The club started admitting female members in 1977, and after facing further financial troubles in the late 1990s, sold off part of its building.

After the September 11 attacks on the nearby World Trade Center, blockades in the neighborhood rendered the clubhouse largely inaccessible; the club filed for bankruptcy and then shut down.

The Downtown Club building is located near the southernmost point on Manhattan Island, closer to its western shore.

[4][3] It is bounded by the Whitehall Building (also known as 17 Battery Place) to the south and 21 West Street to the north;[3] both are also New York City designated landmarks, though the landmark designation only applies to 17 Battery Place's western and southern sections.

[1] The surrounding neighborhood, the Financial District, was the first part of Manhattan to be developed as part of New Netherland and later New York City; its population growth led city officials to add land on Manhattan's shore by filling and land reclamation in the 18th and 19th centuries.

[1] As the North River shoreline was deeper and had a denser concentration of buildings than the East River shoreline on the east side of Manhattan Island,[8] the land under the Downtown Club building was not filled until 1835, when debris from the Great Fire of New York was dumped there.

[9] The site of the Downtown Athletic Club was first occupied by small landowners who built houses in the area.

[11][12] The two buildings were constructed for different purposes and accordingly have different appearances; namely, the facade of the Downtown Athletic Club is darker than that of 21 West Street.

[11] Starrett & van Vleck had already designed several New York City department stores, including the Lord & Taylor, Bloomingdale's, and Saks Fifth Avenue buildings.

[1] The design of an athletic club in a skyscraper was characterized by architect Rem Koolhaas as an "instrument of the Culture of Congestion".

[17] The facade of the Downtown Athletic Club building consists of mottled, patterned orange brick that is used to provide texture.

[8] On all sides, the 35th story has a brick band, chevrons above each of the window bays, and a parapet with limestone caps.

There is a three-story mechanical tower above the northern part of the roof, with decorative brickwork and three recessed brick panels on each of its four facades.

[1][24] The rooms had been occupied by guests such as boxer Muhammad Ali, baseball players Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle, comedian Bob Hope, and Heisman Trophy winners.

[8][24] Design elements included "unusual lighting" as well as Meso-American style murals and geometrically patterned flooring.

"[24] The Downtown Athletic Club was organized on September 10, 1926,[29] by a group of lawyers led by Schuyler Van Vechten Hoffman.

[18][31] The club was geared toward businessmen, lawyers, and other white-collar workers of the Financial District and other Lower Manhattan neighborhoods.

[24] The construction of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company's elevated railroad lines and later the New York City Subway had spurred the relocation of the area's residential population uptown in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

[34] The Downtown Athletic Club already had 1,000 members when it formally announced plans for a clubhouse in February 1928.

[1][32] The new structure would include facilities for numerous sports,[32] and Starrett & van Vleck were selected as the new clubhouse's architects.

In the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929, many people in that demographic could no longer pay for the cost of membership.

[18] The Downtown Athletic Club reacquired title to the building in 1950, having signed a 10-year mortgage with the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company.

For instance, a bar was added to the restaurant after the repeal of Prohibition, and the 15th-story dining room was expanded westward in 1952 to align with the lower stories' facades on West Street.

[48] One such proposal called for the building to be redeveloped as the "Hotel Heisman", with an interior redesign by Rafael Viñoly.

Under the plan, "at least 13" floors on the lower part of the building, which contained athletic facilities, would be retained by the club.

The Connecticut-based firm Cheslock Bakker Associates would renovate the club's bedrooms on the upper floors into a commercial hotel.

[25] At the time, the upper floors were undergoing renovations, and all the windows were open, which caused debris and other material to seep into the building.

In addition, the building's abandonment led to gradual deterioration of other elements such as peeling paint, burst water pipes, and malfunctioning elevators.

[26] In mid-2003, the Downtown Athletic Club formally turned over the mortgage on 20 West Street and vacated the building completely.

[55] The structure's amenities included a 12,000-square-foot (1,100 m2) fitness center, lounge with pool table, and outdoor terrace.