Union and New Haven Trust Building

The Union
The red-brick Union and New Haven Trust Building as seen from the New Haven Green.
Record height
Tallest in New Haven from 1927 to 1938^[I]
General information
Type	Office
Location	205 Church Street New Haven, Connecticut 06510-2100 United States
Coordinates	41°18′31″N 72°55′26″W / 41.3085°N 72.9238°WCoordinates: 41°18′31″N 72°55′26″W / 41.3085°N 72.9238°W
Completed	1927
Height
Roof	164 ft (50 m)
Technical details
Floor count	13
Floor area	184,480 square feet (17,139 m^2)
References
[1]

The former Union and New Haven Trust Building, located at 205 Church Street in New Haven, Connecticut, was renamed The Union in 2014. Constructed in 1927, this Georgian-Colonial Revival skyscraper was designed by architects Cross and Cross. The building sits on the northeast corner of the historic New Haven Green.

History

Lying on the corner of Elm and Church streets, the site was the home of Richard Perry in the 1640s, who served as secretary to the General Court of the Colony of New Haven.^[2] Built for the Union and New Haven Trust Co. during the Roaring Twenties, the building was designed to reflect the architecture of the Green and its three historic churches; the building's golden cupola intentionally mirrors that of the Green's United Church.^[3] The Union Trust Company moved its headquarters to Stamford in 1981, but kept a branch on the ground floor. The bank was purchased in 1995 by First Union Corporation, which later took the name of its Wachovia acquisition and in 2010 merged into Wells Fargo.^[4] The building's ground floor is still occupied by a Wells Fargo branch.^[5] On March 28, 2013, Cooper Church LLC, a New York-based developer, purchased the 184,480 square-foot building from Hampshire Hotels & Resorts for $13.5 million. The New Haven Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) approved Cooper Church’s proposed zoning variances in June 2013. Construction to convert the former office building to 138 studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom market rate rental apartments began in April 2014.

Future

United Church with Union and New Haven Trust Building in background; The Union building's cupola is a tribute to the Church's golden dome.

Leasing at The Union will commence in spring 2015. The property is managed by FirstService Residential, which provides full-service, professional management services to more than 6,500 properties and over 1.5 million residential units across 21 U.S. states and three provinces in Canada.

References

1. Union and New Haven Trust Building at Emporis
2. Landmark building undergoes repairs- The New Haven Register - Serving New Haven, Connecticut
3. E. M. Brown, New Haven: A guide to architecture and urban design, Yale University Press, 1976.
4. http://www.ct.gov/dob/cwp/view.asp?a=2228&q=296976
5. So Long, Officemates. Hello Hotel? | New Haven Independent