anr017 ‘SoHo and Cast on Architecture - SOHO AND CAST IRON ARCHITECTURE The only historic district in New York City to take its name from a building material is the SoHe-Cast Iron Historie District in Manhattan, which contains the world’ largest collection of buildings with castiron fronts, In the 1840s, James Bogardus developed ‘a method to mass-produce prefabricated cast-iron building pieces, which could easily be assembled on-site. This construction ‘method appealed to New York businessmen in the second half of the 19!century: cast.iron facades were relatively cheap, quickly constructed, and practical to maintain, requiring only a fresh coat of paint. The versatility of cast-iron made it possible to imitate the more expensive stone traditionally used to construct commercial buildings. ‘Some ofthe finest mid-19!".century cast-iron streetscapes in America can be seen on Greene Street between Canal and Grant Streets and betwoen Broome and Spring Streets, including a large number of Kalianate and French Second Empire buildings from the 1850s and 1860s. Cast-iron fell out of favor by the 1890s. Taller bulldings were made possible by steel skeleton construction, and new processes were developed for manufacturing architectural ornament in terra cotta, which replaced much of the inexpensive decorative function that had made cast iron so popular. hitpnyclandmarkscommission.tumbl:com/post81584195644%soho-and-castiron-architocture 18anr017 ‘SoHo and Cast on Architecture - Haughwout Building, 488-492 Broadway ‘A masterpiece of eatly castion construction, the Haughwout Building was commissioned by E.V. Haughwout for his fashionable china, silver, and glassware emporium. The iron components were manufactured at Daniel D. Badger’s Architectural Iron Works and were originally painted a color referred to in 1859 as “Turkish drab.” The attempt to create a beautiful building using a limited number cof mass-produced parts is evident in the structure's insistent repetition of round arches and Corinthian columns, motifs adapted from the facade of a Venetian Library. The building was restored in 1995. (Photo: Wikipedia) hitpnyclandmarkscommission.tumbl:com/post81584195644%soho-and-castiron-architocture 218,anr017 ‘SoHo and Cast on Architecture - Roosevelt Bullding, 478-482 Broadway hitpnyclandmarkscommission.tumbl:com/post81584195644%soho-and-castiron-architocture a8