Dime Savings Bank Of New York Featured In Interior Design Exhibit

Heather Chin -
The historic Dime Savings Bank of New York, at 9 DeKalb Avenue, is one of dozens of spaces included in a new exhibition of landmarked interiors that is being featured in Manhattan through April 24, at the New York School of Interior Design gallery at 170 East 70th Street.

Built in 1908, the building’s exterior resembles a Greek temple and the interior is full of inlaid marble and “a central rotunda with 12 gigantic columns surrounding a 52-foot-wide dome,” described the Wall Street Journal, which added that the top of the columns featured large dimes.

The bank building—which is now on the market—and the theater owe their survival largely to a provision added in 1973 to the city’s landmark law: protection for notable interior spaces open to the public.
Interiors bestowed landmark status included 14 of the city’s oldest subway stations, Radio City Music Hall, and the extravagant Art Deco lobby of the Film Center Building on Ninth Avenue.
[The exhibit] was scheduled to coincide with the 50th anniversary of New York City Landmarks Preservation Law.