1 Front St Brooklyn NY 11201

The high two-story Long Island Safe Deposit Company Building, located at 1 Front Street, is a cast-iron Italianate structure with a diagonally placed entrance at the corner of Old Fulton and Front Streets in Brooklyn. The 1868 building stands in the shadow of Roebling’s masterpiece, and one can only imagine how grand it seemed at the time of its completion. The importance of maintaining it in its original form and the role it plays in the city’s history was solidified with the designation of the Old Fulton Ferry Historic District in 1977.
The mark of good design can often be expressed in what is not done, rather than what is. In the case of the building at 1 Front Street, a building we have been involved with since the 1980s, we are proud of our efforts and success in maintaining the original character of this historic building, which plays a significant role in the evolution of New York City and the borough of Brooklyn from 1868, decades before the erection of the Brooklyn Bridge.
One of the primary efforts in being the architect for the building has been staying with it throughout the various tenancies and uses, and convincing every tenant in turn to invest in its upkeep. Most recently, the famous Grimaldi’s pizzeria has made its home here, moving over from its previous location two buildings down.
The unexpected union of a historic icon on the one hand and a tourist Mecca on the other created several challenges, the primary one being the installation of a Brock coal-burning pizza oven, which was built away from the large, articulated arched windows to maintain the façade’s clarity and keeping all chimneys and aparatures as remotely from the cornices as possible, and maintaining the same brick as the exposed interior brick walls. The brick oven blends in with the existing interior, featuring exposed brick walls with slight variations in color for historical authenticity.