Preservationists Give Corbin Building a New Life

Standing on the corner of Broadway and John Street, the Corbin Building built in 1888 is undergoing a Restoration. Scheduled for demolition until preservationists intervened, the Corbin Building will be incorporated into the new Fulton Street Transit site.

Built by its namesake Austin Corbin, who combined the Long Island rail lines into today's Long Island Railroad, the building was designed by architect Francis Hatch Kimball who also designed the Empire State Building,  the Brooklyn Montauk Club, Reading Terminal, and Garrick Theatre among many other buildings.

I was standing on John Street and what struck me was the number of arched windows.  I discovered that the Corbin Building is unique for its time because Kimball used brick arches as an enduring structural support below grade and as a device to create a fairly column free office space on the upper floors.