Tag Archives: historic

Grand Madison Apartments

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Grand Madison Apartments is now in its third life. It was originally conceived as a replacement for the Brunswick Hotel, but built as offices instead under the name Brunswick Building. Later it became a showroom center, the Gift and Art Center Building. And since 2006, it has been luxury condominium apartments, attracting the likes of Chelsea Clinton and her husband (who have since moved, but I felt like name-dropping).

Curiously, although Grand Madison Apartments overlooks Madison Square Park and the Flatiron Building, the official website identifies instead with Gramercy Park – eight blocks away.

Grand Madison Apartments Vital Statistics
  • Location: 225 Fifth Avenue between E 26th and E27th Streets
  • Year completed: 1907
  • Architect: Francis H. Kimball and Harry E. Donnell
  • Floors: 12
  • Style: Beaux Arts
  • New York City Landmark: June 26, 2001
Grand Madison Apartments Recommended Reading

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Towne House

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Towne House stands out in the Murray Hill Historic District. Amid blocks of low rise brownstones, Towne House towers 25 floors in Art Deco brick. It replaced five mid-1800s row houses, and touched off a lawsuit by neighbors who tried to block construction.

Despite its height and architectural style, at street level the building does blend in with the block; the most remarkable aspect is Towne House’s colorfully detailed tower, which catches the eye from blocks around.

Towne House Vital Statistics
  • Location: 108 E 38th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues
  • Year completed: 1930
  • Architect: Bowden & Russell with Emery Roth
  • Floors: 25
  • Style: Art Deco
  • New York City Landmark: 2002 (part of Murray Hill Historic District)
Towne House Recommended Reading

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Riverside Church

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Riverside Church is the tallest church in the U.S., visible for miles along Riverside Drive and Riverside Park (as is the neighboring General Grant National Memorial). Interestingly, the 392-foot tower isn’t just for the bells – it’s the equivalent of an office building. As The New York Times reported, “The tower was not simply symbolic; it held offices, social rooms, classrooms, a bowling alley, a theater and similar spaces.”

Although Riverside Church is designed in the Gothic style, it is structurally modern: A steel frame, not the too-shallow buttresses, supports the weight of the tower.

Riverside Church Vital Statistics
  • Location: 490 Riverside Drive between W 120 and W 122 Streets
  • Year completed: 1930
  • Architect: Henry C. Pelton and Charles Collens
  • Floors: 22 (equivalent)
  • Style: neo-Gothic
  • New York City Landmark: 2000
  • National Register of Historic Places: 2012
Riverside Church Recommended Reading

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Gilsey House Hotel

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Gilsey House Hotel is one of the last reminders that this stretch of Broadway – between Madison Square and Herald Square – was the social center of the city. There were six theaters on the three blocks between 28th and 31st Streets; so many music publishers were on neighboring 28th Street, the sound of their pianos gave rise to the name “Tin Pan Alley.” A block west, meanwhile, was the notorious “Tenderloin” district of brothels and gambling clubs.

The Gilsey House Hotel was among the most luxurious in the city, but a legal battle between the Gilsey family and the hotel operator shut the property down. In 1911 the Gilsey House Hotel became lofts serving the garment industry. In 1980 the building was converted to condominium apartments, and the facade was restored in 1992 – though missing most of the outer set of columns, which had extended over the building line. (See the Wikipedia article for a photo of the original design.)

Gilsey House Hotel Vital Statistics
  • Location: 1200 Broadway at W 29th Street
  • Year completed: 1871
  • Architect: Stephen Decatur Hatch
  • Floors: 8
  • Style: Second Empire
  • New York City Landmark: 1979
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1978
Gilsey House Hotel Recommended Reading

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St James Building

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St James Building was among the earliest highrise office buildings in the NoMad neighborhood, replacing the St. James Hotel. It is considered among Bruce Price’s most important designs, after Quebec City’s Château Frontenac Hotel.

The St James Building was a favorite home for architects, including Daniel Burnham, Henry Pelton and John Russell Pope – as well as Bruce Price. Remarkably, after more than 115 years the building is still home to dozens of architects.

The steel-framed building follows the traditional base-shaft-capital design; the base and capital are of limestone, with prominent arched windows and bays; the shaft is of brick indented to simulate the deep rusticated joints of stone. Elaborate and massive terra cotta decoration is used throughout.

Architect Bruce Price has another claim to fame: Price invented, patented, and built the parlor bay-window cars for the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Boston and Albany Railroad. (See Wikipedia.)

Historical Note: Washington didn’t sleep here, but Golda Meir worked here in the early ’30s according to “All Around the Town: Amazing Manhattan Facts and Curiosities, Second Edition (Empire State Editions).”

St James Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 1133 Broadway at W 26th Street
  • Year completed: 1898
  • Architect: Bruce Price
  • Floors: 16
  • Style: Beaux Arts
  • New York City Landmark: 2001 (Madison Square North Historic District)
St James Building Recommended Reading

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McIntyre Building

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McIntyre Building is one of New York’s quirky oddities. For starters, people can’t agree on its architectural style, because architect Robert H. Robertson mixed several styles in the design. People don’t always agree on the building’s name – it was built by Ewen McIntyre, but the lobby mosaic spells it “Mac Intyre” – and the typo is how many refer to 874 Broadway. The owner was a druggist, but he never used the building – the ground floor was occupied by a now-defunct bank.

