Curbed ace Pete Wells turned up at 365 Broadway earlier today, a Beaux Arts-style loft building just the wrong side of the Tribeca East Historic District. Once the home of "one of the poshest spots in town, Taylor's Saloon, the place to be seen in 1859," the six-story building was afforded no protections and thus stripped, chopped up, and lobotomized. An apparently illegal two-story addition was tossed on top, and then some
cheap bricks were thrown on the face.

Of course, the old saw holds that it's not what your building looks like on the outside, it's what your building looks out on. That will happen to be, fingers-crossed, the recession-stalled Five-Franklin Place beauty by Ben Van Berkel. But how one developer could choose to go to such expense for good design while anothe eviscerates it, the Desk is not really sure.

Not even Robert Moses could love this building, and it's hard to believe any buyers wouldn't prefer what was there before, either.

mchaban [at] observer.com / @mc_nyo