Former New York Life Insurance Company Building

About this property

108 Leonard (formerly known as 346 Broadway, the New York Life Insurance Company Building, and the Clock Tower Building) is a residential structure in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. Built from 1894 to 1898, the building was constructed for the New York Life Insurance Company. Stephen Decatur Hatch created the original plans while McKim, Mead & White oversaw the building's completion. The building occupies a city block bounded by Broadway to the west, Leonard Street to the north, Lafayette Street to the east, and Catherine Lane to the south. It is a New York City designated landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The exterior is largely made of marble, and each elevation of the facade is divided vertically into multiple bays. Although the main entrance is on Leonard Street, the western and eastern ends also contain entrances and are clad with rusticated stone blocks. On the upper stories, band courses run horizontally across the facade, and there are arched and rectangular windows. Along Broadway, above the 12th story, is an ornate clock tower, with a mechanically wound clock. A two-story penthouse is placed above the original roof. Inside the building are 152 condominium residences. The entrances lead to various lobbies, stairs, and hallways, some of which are elaborately decorated. In addition, there is a banquet hall within a former banking room near Lafayette Street; former executive offices on the lower floors; and residential amenities in the cellar and on the roof. The present building at 346 Broadway was constructed in two phases, replacing a previous structure built in 1870. The eastern section was completed in 1896 as an annex of the previous building, while the western section was built in 1898 to replace the older building entirely. New York Life occupied the rebuilt edifice for three decades, moving to 51 Madison Avenue in 1928, although the firm continued to own the building until 1945. Clothing firms also rented space in the building during the early 20th century, and 346 Broadway hosted various U.S. federal and New York state government offices from the 1930s to the 1960s. After the government of New York City acquired the building in 1967, the structure housed the Summons Court and other judicial functions, as well as an art gallery. The Peebles Corporation and El-Ad Group bought the building for $160 million in 2013 and renovated it for residential use. Following various legal issues, the first condominiums in the building were sold in March 2018.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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