CONTEMPORARY NY
New York Architecture Images-Greenwich Village

The Atrium (Mill's Hotel)

architect

Ernest Flagg, architect, Darius Ogden Mills, developer

location

160 Bleeker St. 

date

1896

style

Chicago School  

construction

 

type

Hotel

 

 

images

 

 

notes

This is the only survivor of a group of three men's hotels built by Mills in New York City. Built as a hostel for poor gentlemen, this block-wide building contained 1,500 tiny rooms available at affordable rates. The hotel was closed during the day to encourage its residents to seek work. The hotel was built in accordance with the 1879 Tenement House Law known as the 'Old Law.' With two 60-square foot airshafts penetrating a structure that occupies four city lots, this building exemplifies Flagg's main proposals for changes in the zoning laws. A major lobbyist for housing reform, Flagg might have been inspired by the layout of the Dakota [1884], or by the apartment buildings he had seen in Paris during his studies abroad.

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