Reply With QuoteThose bay windows have to go.
You wished for a slim, limestone-looking, pre-war style building... well here it is. It's got a little bit of everything. And IMHO it looks fine:
Those bay windows have to go.
I was thinking that the new Four Seasons looks somewhat like the Farmer's Trust building (or whatever it's called). It's interesting that you posted that.
Disgraceful
The cretins over at Moody's -- as well as those involved in the redevopment here -- have, in a shameful act so emblematic of the state of business in NYC today, trashed for scrap the magnificent bronze frieze that was displayed above the front entryway to 99 Church. You'd think Robert A.M. Stern would be ashamed ...
Moody’s rebuilds damaged ‘Credit’ at 7 W.T.C.
Photo: Pete Davies
The original "Credit" above the entry to 99 Church
Photo by Joe Woolhead/courtesy of Silverstein Properties
A smaller copy of "Credit" in the new Moody offices
Downtown Express
By Julie Shapiro
Feb. 8 - 14, 2008
Whenever Joseph Svehlak walked past 99 Church St., the old headquarters of Moody’s Corporation, he liked to look at the large metal sculpture above the doorway. Called “Credit,” the rectangular piece featured symbols of agriculture and industry in harmony.
“It was the focal point of the entrance to the building,” Svehlak said. “It symbolized what Moody’s was about.”
Svehlak always pointed out the sculpture when he gave tours of Lower Manhattan, but in mid-January, he noticed Credit was gone. The entire Moody’s building is being demolished to make way for Silverstein Properties’ high-rise Four Seasons hotel. Svehlak wondered, “What happened to Credit?”
It turns out that Moody’s decided not to bring the plaque along to its new headquarters in 7 World Trade Center, but instead created a smaller replica. The replica, a shinier gold color than the weathered original, is hanging in Moody’s offices, which are not open to the public.
The original Credit is now long gone, removed and recycled by Waldorf Demolition, a Silverstein spokesperson said.
Svehlak, a preservationist, was sad to hear the news.
“Redevelopment is good for the economy, but wasn’t there a way that the wonderful grand plaque could have been reused in the new building instead of being destroyed?” Svehlak asked. “It’s another blow to Downtown.”
The metal sculpture, which Svehlak estimates as a 10 or 12-foot square, featured a rifle-bearing frontiersman and a muscular industrial worker holding hands, with trees, fields, a farmhouse and skyscrapers in the background. Beneath the image is a quote from Daniel Webster on the importance of credit. In an 1834 Senate speech, Webster called credit “the vital air of the system of modern commerce.”
A Moody’s representative did not know who created Credit, but said he thought the piece dated to the building’s 1951 construction. He also did not say why Moody’s made a replica rather than moving the original.
***
credit
You are so right, lofter. It is so shortsighted and foolish of them not to salvage and re-incorporate that plaque into the new building.
Not only would it have linked the future tower to a little history of this site but also provide an interesting adornment to the new tower that so far appears to have a minimal of any.
They can also save a little on the need for limestone, too.
I think they could put it on the side of the new tower facing the rear courtyard/walkway. This way anyone there can have something interesting to look at and read.
I will give Stern the benefit of a doubt and just believe that he just never thought about it, therefore, I think that if someone gives him the idea, he might just do it.
Anyone up for writing a brief email to Robert Stern and Larry Silverstein?
I don't think the demo company has destroyed the plaque just yet because the building is still standing, so it's not too late.
Last edited by antinimby; February 9th, 2008 at 12:09 AM.
or put in one of the city museums or auction it off - something. scrapping it makes no sense at all.
I wish you were right. However:Originally Posted by antinimby
Read on ...“Moody’s opted for a reproduction rather than the original, which was their right as part of the sale of 99 Church Street,” a spokesman for Silverstein Properties said. “The original was removed by Waldorf and recycled.”
Give Credit Where Credit Is Due (Wherever It Is)
Photo: Joe Woolhead
A reproduction of an allegorical frieze depicting “Man’s Confidence in Man,”
which adorned the entrance to 99 Church Street. It is in the new office
of the Moody’s Corporation at 7 World Trade Center.
NY TImes / City Room blog
By David W. Dunlap
February 1, 2008
Crews from Waldorf Demolition are just beginning to work on the former Dun & Bradstreet headquarters at 99 Church Street, where Silverstein Properties is planning an 80-story Four Seasons hotel and apartment building.
But the 57-year-old building’s most distinctive feature is already gone.
That was a monumental metal frieze over the front door, showing two allegorical figures in relief — a buckskin-clad frontiersman and a shirtless industrial laborer, holding hands and gazing into one another’s eyes — above fruits, a plough blade, a mallet, a wheel, a sheaf of wheat and this inscription:Credit. Man’s Confidence in Man. Commercial credit is the creation ofGary Dombroff, a City Room reader who lives in Brooklyn and passes by 99 Church Street every day on his way to work nearby, drew its disappearance to our attention.
modern times and belongs in its highest perfection only to the most
enlightened and best governed nations. Credit is the vital air of the system
of modern commerce. It has done more — a thousand times more — to enrich
nations than all the mines of the world.
Quoted from a speech by Daniel Webster in the Senate at Washington, March 18, 1834.
“How ironic that this message about credit is now gone, given the subprime mortgage meltdown and its aftereffects — including possible criminal indictments,” Mr. Dombroff said. “We could use some inspiration from the past about the power of credit.”
Discussions of the frieze have appeared on Curbed and Wired New York. A number of commenters there, including Mr. Dombroff, wondered what happened to the frieze.
It lives on, as a facsimile in the new offices of the Moody’s Corporation at Silverstein Properties’ 7 World Trade Center tower. Moody’s, which was acquired by and later spun off from Dun & Bradstreet, was the last occupant of 99 Church Street, which it sold to Silverstein.
“Moody’s opted for a reproduction rather than the original, which was their right as part of the sale of 99 Church Street,” a spokesman for Silverstein Properties said. “The original was removed by Waldorf and recycled.”
One would think it would be cheaper to save the old one than recreate a new one.
I can't believe they'd even consider destroying that frieze. Truly disgusting behavior. More and more it seems like my reaction to news posted on this site is "how sad." I haven't lived in New York since 2005, and I miss it. The sad part is that what I love about the place is being destroyed little by little (obviously even before I moved). Will the New York City that sparks our imagination still be alive 100 years from now?
Regarding Stern's design for the new 99 Church tower, it's handsome but not very interesting. The top is especially uninspiring.
Also.....the repro lacks all the depth and strength of
the original so, it's not only a repro but a SUCKY repro!
reminds me a bit of han solo in carbonite
Just because some Silverstein spokesperson said it has been removed and recycled doesn't mean that it isn't still lying around somewhere, still fully intact, waiting to be recycled.
They don't get to work recycling things that quickly, I don't think.
A phone call or email to Waldorf Demo with some pleading () and it could be saved.
By the way, isn't it funny that the very one part of the building that deserves to be saved is one of the first part they go right after and get rid of first?
Didnt something similar happen to the building Trump Tower replaced?
No doubt the frieze was included in the demo contract -- and the bid for demo took into consideration the amount that could be made by recycling all that bronze.
But please write a letter. Give it a shot.
Moody's, Silverstein, Robert A. M. Stern = Bad citizens, and not worthy of this great city. Shame on them all.
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