SUPERSTRUCTURES’ restoration of 145 West Broadway was previously nominated for a Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award. It turned out to be a “Lucy loser,” but for its owner and the Tribeca South Historic District, it’s still worthy of recognition.

This project was a double bill, comprising two adjacent buildings: 145 West Broadway, designed by architect William Kuhles and built in 1888 for wholesale grocer Ernest Christian Korner, and 147 West Broadway, designed by architect John J. O'Neil and constructed in 1870 for liquor merchant, Michael Purcell.

SUPERSTRUCTURES conducted an investigation, prepared a conditions report, and provided design services to restore the exteriors of the two buildings. The project included cast iron restoration, replacement of the existing roof membrane, removal and replacement of cracked masonry units, parapet replacement, replacement of existing windows, and wood cornice replacement.

The building’s Odeon Restaurant, which Vanity Fair magazine called “the restaurant that defined New York’s 80s,” was a bastion of downtown nightlife and a haven for artists, musicians, and television and film stars—reason enough to preserve this fixture of Tribeca’s history. Restaurant regulars included Andy Warhol, Jean Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Lorne Michaels, and John Belushi. Its distinctive neon sign became emblematic of the era when it was immortalized on the cover of Jay McInerney’s best-selling 1984 novel, Bright Lights, Big City.