In 2021, without fanfare, 893 Broadway- a four-story, two façade cast-iron building located in New York City will celebrate its 178th birthday. The structure stands as a testament to the success of adaptive reuse for preservation. Over the past eighteen decades, the building has hosted no less than eight different industries including a marble workshop, a clothing manufacturer, a department store, a showroom, a storage room, doctors’ offices, a television and radio broadcast studio, a hotel with a whisky shop and restaurant, and most recently offices with ground-floor retail. Like a chameleon, this building has managed to outsmart the wrecking ball by adapting quickly and frequently to social change in its neighborhood.
Xsusha Flandro, BA, MS Historic Preservation, is an Architectural Conservator at CANY in New York City. She holds a master’s degree in Historic Preservation from Columbia University and a BFA in ceramics and sculpture from the University of Utah. Flandro is a Fellow in the American Institute for Conservation and a Recognized Professional in the Association for Preservation Technology. She has been actively involved in architectural conservation since 2008.
In 2021, without fanfare, 893 Broadway- a four-story, two façade cast-iron building located in New York City will celebrate its 178th birthday. The structure stands as a testament to the success of adaptive reuse for preservation. Over the past eighteen decades, the building has hosted no less than eight different industries including a marble workshop, a clothing manufacturer, a department store, a showroom, a storage room, doctors’ offices, a television and radio broadcast studio, a hotel with a whisky shop and restaurant, and most recently offices with ground-floor retail. Like a chameleon, this building has managed to outsmart the wrecking ball by adapting quickly and frequently to social change in its neighborhood.
Xsusha Flandro, BA, MS Historic Preservation, is an Architectural Conservator at CANY in New York City. She holds a master’s degree in Historic Preservation from Columbia University and a BFA in ceramics and sculpture from the University of Utah. Flandro is a Fellow in the American Institute for Conservation and a Recognized Professional in the Association for Preservation Technology. She has been actively involved in architectural conservation since 2008.
