Landmarks Preservation Commission June 27, 2006, Designation List 378 LP-2202 New York and Long Island Coignet Stone Company Building, later the Office of the Brooklyn Improvement Company, 360 Third Avenue (aka 370 Third Avenue, 230 Third Street), Brooklyn. Built 1872-73; William Field and Son, architect. Landmark Site: Borough of Brooklyn Tax Map Block 978, Lot 7. On June 13, 2006 the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing on the proposed designation as a Landmark of the former New York and Long Island Coignet Stone Company Building, and the proposed designation of the related landmark site (Item No. 1). The hearing had been duly advertised in accordance with provisions of law. Four witnesses spoke in favor of designation, including representatives of the Historic Districts Council, the Municipal Art Society, and the Society for the Architecture of the City. Summary A pioneering example of concrete construction in the United States, the New York and Long Island Coignet Stone Company Building is located at the southwest corner of Third Avenue and Third Street in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn. Designed by William Field and Son in 1872, it was originally part of a five-acre factory complex that extended along the Gowanus Canal and the recently constructed 4th Street Basin, from 3rd to 6th Streets. The building was conceived to showcase Beton Coignet, a type of concrete that was patented in France by Francois Coignet during the 1850s and produced at this location. Using molds, rather than chisels and cutting tools, pieces could be fabricated at a cost far lower than natural stone. Though sections of the façade were refaced in the 1960s, two distinct types of cast stone remain visible: pre-cast details and blocks on the upper stories, and a monolithic poured-in-place foundation. It is also likely that the flooring was made from reinforced concrete, using a system devised by Coignet. Despite many prestigious commissions in the metropolitan area, most notably the arches and clerestory windows of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the floors of the Western Union Telegraph Building, and the Cleft Ridge Span in Prospect Park, the stone works struggled and was soon reorganized as the New York Stone Contracting Company. In 1882 the factory closed and up until 1957 it housed the offices of Edwin Clark Litchfield’s Brooklyn Improvement Company, which owned the site and played a central role in borough’s residential and industrial development during the second half of the nineteenth century, especially in the vicinity of Park Slope. Almost entirely forgotten during the twentieth century, the NY and LI Coignet Stone Company was one of the first firms in the nation to industrialize the production of concrete and its former office is the earliest known concrete building in New York City.

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS Concrete The New York and Long Island Coignet Stone Company was established in 1869. Based in Brooklyn, it was the first company in United States to manufacture a type of concrete, commonly called artificial stone, using techniques pioneered in France by Francois Coignet (1814-88). Variously described as an engineer, a chemical engineer, and builder, he played an important role in the development of modern concrete. Though the primary materials he used – sand, lime, cement, and water – were conventional, he developed a system to produce concrete in blocks and large masses, as well as with iron reinforcement.1 In 1855 he proclaimed to the committee of the Exposition Universelle in Paris that the “reign of stone in building construction seems to have come to an end. Cement, concrete and iron are destined to replace it.”2 At the fair he exhibited a house in which every element was made from artificial stone, including the walls, floors, and ornament. These techniques gained international attention and in 1861 he founded the Societe Centrale des Betons Agglomere to erect structures using his own patents. Many examples were viewed

… (truncated, full text in PDF)