Cass Building, East 23rd Street between Second and
Third Avenues, 1905
By the 1890s, City College, having outgrown its building on 23rd Street
began planning for a new campus. In the meantime, the school had to rent commercial
space in the vicinity. In 1899, two floors of the Metropolitan Life Insurance
building were rented. After two years, this space was insufficient, and the
College abandoned MetLife to lease the Cass Building, a commercial loft building
on 23rd Street that is presently the location of the School of Visual Arts.
