Category Archives: New York

New York City

United Nations

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The fledgling United Nations took great pains to demonstrate international cooperation (and independence) in the design of its headquarters. But by some accounts, the world’s architectural elite were as combative as a room full of generals.

As New York Magazine summed it up:

“The pragmatic New Yorker Wallace K. Harrison found himself placating squabbling visionaries. Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer, in particular, fought over the shape, number, and orientation of the buildings, whether the glass curtain wall should include a sun-shading grid of stone, and — most ferociously — who got credit for what. Le Corbusier complained to his mother of the ‘apparent kidnapping of [his] U.N. project by USA gangster Harrison.'”

The result was a landmark that influenced skyscraper architecture throughout New York – and worldwide.

I’m fascinated by the buildings’ changing personalities, depending on your vantage point and the time of day.

It’s a minor miracle that the United Nations has managed to accommodate its membership over the years. In 1947 the U.N. had 57 members, and building plans allowed for growth to 70 members. In 1964, expansion allowed for 126 members. The assembly was expanded again in 1980, and the U.N. now has 193 members. The U.N. is in the last months of renovating its headquarters. The six-year program (to be completed in 2014) removed asbestos, rewired, added sprinklers and fire alarm systems, even replaced the famous glass walls. Fortunately (for traditionalists), the world body chose to preserve the buildings’ appearance. It’s a massive project: The original construction cost $65 million; the renovation will cost $1.8 billion.

United Nations Vital Statistics
  • Location: First Avenue (United Nations Plaza), E 42nd to E 48th Street
  • Year completed: 1952
  • Architect: Oscar Niemeyer, Le Corbusier, Harrison & Abramovitz with Nikolai G. Bassov, Gaston Brunfaut, Ernest Cormier, Liang Seu-Cheng, Sven Markelius, Sir Howard Robertson, G. A. Soilleux, and Julio Vilamajo
  • Floors: 39 (Secretariat)
  • Style: International
United Nations Recommended Reading

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Lucerne

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The Lucerne Hotel is distinctive for its bold color as well as its bold Beaux Arts style and uptown location.

Opened in 1904 as the Hotel Lucerne, the building was converted to a condominium (not to be confused with Lucerne Apartments on East 79th Street). It’s a hotel again – with the name reversed to Lucerne Hotel.

During a 1999/2000 restoration, the owners replaced a missing cornice (on the Amsterdam Avenue facade) and refinished the terra cotta.

Lucerne Vital Statistics
  • Location: 201 W 79th Street at Amsterdam Avenue
  • Year completed: 1904
  • Architect: Harry B. Mulliken
  • Floors: 12
  • Style: Beaux Arts
Lucerne Recommended Reading

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425 Lexington Avenue

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425 Lexington Avenue bears the unmistakable earmarks of Helmut Jahn – strong colors, glass and stone, unusual forms. But it would be architecture better received if built anywhere but amidst New York landmarks Chrysler Building, Grand Central Terminal, Chanin Building, etc.

Architectural critics such as Carter Horsley (The City Review) and Norval/White (“AIA Guide to New York City”) pick on the tower’s “squashed” top. Said Horsley: “…the building’s zany top looks Roto-Rooterized, a squished foil to the irrepressible upward thrust of the Chrysler Building just across 43rd Street.” To which Norval/White adds, “…an ugly dwarf next to the venerable reality of the adjacent Chrysler Building.” (I like it, but what do I know?)

But Horsley concludes, “Hopefully, New York developers will continue to let Jahn do his thing until he gets it right for he’s formidable. He is a fine high-tech stylist.”

Murphy/Jahn has similarly styled buildings uptown: International Plaza and Park Avenue Tower. (His other New York designs include CitySpire and the America apartment tower.)

