The Foundation Building houses The Cooper Union at 7 East 7th Street in New York City. Cooper Union dates the building to 1859. The National Historic Landmark nomination names F. A. Peterson as architect, gives the cornerstone as 1853 and says it opened in May 1858.
The Italianate building has brownstone and brick walls on granite foundations. Its frame used rolled iron I-beams from Peter Cooper's Trenton iron works. Cooper required a cylindrical shaft for an elevator, a device not yet invented. The basement Great Hall was then the city's largest auditorium, and Abraham Lincoln gave the keynote address of his 1860 campaign there.
It began with five stories and later gained a sixth floor, around 1895, and seventh and eighth floors over the south end. John Hejduk was restoration architect for an interior renovation begun in 1972. Classes resumed in 1974. The architecture school uses the second, third and seventh floors.
This building has no Wikipedia article. Facts come from Cooper Union: Foundation Building, National Park Service: National Historic Landmark nomination, Cooper Union: Architecture facilities.
Comments