Saturday, December 27, 2014

Williamsburg Trust Company - Holy Trinity Orthodox Church

South Facade of Williamsburg Trust Company
Williamsburg Trust Company South Facade
East Facade of Williamsburg Trust Company
Williamsburg Trust Company East Facade
Across from the Continental Army Plaza and couple of blocks from the Williamsburg Savings Bank sits the Helmle & Huberty Designed Williamsburg Trust Company bank building.[1] Helmle & Huberty was a prolific Brooklyn Architecture firm that produced designes for many of the landmark worthy buildings in New York City. Built in 1906, the building's Roman style architecture was influenced by the World's Columbian Exhibition of 1893.[1] A fine example of Bank Architecture, the Trust Company building's design elements included Tetrastyle porticoes with triangular pediments and marble ionic columns with a facade veneered in glazed white terra-cotta. The building bears some similarity to the Helmle & Huberty designed Greenpoint Savings Bank built two years later and employs the same glazed terra-cotta building material as the Boathouse in Prospect Park that Helmle & Huberty designed two years prior. "The glazed coating of the antefixae of the fine saucer dome, set on a heavily crested octagonal drum, and of the balustrades atop the wings flanking the porticoes, etched against the sky, glisten in the sun."[2]


South Facade Relief 1 Left Side of Building
South Facade Relief 1

South Facade Relief 2 Center of Building
South Facade Relief 2

South Facade Relief 3 Right Side of Building
South Facade Relief 3

Above are the terra-cotta reliefs that sit atop the building's south facing entrance.



East Facade Relief 1 Left Side of Building
East Facade Relief 1
East Facade Relief 2 Center of Building
East Facade Relief 2
East Facade Relief 3 Right Side of Building
East Facade Relief 3
Above are the terra-cotta reliefs that sit atop the building's east facing entrance.

References:
  1. White, Norval, Willensky, Elliot, and Leadon, Fran AIA Guide to New York. Oxford University Press, 2010.
  2. Morrone, Francis An Architectural Guidebook to Brooklyn. Gibbs Smith, Publisher, 2001.