providing efficient, contemporary, high tech, commercial space within its 37,000+ square feet. To the architect’s knowledge this is the first “ground up” office building in New York City entirely devoted to shared work space.
Taking advantage of the corner site, the building’s entrance is located on the side street thereby freeing the entire lower Broadway façade for retail space. Floors two through six contain shared work spaces that are divided by glass partitions and surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windowsthat offer spectacular views of SoHo. The sixth floor is set back from the property line and allow for a single-story penthouse with an outdoor terrace. Shared amenities include bathrooms, kitchens and meeting rooms. The shared spaces inthe building are equipped with state-of-the-art communications systems. In this way, 433 Broadway symbolizes a strong connection between the past and present.
Undergoing the rigorous review of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, the architect received the approval of the Community Board and Municipal Arts Society for the building’s design. In his New York Times article “A Co-Working Space in SoHo, 15 Years in the Making” (September 19, 2016), David Dunlap wrote, “With its broad expanses of glass, the gleaming white six-story structure at 433 Broadway is obviously modern, though it seems comfortably at home with its nearby 19th-century cast-iron cousins.”
