Developer Eric Schlagman Completes 50 Hudson Street

Developer Eric Schlagman of 50 Hudson LLC, eagerly announces that his six-story mixed-use building located at 50 Hudson has been officially completed.

The 20-year, multi-stage redevelopment project, which initially began in 2006, when Schlagman and partner Miriam Rothstein purchased the property with the goal of restoring it and adding to it, has been a challenging, but exciting one. Over the course of two decades the three-story building would ultimately be transformed from 16,000 square feet to 26,500, complete with a one-of-a-kind, three-story glass brick addition. The new structure adds 8200 square feet to the commercial building and the height of the facade went from 38 feet to 59.

Subscribe

"We purchased 50 Hudson Street (aka 46-50 Hudson Street) as a long neglected, three-story office building in 2006," explains Schlagman. "The building was built on the corner of Duane Park in Tribeca 1925 by the John F. Sarle Company, a paper making firm and designed by little-known architect William F. Hemstreet." It was later occupied as a forensic engineering firm for about 50 years. In 1991 the Tribeca West Historic District is designated and any modifications to the property require their approval.

50 Hudson Street is one of only three factory buildings within the Tribeca West Historic District. The other two are at 14 and 16 stories, respectively. At three stories, 50 Hudson Street was an anomaly even among its peers.

"The building we acquired was covered in graffiti and soot. The windows were permanently frozen in place or missing, much of the brick was so stained and coated with carbon from the diesel generators at 60 Hudson Street that you couldn't tell what color the building was," details Schlagman.

Schlagman's first renovation was done from 2007-2008 which restored the original three-story building inside and out. During this time a luxury penthouse floor with a vast wrap-around terrace was added in addition to an entirely new infrastructure with a high-speed elevator and shaft way, new windows and roof, along with repairs made to the masonry, steelwork and concrete. Surfaces were redone to expose the handsome interior brick work; the entire exterior was cleaned over and over to get the facade back to its original luster without harming it.

With the permission of the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), the windows on the second floor had their sills lowered substantially to get them from chest height which made sense for the original warehouse use of the building but not for office use. The property is built just above the water table, so extensive work had to be done to restore the below slab drainage system as well as the waterproofing of the slab itself. Once completed, the restored building was a shining example of the early 20th century style in which it had been designed in 1925.

Schlagman's first thought was the only thing wrong with its post-initial renovation was that it was too modest a scale. He opted to take on the task of getting permission to enlarge it.

The biggest challenge to enlarging most buildings in a historic district is designing an addition that the NYC LPC would approve and deem appropriate. Because the building's zoning allowed for a building twice the size of the original building, tt made sense to complete the two street walls that were interrupted by the lower structure.

"We wouldn't be able to use the usual convention of a non-visible addition as is generally done when adding just a penthouse level to a building and setting it back from the street wall so it can't be seen from the sidewalk," continues Schlagman. "The task here was to build a fully visible addition facing onto historic Duane Park, New York's second oldest park after Bowling Green and for the addition to be equal in size to the original building on which it would rest. This is to say nothing of supporting the structure on top of a nearly 100-year-old existing structure."

"Nearly every preservationist, historian and architect said an LPC approval was an ultra-long shot," he explains.

To make the economics of the project work, Schagman also sought to keep the building occupied while adding to the structure. He began interviewing architects and designers in January 2014.

In 2014, Schlagman opened Bar Cyrk, a cocktail bar and restaurant in 50 Hudson's retail space. It caught the eye of a staff member of Theirry Despont https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thierry_Despont , a long-time Tribeca resident, most famously known for restoring the Statue of Liberty. Despont took on the gargantuan task of designing the addition and getting approval, along with structural engineer Anthony Gennaro. The team also included preservationists, historians, landmarks consultants, attorneys, and Jacobson/Shinoda Architects.

In 2016, while the team worked to create a viable addition plan, Schlagman contacted a glass company he worked with on Bar Cyrk and asked them to create a specific polished glass which later would become 50 Hudson's unique glass brick addition façade, never before seen in NYC.

Upon seeing the heavy brick sample, Despont exclaimed, "This is disgustingly beautiful. This will get approved because it is magnificent."

Because of its weight, Gennaro came up with a unique way of supporting the load, which took a year of designing, testing and modeling.

These glass bricks have a compression strength of some 35,000 pounds square inch. That compares with about 1800 psi for a common clay brick, almost 20x the strength. The bricks unlike clay bricks, cannot be cut during construction. That would ruin their polished surface. The luster and color of the bricks come from polishing the glass which catches and refracts a greater amount of light than cast surfaces create. At night when the building is brighter inside more than outside, the mortar joints are also translucent and allow a small glow to pass through. The glass columns at the corners weigh up to 1200 pounds each. Each corner has three columns stacked one on top of another. The columns were a last-minute detail added by Despont. The appearance of each facade changes steadily every 20 minutes or so as the sun moves across the building from east to west.

"After the presentation, the commissioners said of the addition, 'Make it bigger!'", explains Schlagman. In 2017 the LPC approved the addition and by 2019 work began on the foundation, the superstructure of the lowers forms and the transfer platform supporting the addition.

LPC asked that it be more of a departure from the historic part of the building. Despont obliged and it got glassier: the second iteration, approved later that year, removed the set-back, removed the greenery at the setback and made the addition a smidge taller and added glass at the corners and on the parapet.

Work continued until Covid hit and then work resumed in 2021, continued through the loss of Jacobson, Gennaro and Despont.

"It's deeply saddening to us that we weren't able to share the project in its final form with all of them," laments Schlagman. "Each of their New York stories was so much a part of the New York story of this gem of a building."

While the building's addition tarp was removed at the start of Memorial Day weekend, the final touches were made this summer. The penthouse had been pre-sold as were several commercial floors. Remaining retail space was pending lease.

Schlagman and Rothstein previously developed 401 Greenwich Street, a new (ground-up) building as well as others in other states. They are currently look at projects outside the U.S.