Tag Archives: landmark

Madison Belmont Building

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The Madison Belmont Building was a prominent addition to the young “Silk District,” commercial buildings serving the silk industry that replaced the mansions of uptown-bound wealthy New Yorkers. It was among the first in the U.S. to use Art Deco design elements, according to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. The overall design, however, was traditional. Like other tall buildings of the time, the Madison Belmont Building had a base – shaft – capital organization mimicking a classical column.

Although architect Whitney Warren had been exposed to Art Deco concepts while in Paris, it appears that prime tenant Cheney Silk Company also influenced the design. The company had a relationship with Edgar Brandt, a pioneer of the Art Deco style in Paris. Warren picked Brandt to design the iron and bronze framing around the showroom windows of the lower three floors, as well as the entrance doors and grilles.

The white 18th floor was added in 1953 – 29 years after the original construction.

Despite the Madison Belmont Building’s pioneering role, architects Warren & Wetmore are better known for their neo-Renaissance and Beaux Arts works, such as the New York Yacht Club, Grand Central Terminal, New York Central Building (aka Helmsley Building), Steinway Hall, Aeolian, and Heckscher Building (aka Crown Building).

Madison Belmont Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 181 Madison Avenue at E 34th Street
  • Year completed: 1925
  • Architect: Warren & Wetmore
  • Floors: 18
  • Style: neo-Renaissance, with Art Deco decoration
  • New York City Landmark: 2011
Madison Belmont Building Recommended Reading

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261 Fifth Avenue

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261 Fifth Avenue replaced six houses from the mid-1800s; it was used primarily as showrooms and offices of companies in the housewares and carpet industries, according to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission.

The commission also notes that the striking bold terra cotta ornament used by architect Ely Jacques Kahn had “similarities to motifs used by Frank Lloyd Wright.” Which leads to a small bit of irony: Frank Lloyd Wright was the inspiration for Howard Roark, the hero architect in Ayn Rand’s novel “Fountainhead.” But Ayn Rand worked for Kahn (as an unpaid typist) while she was researching the book; she is quoted as saying of Kahn, “As a type, he was Guy Francon.” (Francon was a sycophant in the novel.)

261 Fifth Avenue Vital Statistics
  • Location: 261 Fifth Avenue at E 29th Street
  • Year completed: 1929
  • Architect: Buchman & Kahn
  • Floors: 26
  • Style: Art Deco
  • New York City Landmark: 2001
261 Fifth Avenue Recommended Reading

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275 Madison Avenue

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275 Madison Avenue (originally known as 22 E 40th Street) is an Art Deco landmark in midtown Manhattan. Its polished black granite and silver base continues to be a striking presence more than three quarters of a century after construction. (If only mere mortals had such staying power!)

In contrast to other commercial buildings of the day, 275 Madison had almost no decoration above the base. The tower was promoted as a “shadowless” skyscraper (because there were no projecting cornices, sculptures or other features to cast shadows), though some critics say the lack of ornament was simply a cost-saving measure dictated by the stock market crash. The building’s vertical lines are accentuated by dark columns of windows against a white-brick background.

Architect Kenneth Franzheim is best known for his work in Houston, for Houston-based developer Jesse Jones. It was Jones’ New York-based firm, Houston Properties Corporation, that developed 275 Madison Avenue with New York Trust as the prime tenant. (The bank owned two of the five lots used to build the tower.) In 1933, Johns-Manville Corporation leased 14 floors, so the structure is sometimes called the Johns-Manville Building. However, Johns-Manville already had its own building a block away, on Madison Avenue at E 41st Street.

Despite 275 Madison Avenue’s address, the tower’s main entrance is actually on E 40th Street – and the building was originally known as 22 E 40th Street.

At this writing, 275 Madison Ave. is owned by RFR Realty.

275 Madison Avenue Vital Statistics
  • Location: 275 Madison Avenue at E 40th Street
  • Year completed: 1931
  • Architect: Kenneth Franzheim
  • Floors: 43
  • Style: Art Deco
  • New York City Landmark: 2009
275 Madison Avenue Recommended Reading

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Stewart Building

Manhattan, , , , , , , ,

Stewart Building, in the shadow of Langham Place, narrowly missed being under an office tower; landmark designation saved it, and the Wedgewood-like terra cotta still owns the corner of Fifth Avenue and W 37th Street.

(See The 1914 Stewart Building; A Delicate Work of Ceramic in the Path of a Tower for the full story.)

Architecturally, the Stewart Building’s claim to fame is the unusual mix of Chicago School style and neo-Classical design. The neo-Classical side brings the building’s blue-gray terra cotta cladding. The Chicago Style attributes include the three-part “Chicago Windows,” steel frame, and base-shaft-crown vertical design.

The Stewart Building was originally owned by Robert Walton Goelet – part of one of New York’s wealthiest families, with real estate holdings second only to the Astor family. Architects Warren & Wetmore also designed New York landmarks New York Central Building (aka Helmsley Building), the Heckscher Building, and Steinway Hall, among others. The builder was the George A. Fuller Company, which built thousands of buildings in New York and elsewhere – including the Plaza Hotel, United Nations headquarters, Lever House and Seagram Building.

