Look Up: Swallowing Snakes in SoHo at 484 Broome

Once the home for the experimental art center The Kitchen, 484 Broome Street is a curious and striking building in the middle of the SoHo cast-iron district. Built of red brick and rusticated stone, this warehouse building is strangely decorated for its type. Supporting the large three storey arched windows are examples of Ouroboros, serpents eating their tails, a symbol of infinity. Designed by Alfred Zucker in 1890, who built several NYC landmarks including the main NYU building, Hemmerdinger Hall, this building is a variant of the standard Romanesque Revival of the period.

Known as Rundbogenstil, literally Round-arch style in German, this modified method was established by Heinrich Huebsch in the early 1800s. What sets it apart from other Romanesque designs is the typical inverted crenellations that are found under the roof eave. Incidentally, this style was common for many Central European Synagogues and this was how it first found its way to the United States. However, Zucker’s building on Broome was to serve solely as a warehouse.

What makes this building unique is the diversity of decorative motifs. The serpents and figures are carved from heavy blocks, while the knots in the twisted rope below the lintel are fine and thin. The Broome street façade is light and open, with the large arches and framed windows above, whereas the Wooster street façade is significantly heavier, with its squared punched openings. This affect is only furthered by the vertical line of windows near the end that were subsequently blocked in, presumably for an elevator. Also, it is worth noting that the ornaments at this end were never finished; the stone blocks remain in their rough form.

Centered in the frame are the arched windows adorned with Ouroboros.

A closer look at one of the Ouroboros.

The figures are large and imposing, part of the reason for the building's heaviness.

However, the heaviness is contrasted by fine, delicate ornamentation such as this.

The lower portion of the 484 Broome suggests the heaviness of the structure.

Each thick brick is a contrast to the intricate details that make up 484 Broome's upper half.

The delicacy of the structure's roof capture in a single photo.