The State Parks commissioner, Bernadette Castro, announced a $23 million plan on Wednesday to shorten the 280-foot structure and replace the two original elevators with four that are faster.
While some renovations like replacement of the original elevators are continuing, most have been completed and the firm moved in in March.
A lot was damaged, he said, "but we restored everything," including the stained glass, wood paneling and nine fireplaces, except for the original birdcage elevator, which he donated to the Otis Elevator Company.
The original Haughwout elevator has long since been replaced, but the current cab, probably dating from the 1890's, is still among the city's oldest.
They recouped some of their losses by selling one of the original three elevators, which they'd managed to refurbish, for two million dollars, to a Minnesota-based hedge-fund subsidiary that speculates on commodity prices.
The tower also has an early, perhaps original, open-cage elevator and a tightly curved open spiral stair providing vertical travel as dramatic as in any John Portman hotel.
The hotel's original hand-operated elevator, which now travels in a glass shaft through the center of the main staircase, is a highlight — as long as you can find someone to run it, which isn't always the case.
co-op in a loft building; keyed elevator, original hardwood floors, oversize windows, washer/dryer in unit, basement storage, common roof deck; maintenance $1,100, 62% tax-deductible; listed at $775,000 , 5weeks on market (broker: Halstead Property Co).
But she was uncomfortable with pretending that her new elevator was original, so she designed its cab to look like those of the elevators in the Seagram Building — "my homage to Mies van der Rohe," she said — and then she encased the elevator shaft in white glass, which almost blends in with the white walls of the original building.
