The Downtown Athletic Club, also known as the Downtown Club, was a private social and athletic club that operated from 1926 to 2002 at 20 West Street, within the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The Downtown Athletic Club was known for issuing the Heisman Trophy, an annual award for outstanding college football players that was named after John Heisman, the club's first athletic director.
The Downtown Athletic Club was founded in 1926 as an all-male club. The club bought land for their building near the Hudson River in 1927 and completed the structure in 1930. The building was sold off in 1936 following the club's bankruptcy, but was reacquired in 1950. The club started admitting female members in 1977, and after facing further financial troubles in the late 1990s, sold off part of its building. Following the September 11 attacks on the nearby World Trade Center, the surrounding neighborhood was blockaded, and the club closed down, having filed for bankruptcy due to the clubhouse's inaccessibility.
The 35-story Downtown Athletic Club building was designed in the Art Deco style by Starrett & van Vleck, who also designed the adjacent 21 West Street at the same time. The building housed all of the club's athletic activities, as well as living and dining spaces. Its architectural features include several setbacks to allow light to reach the street, as mandated by the 1916 Zoning Resolution, in addition to the design of the brickwork and the different architectural concessions made for the building's various facilities. 20 West Street was designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission as an official city landmark in 2000. The club building was converted to the Downtown Club, a residential building with condominiums, after the club's closure.
Site
The Downtown Club building is located near the southernmost point on Manhattan Island, closer to its western shore. It faces West Street to the west, and Washington Street and the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel portal to the east. The building officially carries the address 20 West Street, but also includes all address numbers on 18-20 West Street, inclusive, and even address numbers on 28-32 Washington Street, inclusive. It is bounded by the Whitehall Building (also known as 17 Battery Place) to the south and 21 West Street to the north; both are also New York City designated landmarks, though the landmark designation only applies to 17 Battery Place's western and southern sections.
The building stands on filled land along the shore of the North River (an archaic name for the southernmost portion of the Hudson River). The surrounding neighborhood, the Financial District, was the first part of Manhattan to be developed as part of New Netherland and later New York City; its population growth led city officials to add land on Manhattan's shore by filling and land reclamation in the 18th and 19th centuries. As the North River shoreline was deeper and had a denser concentration of buildings than the East River shoreline on the east side of Manhattan Island, the land under the Downtown Club building was not filled until 1835, when debris from the Great Fire of New York was dumped there. As a result of the land filling, neighboring buildings such as 21 West Street were constructed without a basement. The site of the Downtown Athletic Club was first occupied by small landowners who built houses in the area. The surrounding neighborhood became a financial and shipping hub during the late 19th century, and as the Financial District became more densely developed, the residential landowners moved uptown and their former lands were replaced with larger commercial buildings.
Architecture
The Downtown Club building was designed in the Art Deco style by Starrett & van Vleck, who simultaneously designed the adjacent 21 West Street in the same style. The two buildings were constructed for different purposes and accordingly have different appearances; namely, the facade of the Downtown Athletic Club is darker than that of 21 West Street. Starrett & van Vleck had already designed several New York City department stores, including the Lord & Taylor, Bloomingdale's, and Saks Fifth Avenue buildings. Including attics, the Downtown Club has 39 above-ground stories and is tall.
As originally designed, the Downtown Club building included different facilities and living spaces on each of its floors: the lower floors were mostly reserved for athletic facilities and the upper floors contained bedrooms. The design of an athletic club in a skyscraper was characterized by architect Rem Koolhaas as an "instrument of the Culture of Congestion".