Historic Bowling Green Custom House Begins Structural Upgrade
A century-plus old relic of local and national history is getting a new lease on life. The Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, at Bowling Green, has begun a $68-million rehabilitation project that will repair damage from water infiltration—which has been ongoing since 2012’s Hurricane Sandy—preserve historic architecture and art, and implement other structural repairs.
The Custom House, which opened in 1907, was designed by Cass Gilbert, the legendary architect who also created such local landmarks as the Woolworth Building, the Broadway-Chambers Building, and 90 West Street—as well as the United States Supreme Court, in Washington, D.C. Gilbert’s plan for the Bowling Green building was an example of the Beaux-Arts style, which blended French neoclassicism with Renaissance and Baroque touches, all while using state-of-the-art materials, such as glass and steel. While the building appears to 21st century eyes as a historicist period piece, it was perceived as supremely modern at the time of its debut.
Built before the advent of the federal income tax, the Customs House was a vital revenue source for the U.S. Treasury, particularly because New York was the busiest port in the nation. (Since the salary of each local customs official was based on a percentage of the tariff revenue he collected, the New York inspector was a very wealthy man.)
Beloved by New Yorkers almost from the day it opened, the Custom House was designated a City landmark in 1965 (just months after the enactment of the law creating this process), and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places seven years later. In 1976, it was named a National Historic Landmark.
The Customs Service decamped from the building (moving to the World Trade Center) in 1973, after which the structure was largely vacant for more than a decade. In the 1980s, it was proposed as the home for a new museum memorializing the Holocaust, although this idea later evolved into the Museum of Jewish Heritage, now located in Battery Park City. Today, the Custom House is home to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, and the New York office of the National Archives and Records Administration.
The rehabilitation project now beginning at the Custom House will utilize specialized materials such as concrete, steel, and asphalt that are engineered for lower “embodied carbon” content. This refers to the amount of greenhouse gas produced during the material’s manufacture, prior to its final use, and is estimated to prevent some 39 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere, in keeping with the federal government’s goal to mitigate the effects of climate change.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer said in a statement, “this project will use clean construction and American-made materials to repair and modernize a glorious and historic building. We are bolstering our infrastructure, including improving the longevity and sustainability of the historic Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in downtown Manhattan.”