Asch Building
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Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
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(2011)
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| Location | 23-29 Washington Pl, Manhattan, New York City |
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| Coordinates | 40°43′48″N 73°59′45″W / 40.73000°N 73.99583°WCoordinates: 40°43′48″N 73°59′45″W / 40.73000°N 73.99583°W |
| Built | 1900-01 |
| Architect | John Woolley |
| Architectural style | Neo-Renaissance |
| NRHP reference # | 91002050 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | July 17, 1991 |
| Designated NYCL | March 25, 2003 |
The Brown Building is a ten-story building that is part of the campus of New York University (NYU), which owns it. It is located at 23-29 Washington Place, between Greene Street and Washington Square East in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, and is best known as the location of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire on March 25, 1911, which killed 146 people.
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was named a National Historical Landmark in 1991. It was designated a New York City landmark in 2003.
The iron and steel building was constructed in 1900–01, and was designed by John Woolley in the neo-Renaissance style. It was named the Asch Building after its owner, Joseph J. Asch. During that time, the Asch Building was known for its "fireproof" rooms, which attracted many garment makers, including the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, which was the site of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that killed 146 garment workers on March 25, 1911.
The majority of the workers who occupied the Asch Building were female immigrants. The immigrants came to the United States for a better life, although they were working in terrible conditions within the factory and were underpaid. The building's top three floors were occupied by Russian immigrants who went by the names Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, and were the owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.
Even though the immigrants were provided a job, their work environment was not safe. Rooms were overcrowded with few working bathrooms and no ventilation, resulting in conditions ranging from sweltering heat to freezing cold. In regards to work conditions, the Asch Building at the time did not comply with several requirements that were needed to ensure the safety of the building. The rooms in the upper three floors were packed with flammable objects, including clothing products hanging from lines above workers' heads, rows of tightly spaced sewing machines, cutting tables bearing bolts of cloth, and linen and cotton cuttings littering the floors, that resulted in a massive spread of fire occurring in the matter of seconds. The water hose was not installed properly to the water tower, due to the lack of understanding on behalf of the owners. The owners installed a fire escape that was not durable enough to hold many people, and there were no sprinklers installed in the building. The rooms on each floor were overcrowded because there was no limit at the time as to how many people could occupy one floor. The staircases did not have landings and the stairwells were poorly illuminated, resulting in unsafe, often dark conditions in the stairwells.
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