SUPERSTRUCTURES’ restoration of 151 East 25^th Street—Baruch College’s Newman Library—helped preserve J. William Schickel’s 1894 facade for generations to come. The building has an intriguing backstory, chronicled here. Its design hails from an era when something as utilitarian as a powerhouse was imbued with Renaissance Revival elegance. Owing something to Adler & Sullivan’s Chicago Auditorium Building, Schickel’s design features slender, speckled “Roman” brick accented by terra cotta in monumental archways. Only the two lowest floors were dedicated to the powerhouse; the upper floor plates were designed to bear the weight of colossal printing presses. Major publishers of the day like Doubleday & McClure mark the majority of the building’s 20^th century history.

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