One Audubon

One Audubon, the massive office building that stands on the corner of Audubon and State Streets, was built in 2002 by Kagan Architects and Planners. One Audubon is a very modern building that meets the needs of our society today, and the changes that this plot of land has undergone since 1886 is a wonderful representation of New Haven’s evolving cultural and urban landscapes on a larger scale. Audubon Street was previously known as New Haven’s manufacturing district and was home to many small businesses owned by both native and immigrant families.  The six-story (60,000 square foot) structure you see today was created as an extension of the Granite Square Office Building and Parking Garage that were built in 1988, and together, the buildings span an entire block. At the time, One Audubon was the first state of the art office building that had been erected in ten years, and was created to meet the demand for office and retail space. The façade is made up of polished red granite and ribbons of tinted black glass. A black aluminum grate hides the concrete façade of the parking garage. The Kagan Company builders returned to the original Italian granite quarry to ensure that the granite used to create One Audubon was an exact match to that of the Granite Square building.



Chronologically, the site of One Audubon (this part of, what we now call Audubon Street, was shown as Veto Street until the 1924 Sanborn Map) has seen very little change in built environment between 1886 and today. It appears that the large building seen on the corner of Veto and State Streets in the Sanborn Maps changed in ownership and function, but underwent minimal physical change until 2002 when One Audubon was built. It is unclear when the original building was torn down to make space for the Granite Square Office Building and Parking Garage.



The function of the building on this site seemed very dependent on the transportation industry. The 1886 Sanborn Map depicts “Fleming’s Livery and Carriage House.” The surrounding smaller buildings were devoted to carriage manufacturing and small-scale tenement housing. By 1901, the livery had changed ownership and was now known as, “Galway’s Livery.” The large space was shared by the livery and “Kelsey and Co. Manufacturers of Bicycles.” The surrounding space remained mostly residential, shifting more toward two-family flats rather than boarding houses. The 1924 Sanborn Map shows the large space shared by a 35-car garage, wood working shops, and office space. In the 1973 Sanborn Map the space is shared by an auto repair center, parking garage, and paint shop. In 1968, the city of New Haven created the State Street Redevelopment Plan in response to changes in the manufacturing industry. City planners sought to remove or renovate abandoned and dilapidated buildings on State Street to create a more modern urban environment. The site of One Audubon was included in the redevelopment plan. It is unclear exactly how the space was used between 1973 and 1988, when the Granite Square buildings were built, but the need for office and retail space was recognized by city planners involved in the State Street Redevelopment Plan.