Mink Building

The Mink Building is a five-story German-American style red brick structure at 1361-1369 Amsterdam Avenue between 126th and 128th Streets, in the Manhattanville neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, originally part of a large brewery complex.

The site of the complex at 1361 Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan - predating residential development in Harlem - was chosen due to its relative isolation at the time.

In 1875, David G. Yuengling, Jr. purchased the property in the dense, industrial enclave in the deep valley between Morningside and Hamilton Heights near the Hudson River.

[9] In July 1923, The New York Times reported, A flood of prewar beer was let loose into Harlem sewers yesterday when Federal prohibition officers began the destruction of 836,000 gallons of non-de-alcoholized lager and 4,000 barrels of twelve-year-old ale at the plant of the Bernheimer Schwartz Pilsener Brewing Company, 128th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.

In 2011, Manhattan Community Board 9 tried to put an end to the standoff between preservationists and developers last week, by voting overwhelmingly to remove the building from consideration as a historic landmark.

[14] Current building owner Janus Property Company and Cushman and Wakefield lease approximately 137,000 square feet (12,700 m2) of space to commercial, nonprofit, and civic tenants.

[17] Louis Oberlein, an architect working at the turn of the 20th century designed 1361 Amsterdam Avenue, possibly along with partner, Anthony Pfuend.

Oberlein started his own practice sometime after he was commissioned to design the Bernheimer & Schwartz Pilsener Brewing Company, the complex which included the Mink Building.

The form of the Mink Building derives largely from its original use as a brewery owned by German-Americans, and especially from its architect, Louis Oberlein.

The Mink Building contains concrete slab floors supported by interior columns and load bearing masonry exterior walls.