The building at 53-61 Gansevoort is a distinctive triangular structure in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, nicknamed “the Prow Building” due to its curved point. Built in 1887 for ES Burnham & Co, a clam cannery, it has retained its original exterior, including remnants of its clam chowder past. Over the years, it has housed various businesses and remains a historic landmark, blending old charm with modern functionality.
Check out the sources below for the history of the building:
- Little Flatirons
- Decoding the words on a mystery faded food ad in the Meatpacking District
- Burnham’s Beef Wine Iron?
While the overall structure and appearance of the building have remained largely unchanged, there have been some alterations over the years. The red brick facade has stayed the same, and the original cornice, removed in the 1950s, was restored post-2000. The previously prominent fire escapes in the center were also removed under new ownership. An elevator was added in the 1950s, along with a rooftop structure to house the machine room. More recently, a penthouse was constructed at the northern end of the building to accommodate the guest services of a rooftop swimming pool with bar.
While searching for a structure with a triangular footprint that would fit onto a specific location of my Westside and New York Central Railroad layout I came across this building. I liked it immediately due to its shape, its round corner and the unique cornice that would give me some headache as a modeler. My plan is to combine the Prow Building with the small building on 3 Ninth Avenue (building next to it on the rightmost photo above) and at least one other structure from Little W12th Street and Washington Street. This will give me a small block of typical commercial structures in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan.
Design and Construction
My model is a 60% compressed version of the prototype in width and depth. I built the ground level and the second to fifth story heights to scale. The front proportions are very close to the prototype. On the western side, I added windows where the prototype has only a plain brick wall. To comply with NMRA merit award evaluation rules, I also fully modeled the north and northeast facades as brick walls, even though much of them would normally be hidden by adjacent structures I had planned to add.
I began with the main facade facing Gansevoort Street, using a straightforward layered design. A base of 1/16″ MDF covered by .020″ laser board engraved with a brick pattern. Beneath the MDF I placed the window layer. The prototype’s arrangement of three groups of five windows from the second to fifth floors also needed compression. I translated them into three groups of three windows, plus one on the curved wall. I carefully calibrated the laser for engraving mortar lines, then printed, painted, and added the mortar before cutting the board. This gave the wall a consistent texture with minimal noise. I glued the engraved board onto the MDF wall and added the window layer behind it. Only then did I apply the building lettering using a two-stage masking process. To match the look of historical photos from 1940–1980, I ensured the lettering appeared imperfect and partially faded.
On the right side of the wall, I cut the MDF base into 1/4″ wide strips, while keeping the laser board as a single piece covering the rounded corner. When I press-fitted the finished facade onto the MDF bracing, I could bend the laser board into the required curve without breaking it. Once glued in place, it gave me the perfectly rounded corner featured on the prototype.
Walls Not Facing Gansevoort Street
I built the remaining three walls either with 1/16″ brick sheets or with 1/32″ brick walls from Monster Model Works. The 1/32″ thick sheets I additionally glued to 1/32″ basswood. The MMW walls have an excellent brick texture that is easy to paint and weather. As before, I painted them before cutting them on the laser. On the south facade—facing what, on my layout, would be Washington Street—I added windows. Note that the prototype wall on that side is windowless. Since the building has no protruding bay piers to hide the connecting tabs for walls and floors, I had to come up with other methods for connecting these walls to the internal bracing.
The corners between the front facade and the west and northeast facades needed no special treatment, as the top .023″ laser board layer would hide them. By contrast, the west–north corner would have been exposed if I had simply overlapped two 1/16″ brick walls. I solved this with a 1/16″ × 1/16″ basswood dowel, brick-engraved on two sides, glued tight to both facades to avoid visible seams.
Internal Structure
To improve the strength, avoid warping, and eliminate a large hollow interior, I added floors along with two vertical lateral walls. Walls and floors interlock making the structure very rigid. At street-level, the walls made of 1/16″ acrylic sheet extend through the exterior wall to the front and include very simple columnar ornamentation. Into each floor I inserted two to three 0402 SMD LEDs, set them into pre-drilled holes, and cast them in a blob of hot glue. Once I had the internal structure completely glued and the LEDs wired, I attached the three walls. At that point, my Prow Building was finally taking shape.
Structure Details
To improve the realism and the prototypical fidelity to the original building, I added many details.
- Windows and doors: To increase the depth of the facade, I inserted a separate window frame with an upper sash into each window. This resulted in double-hung windows. The freight and elevator doors are laser-cut and engraved laser board. All windows are glazed with clear plastic. I used scale lumber for lintels and sills.
- Cast-iron Piers: At street level, the facade is framed by cast-iron piers about a foot wide. These vertical supports between the loading dock openings are decorated with column-like ornamentation typical of the period. In the model, I represented them in simplified form by extending the lateral internal walls through to the facade and cutting their projecting outlines from 1/16″ acrylic sheet to suggest the columnar detail.
- Cornice: The prototype features a complex three-dimensional cornice. I emulated its shape and patterns using eight layers of .011″ laser board, carefully cut and laminated with PVA glue. I then dry-brushed the black spray-painted cornice with white acrylic to bring out the detail.
- Fire escape: I designed the fire escapes specifically for this building, working from available photos and adjusting for the applied compression. I laser-cut the parts, assembled them, spray-painted them, added rusty pastel dusting, and finally glued them onto the main facade.
- Awning: Based on historical photos, I determined that the awning was built of corrugated metal sheets mounted on truss-like bracing. I cut simplified longitudinal and lateral trusses from thin laser board and glued them to corrugated sheets. I created both the sheet and trusses on my laser engraver/cutter from .015″ laser board. I spray-painted the sheets bright gunmetal, the braces black, and then lightly weathered the corrugated metal.
- Roof details: Since no prototypical roof details were available, I kept the design simple. I added two small smokestacks, an elevator/roof access structure, and a large aluminum-painted motorized blower from Cornerstone.
Finish and Lettering
- Large lettering on the south facade: I reproduced the sign “Burnham’s Clam Chowder” (visible on the west facade in historic photos) using laser-cut masking tape. I then heavily weathered the lettering until it became almost illegible.
- Lighting: As described earlier, the building has interior lighting on every floor except the ground level. A 12V connector powers the structure. A step-down voltage converter regulates the 3V warm-white LEDs.
- Other details: I added a downspout at the back of the building, which also serves to hide the seam where two brick walls meet.
- Weathering: I gave the brick walls a light application of Pan Pastels for subtle weathering.
With its unusual prow-shaped footprint, the compressed model of 53–61 Gansevoort Street will be the signature structure in my new triangular block. I look forward to adding the other three planned buildings to the group. Together, I hope these four structures will give that part of my layout the authentic small-town character of the Meatpacking District, where modest buildings once stood shoulder to shoulder in a dense, lively ensemble.