Company and Gilbert submitted documents to the New York City Department of Buildings, proposing a 23-to-28 story office building that would cost about $2 million to build. Architecture professor Sharon Irish identified "fourteen preliminary sketches that include plans, elevations, and perspectives" for the building, varying in their level of detail. The design had to attract the more than 100,000 ferry passengers that traveled between New Jersey and New York each day, many of whom would visit the building's rooftop. The building's construction started in April 1906 and the structure was finished the next year. 20th-century use According to a pamphlet for the West Street Building, "the building commends itself particularly to railroads, engineers, dock builders, contractors, lawyers, shippers, and machinery and electrical trades". The main tenant was the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, which operated both the nearby Cortlandt Street Ferry Depot as well as Hoboken Terminal across the Hudson River. This led to the building being nicknamed the "Railroad and Iron Exchange Building" and alternatively as the "Coal and Iron Building". The top floor was occupied by Garret's Restaurant, which was touted as the "world's highest restaurant" and was later characterized as the forerunner to World Trade Center's Windows on the World restaurant. Other tenants included West Street Improvement Company's own members, including Carroll's firm Sicilian Asphalt Paving Company as well as the John Peirce Company. The American Sugar Refining Company (ASR) bought the West Street Building from the West Street Improvement Company in 1913 for $2.3 million, as part of a larger real-estate transaction worth $4.5 million. As partial payment, ASR sold some property in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, as well as some property in Brooklyn. The ASR held the West Street Building as an investment, occupying a small portion of the structure. By 1920 the West Street Building was estimated to be worth $3.5 million, though ASR initially refused to sell. In 1923, the Brady Security and Realty Corporation bought the building from ASR, and the West Street Building subsequently became the Brady Building. The elevators, first-floor interior, office space and mechanical systems were refurbished during the early 1930s. During the renovation, the original first-floor interior's arches and groin vaults were removed, and the facade received some modifications. Further modifications in the mid-20th century resulted in the renovation of the entrances and storefronts, as well as the addition of exterior nighttime lighting and air-conditioning