SOHO AND TRIBECA - Rough Guide to New York City - page 86

Cast-iron architecture
Soho contains one of the largest collections of cast-iron buildings in the world, erected
between 1869 and 1895. Cast-iron architecture was designed so that buildings could be
assembled quickly and cheaply, with iron beams rather than heavy walls carrying the
weight of the floors. The result was greater space for windows and remarkably decorat-
ive facades. Glorifying Soho's sweatshops, architects indulged themselves in Baroque
balustrades, forests of Renaissance columns, and all the effusion of the French Second
Empire. Many fine examples of cast-iron architecture can be glimpsed along Broadway
and Greene Street .
THE HAUGHWOUT BUILDING
488-492 Broadway. Subway R, N to Prince St; #6 to Spring St. MAP
The magnificent 1857 Haughwout Building is perhaps the ultimate in the cast-iron archi-
tectural genre. Rhythmically repeated motifs of colonnaded arches are framed behind taller
columns in this thin sliver of a Venetian-style palace - the first building ever to boast a
steam-powered Otis elevator. The first two floors opened as a Bebe fashion store in 2010
(it's otherwise closed to the public).