Broadway and Thomas St (1936). This is a tale of two buildings, the Thomas Twins, as they were once known. Completed in 1870 on land leased from New York Hospital—Thomas was a private street leading to the hospital entrance—they were two elegant cast-iron Italianate-style buildings, mirror images of each other, located on 317 and 319 Broadway.
The buildings were nominated for landmark designation in 1966, but the Landmarks Preservation Commission backed down in the face of strong opposition from the owners, who argued this would negatively affect the value of the properties. While 319 Thomas St managed to survive, and was given landmark designation in 1989, its twin did not. It was demolished in 1971, and replaced by the sad structure that currently sits on that space.
1 Thomas St (aka 319 Broadway), the Jacob Javits Federal Building in the background
Next door to the elegant cast-iron building above is 33 Thomas St, a forbidding Brutalist fortress that has been described as “an apocalypse-proof above-ground bunker.” Completed in 1974 as the AT&T Long Lines Building, this windowless behemoth houses telecom gateway switches, data centers, and alleged national security surveillance systems. It was designed to survive a nuclear blast and be self-sufficient for a period of time after that.
Used for exterior shots of the fictional E Corp Recovery Center in the series Mr Robot.
315 Broadway, another cast-iron, Italianate-style building, was completed in 1861. It was given landmark status in 2016 and there is an approved redevelopment plan that will incorporate 317 Broadway.