Over the years, occupants sometimes blurred the lines. In the ’60s, people started to live in the building – though it didn’t have a residential occupancy permit. A seventh-floor nightclub, Cobra Club, operated illegally in the ’70s. The club’s trademark snakes reportedly escaped the glass terrariums from time to time, and live snakes were reported on the loose for years after. It’s currently a co-op – and one that’s spent big bucks to preserve the McIntyre Building’s unique style. The residents even paid to restore century-old wooden windows rather than replace them with modern metal sashes.

McIntyre Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 874 Broadway at E 18th Street
  • Year completed: 1892
  • Architect: Robert H. Robertson
  • Floors: 11
  • Style: Romanesque Revival
  • New York City Landmark: 1989 (Ladies Mile Historic District)
McIntyre Building Recommended Reading

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Engine Company 14

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Engine Company 14 is typical of early New York City firehouses – typically ornate, that is. The Department’s official architect, Napoleon Le Brun, made each house different.

The care given to firehouse design reflected the Fire Department’s campaign to raise the department’s professionalism, as it shifted from a volunteer to paid force.

Engine Company 14 Vital Statistics
  • Location: 14 E 18th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues
  • Year completed: 1895
  • Architect: Napoleon Le Brun & Sons
  • Floors: 3
  • Style: Beaux Arts
  • New York City Landmark: 1989 (Ladies Mile Historic District)
Engine Company 14 Recommended Reading

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Hotel York

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Hotel York, converted to rental apartments in 1986, is now known as The York. The Beaux Arts limestone, brick, and terra cotta facade was grievously altered on the ground floor with a pale green glass skin framing storefronts.

On the second story and above, the original terra cotta and iron decoration is in bold relief against the limestone and red brick facade.

At least 18 of Harry B. Mulliken’s hotels and apartment houses, built in 1900-1915, still survive in Manhattan – including The Lucerne.

Hotel York Vital Statistics
  • Location: 488 Seventh Avenue at W 36th Street
  • Year completed: 1903
  • Architect: Harry B. Mulliken
  • Floors: 12
  • Style: Beaux Arts
  • National Register of Historic Places: 2009 (Garment Center Historic District)
Hotel York Recommended Reading

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Chanin Building

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Chanin Building is among New York’s most prominent Art Deco towers (and cater-corner from the most prominent, the Chrysler Building). It was designed by Sloan & Robertson, who also designed the Art Deco Graybar Building, on the next block.

The Chanin Building’s base and its lobby are boldly decorated with terra cotta and bronze. The first story, dedicated to retail shops, is clad in Belgian black marble. That is topped by a bronze frieze depicting evolution from low marine life forms to fish and birds. Two floors of bronze-framed casement windows, set between limestone piers, come next. The fourth floor is clad in a floral patterned terra cotta band. Fourth floor windows align with the bays above, creating vertical lines to emphasize the structure’s height.

One critic – Carter B. Horsley writing in City Review – observed, “It is interesting to note that the Chrysler Building has the city’s greatest crown but a rather prosaic base. Imagine if it had the base of the Chanin Building, or vice versa?”

Above the base, the Chanin Building’s form was largely dictated by New York City’s 1916 zoning law, which required setbacks proportional to the width of the facing streets. From the 17th to the 29th floor the building tapers to a 22-story slab tower, capped by a four-story buttressed crown. The 50th and 51st floors originally held a theater (one line of Chanin’s businesses), and the 54th floor had an open-air observatory. The tower was once (briefly) the third-tallest in New York. Now, it is rarely appreciated.

Chanin the owner was every bit as impressive as Chanin the building – you can read more in the Landmarks Commission’s designation report and in The New York Times article.

Chanin Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 122 E 42nd Street at Lexington Avenue
  • Year completed: 1929
  • Architect: Sloan & Robertson
  • Floors: 56
  • Style: Art Deco
  • New York City Landmark: 1978
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1980
Chanin Building Recommended Reading

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Century Building

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Century Building, since 1995 a Barnes & Noble store, was also associated with publishing when it was built in 1881. Century Publishing Company leased the fifth floor and hung its sign outside – which led to the name. Retailer Aaron Arnold (Arnold Constable Department Store) built the landmark as a speculative venture – no prime tenant was signed.

The NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission cited the structure as “a rare surviving Queen Anne style commercial building.” The Century Building was vacant at the time that the Commission designated it a New York City landmark. Barnes & Noble took it over in 1995, according to Daytonian in Manhattan.

The two-story oriel windows and gambrel roof are quite picturesque from Union Square Park. Although the Century Building extends through to E 18th Street, that facade is relatively plain.

Century Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 33 E 17th Street between Broadway and Park Avenue South
  • Year completed: 1881
  • Architect: J. William Schickel
  • Floors: 7
  • Style: Queen Anne
  • New York City Landmark: 1986
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1997
Century Building Recommended Reading

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