The Little Singer building at 561 Broadway, the fanciful 1903 masterpiece by architect Ernest Flagg, has recently been dressed up with some original detailing which had been removed over the years. An awning of metal and leaded glass once again runs along the Broadway facade above the newly-Mango'ed windows. In the years before the Singer went up here, this lot was the site of Henry Wood's Marble Hall, a 2,000 seat theater which was home to Christy's Minstrels and other "black-face" theatricals popular in the years before and after the Civil War when this part of town was New York's entertainment center.
Now, Richard Levine of Bone / Levine Architects, who has offices on the upper floors of the Little Singer and is in charge of restoration work at the building, designed and executed the newly-installed awnings, copying the originals as much as possible. This project was done with nary a noise from nimbys, unlike a new glass canopy proposed for the Public Theater in neighboring NoHo. During that next downtown stroll take a look up at the Singer facade and consider some work well done. Meanwhile, enjoy a virtual tour of the Singer's spectacular penthouse, which went on the market in April and is available to anyone who can stitch together a mere $8 million.
· Storecasting: Mango To Sweeten Up Broadway [Racked]
· Projects Preservation Singer Building [Bone / Levine Architects website]
· Public Theater's Monumental Changes Revealed [Curbed]
· SOHO Penthouse [John Fulop Associates]
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