Photos: Inside 190 Bowery Amid Its Conversion Into High-End Office Space

The landmarked Germania Bank Building will soon become a glitzy office building

By Amy Plitt@plitter May 17, 2016, 12:35pm EDT

It's been a little more than a year since developer Aby Rosen bought the landmark graffiti-covered mansion at the corner of Bowery and Spring Streets, and its transformation—from artist's haven to high-end office space—is already well underway. Windows have been cleaned and some of the graffiti has been washed away, but the biggest changes are happening inside, away from public view—until now.

Photographer and erstwhile editor of the now-defunct Animal New York Bucky Turco recently got inside the building and snapped photos of the under-construction space. (This comes just about a year after Animal's first venture into the space.)

190 Bowery May 2016 — A skylight inside 190 Bowery

What he found is a building that's very much in the middle of of transformation. Rosen's development company, RFR Realty, is in the process of turning the onetime home/gallery into an office building with ground-floor retail, and some of the images below reflect that—desks are being brought in (with an open-concept floorplan, apparently), offices are being created, and so on. Some of its historic elements, such as an original 19th-century elevator, are now preserved behind glass.

One of 190 Bowery's historic elevators, now encased in glass

Other parts of the building are less built-out: The basement is still in disarray, with the old bank vault still intact (though there's a crack in the glass). The main hall, shown below, is still in need of work and has plenty of equipment currently taking up the space.