A Prewar Building's History Becomes an Amenity

Rosario Candela, Emery Roth, Ralph Walker — apartments in buildings designed by these and other giants of early 20th-century architecture have long come with built-in cachet. But beyond a recognizable name, what history lurks beneath?

Developers of some condominium conversions are now enlisting architectural historians to help dig up the past and put their buildings, and the lives of the architects who created them, in context — so the history can be shared with potential buyers.

At 49 Chambers Street, a 99-unit condominium with prices starting at $1.65 million, the Chetrit Group commissioned Thomas Mellins, a writer, curator and co-author of three books on New York’s architectural history with Robert A.M. Stern and others, to plunge into the building’s history.

Originally built for the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank in 1912, the 14-story Beaux-Arts building was designed by Raymond F. Almirall, a promising New York architect who had trained at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, but whose career didn’t reach quite the same heights as his contemporaries.

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