8 Spruce

Site

8 Spruce covers 1 acre on the south side of Spruce and Beekman Streets in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Prior to 8 Spruce Street's construction, the lot was used as parking for the New York Lower Manhattan Hospital immediately to the east. The building is just east of City Hall Park and south of Pace University and the Brooklyn Bridge. Immediately to the west are 150 Nassau Street and the Morse Building (140 Nassau Street).

There are public plazas on both the east and west sides of the building, one 11000 sqft and the other smaller. The east plaza, also known as William Street Plaza, separates the building from New York Downtown Hospital, and also provides access to the parking garage. This side includes entrances to the school and medical office space.

Architecture

Form and facade

The site's zoning did not have height restrictions, and the building's massing is surrounded by the plazas on either side. The final design is 76 stories tall with 1040904 ft2 of space. The building consists of a six-story podium with a brick facade, housing a public school, medical offices, and residential amenities. Above this podium a T-shaped residential tower clad in brushed stainless steel rises. As the building ascends, it has setbacks, forming terraces on the 7th, 24th, 40th, and 52nd floors. [[File:The southern and eastern facades of Eight Spruce viewed from the corner of the corner of Beekman and William Streets.jpg|thumb|The southern and eastern facades of Eight Spruce viewed from the corner of the corner of Beekman and William Streets]] An undulating steel facade curves along three elevations of the building (the south elevation is flat). It comprises approximately 10,500 custom-made stainless steel panels from Japan; only around 2,000 panels are identical. Aluminum brackets secure the panels to the concrete slab. While the windows themselves are rectangular, their widths vary to match the shifting profile of the facade, creating numerous bay windows. Gehry modified the curtain wall to accommodate the window-washing rigs, and the panels were buffed during manufacturing to minimize glare.

Interior

The building's structural frame is reinforced concrete, common for high-rise residential towers in Manhattan.

Lower stories

The entrance for the residential lobby on the west side of the building includes a porte cochere, a covered entrance for vehicles. Inside the lobby is a curved reception desk and furniture that mirror the building's curved design. To the right of the main entrance are the mailroom and concierge service area.

The fifth floor of the building includes a 21692 ft2 space meant for New York Downtown Hospital. The building originally also allocated 25000 sqft of parking below ground for the hospital. As of 2016, the basement space is a commercially-operated valet parking garage.

Spruce Street School, P.S. 397, is a public school located on the first 4 floors of the skyscraper serving 440 students from pre-K to eighth grade. The exterior is made of reddish-tan brick. On the fourth floor is a 5000 ft2 terrace used as an outdoor play area for the kids. The city suggested adding four floors for the school due to a shortage of schools in the area. To make this happen, the city offered financing through Liberty Bonds. Forest City Ratner hired Swanke Hayden Connell Architects to design the 100000 ft2 school. After completion in September 2011, the city took over ownership and operation of the school.

Street-level retail, totaling approximately 1300 to, is included in the building.

Rental units

Above the elementary school are 899 rental apartments covering 677186 ft2. Residential units occupy the ninth to the 76th floors, including penthouses at the top. A T-shaped floor plan was used on the upper levels, resulting in six corner apartments per floor. There are 13 units with terraces. The three highest floors have 3215 ft2 of extra space of terrace. The apartments range from 500 square feet (46 m2) to 1,600 square feet (150 m2), and consist of studios to three-bedroom apartments, and penthouse units. Due to the dynamic design of the facade, the building consists of 350 unique apartment layouts.

The appliances in the interior were designed by Gehry to match the steel facade of the exterior. The interior features include brushed stainless steel appliances, quartz countertops, vertical-grain Douglas fir cabinets, solar shades on windows, and nine-foot ceilings in all units.

Amenities

Residents have access to 22165 ft2 of amenities across three floors. On the sixth floor is a grilling terrace, a game room, and golf simulators. The seventh floor contains an indoor swimming pool, a fitness center, social areas, and a spa suite. The eighth floor houses additional fitness facilities, a library, screening room, and spaces for children and tweens.

History

8 Spruce opened in February 2011.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City in 2020, about one of every five units were vacant. The building's owners, Brookfield Property Partners and Nuveen, placed the building for sale in November 2021 with an asking price of $850 million. Bloomberg reported in late 2021 that Blackstone Inc. would likely purchase the property for $930 million, and multiple sources have confirmed the sale. Blackstone established 8 Spruce (NY) Owner LLC in December 2021 to serve as owner.

Critical reception

Early reviews of 8 Spruce were favorable. In The New York Times, architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff praised the building's design as "the finest skyscraper to rise in New York since Eero Saarinen's CBS Building went up 46 years ago". New Yorker magazine's Paul Goldberger, comparing Gehry's tower to the nearby Woolworth Building, completed in 1913, Goldberger said, "It is the first thing built downtown since then that actually deserves to stand beside it." CityRealty architecture critic Carter Horsley hailed the project, saying "the building would have been an unquestioned architectural masterpiece if the south façade had continued the crinkling and if the base had continued the stainless-steel cladding" but that it was still comparable to the Woolworth Building.

The building received the Emporis Skyscraper Award for 2011.

References

References

1. Grant, Peter. (2010-10-05). "Gehry on New Gehry Building". The Wall Street Journal.
2. "Eight Spruce Street - The Skyscraper Center".
3. "8 Spruce Street -".
4. (March 11, 2024). "New York by Gehry at 8 Spruce Street". Urban Land Institute.
5. "NYCityMap". [[New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications]].
6. (September 18, 2006). "Gehry's Beekman Tower Ready to Launch". LowerManhattan.info.
7. Ouroussoff, Nicolai. (May 31, 2008). "Looking Skyward in Lower Manhattan". The New York Times.
8. Davies, Pete. (May 23, 2008). "Gehry's Beekman Tower Gets Presented, Goes Street". Curbed.com.
9. "New York by Gehry at Eight Spruce Street {{!}} Gehry Partners".
10. "8 Spruce St".
11. "Spruce St School".
12. Davies, Pete. (May 23, 2008). "Gehry's Beekman Tower Gets Presented, Goes Street". Curbed.com.
13. (May 30, 2008). "Unveiled: Beekman Tower".
14. (February 10, 2011). "Downtown Skyscraper for the Digital Age". The New York Times.
15. (2021-01-05). "Frank Gehry's Luxury New York City Skyscraper Has Everything—Except Enough Tenants". The Wall Street Journal.
16. Larsen, Keith. (November 1, 2020). "Occupancy at The New York by Gehry falls by more than 20%".
17. (3 November 2021). "Lower Manhattan's Gehry Tower For Sale at $850M". The Real Deal New York.
18. (19 December 2021). "Blackstone Nears $930 Million Deal for Manhattan Apartments". www.bloomberg.com.
19. . (2022-06-20). ["Blackstone pays $930M to Nuveen, Brookfield for 8 Spruce in FiDi"](https://www.pincusco.com/blackstone-pays-930m-to-nuveen-and-brookfield-asset-management-for-8-spruce-in-financial-district/).
20. Kramer, Liana. (2022-09-24). "Blackstone's 8 Spruce accuses tenant of housing restaurant". NJ News Update.
21. "Sale of the Retail/Residential Condo at FiDi's 8 Spruce Street Closes".
22. Goldberger, Paul. (March 7, 2011). "Sky Line: Gracious Living: Frank Gehry's swirling apartment".
23. "New York By Gehry: Building Review".
24. Pitcher, Greg. (December 7, 2012). "Gehry's New York tower scoops major skyscraper prize". EMAP Ltd.