Why does New York City have so many fake buildings? What’s their purpose? We looked into it.

Cheddar Explains

The Secrets Of NYC's Fake Buildings

for my morning runs. One of my favorite routes is to Brooklyn Bridge Park. I know the route at this point like the back of my hand, every building, every town house or at least I thought I did. I recently learned that there's a fake building along the way, an empty townhouse with blacked out windows and zero occupants. And it's been that way for 100 years. But why in a city that's already in short supply of housing. What's a fake building during here. But just as I wanted to learn more about this quote unquote townhouse, I then learned that it wasn't the only one in the city. New york city has a few notable examples and their reasons are wide ranging. The most notable include this townhouse that once upon a time had occupants an entire block of faux townhouses in the Bronx that's never housed a single occupant, a lab on an island once used for pathological research and medicine. This Monstrosity by the M. T. A. In historic Greenwich Village. Two of these four have actually won awards for their achievements in design and architecture, but the other two are the result of the M. T. A. Creating what they felt was necessary. Let's start back at the oddly colored townhouse in Brooklyn Heights known as the shaft house. It was built back in 18 47 as a normal greek revival row house, but in 1907 the inter borough rapid transit company A. K. A. The private operator of new york's original subway system bought the property, emptied the building dug underground and transformed it into a ventilation shaft. The townhouse was in a perfect location being that it was directly above the general Leman Street tunnel. The first underwater subway tunnel connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn. Today, the ventilation shaft doubles as an emergency exit. Armed with equipment that, if needed, can remotely provide air or remove smoke. Should a fire in the subway tunnel occur on the other side of the city. In the Bronx near ST mary's Park, there's an entire row of townhouses that's never had a single occupant. You'd be forgiven if you thought it was a gated community designed by the Switzer group. This four story, 125,000 square foot $300 million property of townhouses merely covers Con Ed's Mott Haven electric substation substations while unpleasant to the I transform voltage from high to low and vice versa. According to subcontracting pre castor jP carrera and sons. The property structural and architectural elements that help blend the massive structure with the urban neighborhood and visually downsize its massive size upon completion. The facility even won the design award for best manufacturing facility from the pre cast, pre stressed concrete institute and over the years, the security gate has had multiple inquiries for apartment openings so clearly the convincing was real. Our next fake building on Roosevelt Island isn't necessarily fake, But it's had its insides completely repurposed. Built in 1892 Strecker Memorial Laboratory was the first institution in the nation devoted exclusively to pathological and bacteriological research. The building, like most of Roosevelt Island, was abandoned in the 1950s, but it was added to the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and then four years later was distinguished as a notable landmark by the sea Landmark Preservation Commission. In 1990 the M. T. A. Decided to house a power conversion substation inside to power the E. And M. Subway lines underground in the 53rd street tunnel. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the building is Page Callie architecture Restoration, which was completed in 2002. The firm won the lucy G. Moses Preservation award from the landmarks Conservancy for its miraculous preservation effort. Fair Warning. This last fake building located in Greenwich village is a doozy named after thomas m Mullery. The founder of the Emigrant Savings Bank Mullery Square is at the intersection of Seventh Avenue, south Greenwich Avenue and West 11th Street. It was once a fenced off triangle of land owned by the M. T. A. But now it's home to this and it looks exactly as the M. T. A. Intended. The 40 foot tall concrete building, complete with fake brick and windows is hiding more of the MTs emergency exhaust fans and an emergency exit. This time for the 7th and 8th Avenue subway lines and it cost a cool $108 million. The MTs. Initial designs were shot down by both the city's landmarks Preservation Committee and the C. B. Two Traffic and Transportation Committee concerned with how the structure would look in the historic neighborhood. Their objections were swift. However, neither group had any legal authority to prevent its construction since the lot was and is owned by the M. T. A. A state level agency and construction began regardless in 2015. These four examples in new york are just a drop in the bucket for all the fake buildings in the world as you can or can't see by now. These facades act as urban camouflage. Generally established to mask unpleasant eyesores such as substations, wires plumbing and structuring beyond that. Their purposes vary but most importantly to convince their neighbors they don't live in an area where dangerous hazards are all around them. Whether it to cover up an electrical substation or to ventilate the underground subway, they're commonplace in other cities such as toronto paris and Chicago. But what is masking these unpleasantries from the general public? Really accomplish well for one the surrounding properties resale value stays intact. I mean would you want to live next door to this? But it's also just good urban design and creates all around safer spaces from curious kids and or tourists their purpose and what they add or take away from cities. It's up for debate but from an architectural and design standpoint it seems they're here to stay