Stewart Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 402-404 Fifth Avenue at W 37th Street
  • Year completed: 1915
  • Architect: Warren & Wetmore
  • Floors: 8
  • Style: neo-Classical
  • New York City Landmark: 2006
Stewart Building Recommended Reading

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Union Square and Vicinity II

Collections, Manhattan, , , ,

Union Square was once known for political rallies and the annual May Day rally. The park was overrun by druggies in the ’70s. Union Square has since been cleaned up – figuratively and literally – with new fences, new landscaping and new pavement from East 14th Street to East 17th Street. The peddlers are still out in force, though their products are now veggies, art and souvenirs instead of drugs.

While the square itself has gone through a transformation, many of the buildings ringing the park have retained their 19th century appearance. Here are some favorites:

  • One Union Square West aka Lincoln Building; R. H. Robertson, architect; Romanesque Revival; built 1900; NYC Landmark 1988
  • 5-9 Union Square West aka Spingler Building;
  • 31 Union Square West aka Bank of Metropolis Building; Bruce Price, architect; neo-Renaissance; built 1903; NYC Landmark 1988
  • 33 Union Square West aka Decker Building aka Union Building; John H. Edelmann, architect; Venetian/Islamic styles; built 1893; NYC Landmark 1988
  • 41 Union Square West aka Hartford Building; Beaux Arts; built 1895
  • 33 E 17th Street aka Century Building (now Barnes & Noble bookstore);
  • W Union Square Hotel; formerly Germania Life Insurance Company Building
  • 864 Broadway aka McIntyre Building; R. H. Robertson, architect; neo-Gothic; built 1892; in Ladies Mile Historic District

One landmark that didn’t survive is the S. Klein “On The Square” department store that sat empty for many years – now replaced by the Zeckendorf Towers.

Union Square Vital Statistics
  • Location: E 14th to E 17th Streets, between Park Avenue South and Union Square West
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1997
Union Square Recommended Reading

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Decker Building

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Decker Building (aka Union Building) is a delight to look at, and fascinating in its history. The white, 12-story limestone and brick facade is lavishly decorated with lacy terra cotta patterns. The windows – some with Venetian-style Juliet balconies – are elaborate works of art in themselves. And the two-story tower, once topped by a minaret, is filled with Moorish ogee (horseshoe) arches.

As befits such a radical building, the Decker Building was designed by John Edelmann, a Cleveland, Ohio-born anarchist so radical that he was expelled from the Socialist Labor Party. At the time, Edelmann was working for New York architect Alfred Zucker. (Louis H. Sullivan, a much more prominent architect, credited his success to Edelmann.)

The original owner, and tenant until 1913, was The Decker Piano Company. The building was then acquired (and renamed Union Square Building) by Lowenfeld & Prager, which traded the property in 1916. In more recent years, The Union Building reverted to The Decker Building. Andy Warhol’s second “Factory” was located on the sixth floor from 1968 to 1974. This is where, in 1968, playwright Valerie Solanas shot Andy Warhol and art critic Mario Amaya.

The building was sold in foreclosure in 1994 to Windsor Construction Company; architect Joseph Pell Lombardi oversaw restoration of the facade. The building now houses a ground floor store and 18 residential units.

Decker Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 33 Union Square West
  • Year completed: 1893
  • Architect: John H. Edelmann
  • Floors: 12
  • Style: Moorish Revival and Venetian
  • New York City Landmark: 1988
  • National Register of Historic Places: 2003
Decker Building Recommended Reading

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Divine Lorraine Hotel

Philadelphia, , , , , , , ,

Divine Lorraine Hotel is a fabulous Philadelphia ruin awaiting revival – ten blocks east of Philadelphia’s other fabulous ruin, Eastern State Penitentiary.

What earns it a spot in NewYorkitecture.com is that it was a New Yorker who made it Divine in the first place.

This building began life as the Lorraine Apartments – abodes for well-heeled Philadelphians. After a mere six years it was sold and converted to the Lorraine Hotel, a role it filled for almost half a century.

Then along came Harlem’s Reverend Major Jealous Divine, better known as Father Divine, whose Universal Peace Mission Movement bought the hotel in 1948. Divine, a black man who married a white woman at a time when interracial marriage was unthinkable, promptly radicalized the hotel. He renamed it Divine Lorraine Hotel, made it the first integrated U.S. hotel, required men and women (even if married) to stay on separate floors, converted ballrooms to places of worship, and installed a low-cost restaurant for the poor.

Though Father Divine died in 1965, his followers continued the hotel until 2000, when they sold it to developers. In 2006 the building was gutted for renovation, but the project was abandoned until fairly recently. Developer Eric Blumenfeld bought the property at auction in October 2012, with plans to revive it as apartments.

Divine Lorraine Hotel’s architect, Willis G. Hale, was born 1848 in Seneca Falls, N.Y. but moved to Philadelphia in the 1860s. His creations are known as wildly inventive – but few examples survive.

Divine Lorraine Hotel Vital Statistics
  • Location: 1370 Fairmount Avenue at N Broad Street
  • Year completed: 1894
  • Architect: Willis Gaylord Hale
  • Floors: 10
  • Style: Victorian
  • Pennsylvania Historical Landmark: 1994
  • National Register of Historic Places: 2002
Divine Lorraine Hotel Recommended Reading

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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

Manhattan, , , , , , , , ,

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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