425 Lexington Avenue Vital Statistics
  • Location: 425 Lexington Avenue between E 43rd and E 44th Streets
  • Year completed: 1987
  • Architect: Helmut Jahn
  • Floors: 31
  • Style: Postmodern
425 Lexington Avenue Recommended Reading

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17 State Street

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17 State Street is a stunning curved mirror-glass tower opposite Battery Park, framed in aluminum. The curved facade is not just for theatrics: that’s the shape of the lot, where State Street decides to switch from running north-south to east-west. The building floor plan resembles a quarter of a pie. Up close, you’ll also notice that there is no real first floor – just a glass-enclosed lobby (much like the Lever Building) and elevators; the building rests on cross-braced aluminum-clad columns.

The site has some history: it was the site of the Seaman’s Church Institute, and also the site of the house where Herman Melville was born, in 1819.

17 State Street Vital Statistics
  • Location: 17 State Street at Pearl Street
  • Year completed: 1988
  • Architect: Emery Roth & Sons
  • Floors: 41
  • Style: Postmodern
17 State Street Recommended Reading

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Flatiron Building

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The Flatiron Building isn’t the only triangular building in New York, but it’s undoubtedly the best recognized – perhaps for its ornate decoration as well as for its quirky shape.

The 21-story steel-frame skyscraper is at the northern end of the Ladies Mile shopping district, considered “uptown” when built in 1902. Folk lore has it that those ladies were frequent victims of the Flatiron Building: It created unpredictable winds that sent skirts billowing. Police had to disperse oglers – coining the phrase “23 skidoo” in the process.

Like other early skyscrapers, Flatiron Building had a tripartite design – modeled after a classical column with a distinct base, shaft and capital. All three facades are ornamented from top to bottom – including statuary at the 21st floor.

The building’s owner, George A. Fuller, insisted on the glass-and-iron “cowcatcher” store – over the objections of the architect. And apparently the 21st floor penthouse was also a last-minute addition; the building’s elevators only go up to 20.

If you think the Flatiron Building is quirky on the outside, read The New York Times’ column about life on the inside.

Flatiron Building is just one of more than two dozen architectural landmarks within a few blocks radius. Flatiron 23rd Street Partnership conducts free walking tours every Sunday at 11 a.m. – meet at the SW corner of Madison Square Park, in front of the William Seward statue. (You may also enjoy our earlier gallery, “Flatiron Building and Vicinity.”)

Flatiron Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 175 Fifth Avenue/949 Broadway at E 23rd Street
  • Year completed: 1902
  • Architect: Daniel H. Burnham
  • Floors: 21
  • Style: French Renaissance
  • New York City Landmark: 1966
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1979
Flatiron Building Recommended Reading

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Alwyn Court Apartments

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Alwyn Court Apartments is undoubtedly the most decorated building in New York: Gray terra cotta covers every foot of the 12-story building. When the building opened in 1909 it was as opulent inside as it is outside. Each apartment (two to a floor) had 14 rooms and five baths – except for the 32-room apartment!

The building had a stroke of bad luck just months after opening, when only five apartments were occupied – a fire damaged some of the upper floors. The building was repaired and filled quickly, but dropped out of fashion in the late 1930s. And the Great Depression didn’t help. The bank foreclosed and reconfigured Alwyn Court as 75 much smaller apartments under direction of architect Louis H. Weeks. The main entrance on the corner was converted to retail space (now the Petrossian restaurant); the former service entrance on Seventh Avenue is now the main entrance.

As part of a co-op conversion, the building’s facade was cleaned and restored in 1980 by Beyer Blinder Belle, an architectural firm specializing in historic preservation.

The fire-breathing dragons at the corner entry (and elsewhere) are actually salamanders; a crowned salamander was the emblem of Francis I, King of France. (The same emblem graces Red House, another apartment building designed by Harde & Short.)

