Rising above the tenements of Little Italy, the Police Building at 204 Centre Street (occupying the entire block between Grand and Broome Streets) is among New York’s most distinctive residential structures. It’s always been distinctive, but it has not always been residential. The structure, designed by the firm of Hoppin and Koen, opened in 1909 as a municipal headquarters for the New York Police Department.
In 1909, the very idea of public law enforcement was novel; through the late nineteenth century, police and fire departments were operated by private companies, motivated more by profit than duty. Part of the challenge of the Police Building was to convey a sense of high command, to establish that the city’s public authority transcended the days of the Plug Uglies. From this sentiment sprang the ornate Edwardian Baroque style of the building, its skylights, cupolas, and rooftop observation deck. It culminated in a majestic copper dome, modeled on that of the Hotel des Invalides in Paris. The architects’ stated goal was “to impress both the officer and the prisoner with the majesty of the law.”
The NYPD vacated the building in 1973, having outgrown both its dimensions and its aesthetic agenda. The Police Building, like so many fine structures during this period, fell into neglect and disrepair. In 1980, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places, which rescued it from likely demolition — and so began the long process of figuring out what to do with it.
In the early eighties, plans were underway to convert it to a luxury hotel, but this never materialized. The failure of this plan is usually attributed to the building’s unusual location. But as the decade progressed, and Soho began to usurp the Village as the city’s capital of art and style, the location became less of a liability. In 1987, it was successfully converted to condominiums — fifty-five apartments on six floors.
The conversion to condo facilitated a litany of much-needed repairs. The restoration of the roof required 30,000 pounds of copper. The ground floor was refashioned into a breathtaking lobby space, retaining many original design elements. The apartments themselves, like those in other luxury buildings such as the Dakota, are idiosyncratic; no two are the same, but all boast high ceilings and original details. Many include terraces or access to a garden space. Today, the cost of apartments in the building ranges from three to seventeen million dollars.
In addition to its visual splendor and historical significance, the Police Building represents the vanguard of repurposement. This notion — that important structures can be preserved while serving purposes other than those originally intended — was novel in 1987, and is now among the primary means of preserving many of the city’s vital older buildings.
