Germania Bank Building Shows off New Windows on the Bowery

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​The Germania Bank Building is another leap closer to its sanitized vision. Most of the progress at 190 Bowery is hidden behind construction materials. Until this week, when half its scaffolding was carted away. It took some three months, but all the replacement window glass is now in place. Down on street level – the Spring Street front – we have clear view of the arched housings. No longer boarded up and graffitied over.

Meanwhile, there’s a new plywood enclosure that protects the ADA-compliant doorway punched through the Spring Street facade. This latest development is the first major exterior change to the building in decades.

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190 Bowery side entrance rendering

Aby Rosen purchased the 1898 vintage Germania Bank Building – a city-designated landmark – for $55 million in September 2014. It was reported last June that Rosen gave the Maisel family (previous owners) six months to “find a new home.” After the ejection, he notes that Maisel left behind a trove of junk, including five thousand screwdrivers (“all lined up”) and issues of Penthouse, Hustler, and Playboy catalogued from 1956 to 1982. The photographer denied those claims, though.

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All the exterior modifications were approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in May 2015. As previously reported, architecture firm Higgins Quasebarth & Partners joined MdeAS Architects to implement the makeover project, which calls for restoration of metal gates, wooden doors, stained glass, in addition to the ADA-compliant entrance.