Butterfield House

37 West 12th Street | Greenwich Village | built 1961

Open on the map3 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. 1962

    Mayer, Whittlesey & Glass complete the modernist Butterfield House

    Architects William J. Conklin and James Rossant of Mayer, Whittlesey & Glass complete a 12-story apartment building with 102 units at 37 West 12th Street, on the site of Civil War general Daniel Butterfield's former home. The brown-brick International Style tower features deep bay windows and floor-through apartments, most opening onto balconies or terraces overlooking a landscaped interior garden with a fountain.

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1963

    The Municipal Art Society gives Butterfield House's architects a Certificate of Merit

    The Municipal Art Society awards Mayer, Whittlesey & Glass a Certificate of Merit in 1963 for the design of Butterfield House. The critic Paul Goldberger later includes the building on his list of the top postwar apartment buildings in New York City.

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1969

    The Landmarks Commission holds up Butterfield House as a model of modern harmony on West 12th Street

    When the city designated the Greenwich Village Historic District in 1969, its report used Butterfield House, designed ten years earlier by Mayer, Whittlesey & Glass, as proof that contemporary architecture can fit an old street. The commission praised the glass bay windows and noted that the seven-story building barely rises above the cornice line of its older neighbors, while its Thirteenth Street end has a more ordinary apartment-house height. A deeply recessed ground floor lets passersby see the lobby and inner courtyard.

    “Butterfield House," designed in 1959 by Mayer, Whittlesey & Glass, is a good example of this type of urban harmony.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Further reading

Nearby

All 518 buildings with stories in Greenwich Village