Alwyn Court Vital Statistics
  • Location: 180 W 58th Street at Seventh Avenue
  • Year completed: 1909
  • Architect: Harde & Short
  • Floors: 12
  • Style: French Renaissance
  • New York City Landmark: 1966
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1979
Alwyn Court Recommended Reading

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Brooklyn Public Library

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Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Library was 35 years in the making – a case of municipal overreaching. Brooklyn’s pride was on the line – former Brooklyn Mayor David A. Boody was the library president. The grandiose plan began in 1906 with sending the chief architect, the consulting architect and the chief librarian to Europe for a 19-city tour to study 24 libraries. The following year, architect Raymond F. Almirall proposed a Beaux Arts design. The library’s board and the city’s Municipal Art Commission approved the plans, but construction didn’t begin until 1911.

Financial support soon became a political issue, and as early as 1914 city administrations were balking at paying the library’s enormous cost. In October 1930 – 19 years after groundbreaking – the library was only one third complete.

A new library administration in 1933 abandoned the grandiose four-story Beaux Arts design in favor of a less expensive three-story modern plan. In 1935 the directors chose new architects: Alfred Morton Githens and Francis Keally. They unveiled new plans in 1937; the city approved the plans in 1938, and construction resumed in 1939. Githens and Keally used the foundations and first three floors of the steel frame, but scrapped most of the existing masonry and ornament. In just under two years, they completed the project.

Brooklyn Public Library Vital Statistics
  • Location: 10 Grand Army Plaza (junction of Eastern Parkway and Flatbush Avenue)
  • Year completed: 1941
  • Architect: Alfred Morton Githens & Francis Keally
  • Floors: 3
  • Style: Beaux Arts / Art Moderne
  • New York City Landmark: 1997
  • National Register of Historic Places: 2002
Brooklyn Public Library Recommended Reading

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Standard Oil Building

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The Standard Oil Building began as a 10-story, 86-foot-wide structure in 1885 – just 21 years after the Civil War. But as Standard Oil grew, so did the building: In five stages, it extended north by 27 feet and south by almost 400 feet to Beaver Street and grew to 29 stories. The piece-by-piece construction was dictated by the pace of acquiring and demolishing adjoining properties. The building expanded again in 2011-2012 with the addition of a two-story gymnasium, which filled in a portion of the Beaver Street light court. The gymnasium was needed by one of the three NYC public schools that now occupy seven lower floors.

The shape of the Standard Oil Building is as complex as its construction history – the 16-story base is five-sided, with a curved transition to follow the curve of Broadway as it joins Whitehall Street. The 13-story tower seems misaligned with the building when viewed from the southwest (the best view), but it is actually aligned with the original building’s northern edge.

Material and stylistic details also reveal the piece-by-piece construction. For example, the original brick and granite shows on the New Street (eastern) facade; newer sections are clad in limestone. Some limestone blocks have rounded edges, others are sharply angled; different styles of columns and pilasters are used in the upper stories.

Standard Oil Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 26 Broadway at Beaver Street
  • Year completed: 1928
  • Architect: Thomas Hastings (Carrère and Hastings) with Shreve, Lamb and Blake
  • Floors: 29
  • Style: Renaissance Revival
  • New York City Landmark: 1995
Standard Oil Building Recommended Reading

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45 East 66th Street

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45 East 66th Street is a striking Gothic-embellished apartment building designed by Harde & Short, built of red brick with white terra cotta ornament. The 10-story Madison Avenue landmark has a distinctive corner tower (like Harde & Short’s Alwyn Court) and a tall cornice; the colors and ornamentation are similar to the architects’ Red House.

Originally, the luxury building had just two apartments on each floor. The building’s entrance was in the base of the corner tower, and there were no stores. In 1928, new owners moved the entry to East 66th Street (where it is now) and converted ground floor apartments to more lucrative stores. A few years later the owners began subdividing apartments – there are now 33 in the 10-story building.

45 East 66th Street Vital Statistics
  • Location: 45 E 66th Street at Madison Avenue
  • Year completed: 1908
  • Architect: Harde & Short
  • Floors: 10
  • Style: Gothic Revival
  • New York City Landmark: 1977
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1980
45 East 66th Street Recommended Reading

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