New Yorkers and beyond can now own a rare piece of the city’s history at the top of one of its iconic landmarks—The Woolworth Building. Designed by Cass Gilbert, the famed American architect who designed the U.S. Supreme Court Building and other civic structures in the country, the Woolworth Building was completed in 1913, the year it was crowned the world’s tallest building at 792 feet tall, according to the Skyscraper Museum.
Set in the Tribeca neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, the Gothic-style skyscraper houses a collection of luxury residences, including Residence 40 (2 Park Place, 40) on its 40th floor, which is now on sale for $18.5 million. The private office of Frank W. Woolworth, the founder of the Woolworth Company, has been transformed into a sprawling 4-bedroom, full-floor home spanning over 6,000 square feet, offering views from 516 feet above City Hall Park.
It is the only residence in the building that features soaring 15-foot ceilings and the building's original polychromatic terra-cotta detailing surrounding the windows, Catherine Juracich from The Corcoran Group, the lead real estate agent behind the listing, told Newsweek. Supreme Court building in Washington and several other high-profile civic commissions.” The Woolworth Building residence sale follows a rise in major historical building conversions, especially in New York City, such as the Flatiron Building, the iconic 1902 skyscraper that’s being converted into luxury apartments. Earlier this year, the building was illuminated for the first time in its 124-year history, with a new exterior lighting installation.
More recently, in September, plans for a milestone conversion of Brooklyn's 1909 Hotel Bossert into the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Brooklyn Heights, were unveiled. The conversions come amid a growing call for the adaptive reuse and improvement of existing buildings, in place of new construction. The trend is accelerating.
According to RentCafe, nearly 25,000 apartments were created from repurposed buildings in 2024, a 50 percent increase from the previous year. In June, Gordon Gill, the architect behind the Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia, which will be the world’s tallest building upon completion, told Newsweek that “the greatest opportunity in the U.S. for innovation is in the programming of cities,” noting that the real potential lies in rethinking what we already have. He said maintaining and refreshing existing building stock is vital for sustainability and for avoiding obsolescence.
According to the American Institute of Architects (AIA), nearly half of America’s 125 million buildings are more than 50 years old, highlighting the sheer scale of existing structures that could be reimagined. The conversions also come with environmental benefits. The AIA has found that reusing buildings can avoid 50 to 75 percent of the carbon emissions associated with new construction.
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