Former Con Edison substation

214 Lafayette Street | SoHo | built 1909

Open on the map4 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1922

    Con Edison builds a six-story substation at 214 Lafayette Street dressed as a civic building

    Consolidated Edison put up this six-story brick and stone substation in 1922 to house converters that fed power to the subway and to buildings across the city. Its rusticated base borrowed from carriage houses and firehouses, a three-story arch marked the center, and a shallow Greek temple form sat above the cornice. Con Ed generally gave substations handsome Beaux Arts or neoclassical fronts instead of factory looks.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1975

    Con Edison no longer needs the substation and it becomes warehouse space

    After about fifty years of supplying power, the converters here were no longer needed, and in 1975 the building was converted to warehouse space. In the following years artists moved into SoHo's old loft buildings and turned warehouse space into galleries. 214 Lafayette Street followed the same path and by 1983 was a gallery.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1983

    Protech McNeil Gallery shows Alice Aycock's metal sculptures in the old substation

    By 1983 the former substation housed the Protech McNeil Gallery, which staged shows of modern artists. That year it exhibited Alice Aycock's sculptures made of metal, which the Daytonian in Manhattan account describes as metaphorical stratagems. The gallery came after the building's years as a power station and warehouse.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1996

    Film director Marcus Nispel buys the substation and spends a decade turning it into a house

    In 1996 the film director Marcus Nispel bought the old substation and began a conversion into a single-family home that lasted about ten years. The result included a 40-foot pool with portholes, a living and dining area with 20-foot ceilings and a drop-down cinema screen, and a 925-square-foot terrace. The space appeared in a 2008 Beyonce video and was later rented out.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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