Just Off Fifth: 12 – 26 East 8th Street
Located directly behind the looming tower of One Fifth Avenue, this surreal stretch of stucco fantasy is unique in the Village and perhaps the city.
12 – 26 East 8th Street began as a series of Greek Revival townhouses constructed in the 1820s and 1830s, similar to those that still face Washington Square North. In 1916 the buildings were refaced, refitted and unified by the architectural partnership of Maynicke & Franke in a style that the Landmark Preservation Commission calls “a Germanic form of Mediterranean.”
The large studio windows and skylights indicate that the buildings were designed in part as residences for artists, an example of the type developed in the wake of Richard Morris Hunt’s famed Tenth Street Studio Building of 1857 (now demolished), which helped fix Greenwich Village as a center of American Art for over a century.
Maynicke & Franke have a distinguished place in the history of New York’s architecture, being especially noted for their contributions to early loft building and skyscraper design. We’ll be seeing much more of their work as we move north, but 12 – 26 East 8th Street is the firm at perhaps its most lyrical.