Tag Archives: Manhattan

Lefcourt Colonial Building

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Lefcourt Colonial Building was among the last buildings developed by Abraham Lefcourt, one of New York’s “rags to riches to rags” stories.

Now known as 295 Madison Avenue, the 45-story Neo-Gothic tower is an architectural landmark without the official title. The distinctive blue terra cotta medallions and gilded finials are visible from most of midtown. The street level retail space and lobby have been thoroughly modernized, but above that, the six-story base is richly decorated with terra cotta, false balustrades and layered brickwork.

Lefcourt Colonial was auctioned off in foreclosure just two years after it was completed, as the Great Depression demolished Abraham Lefcourt’s real estate and banking empire. And the day after the Lefcourt Colonial was sold – for $3.5 million – the Sevilla Towers faced the same fate. Sevilla Towers was the Lefcourt-built apartment hotel, completed but not yet opened, now known as the Essex House.

Lefcourt Colonial has something in common with the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building and Statue of Liberty: You can buy a cast replica of the structure!

Lefcourt Colonial Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 295 Madison Avenue at E 41st Street
  • Year completed: 1930
  • Architect: Charles F. Moyer Co., Bark & Djorup
  • Floors: 45
  • Style: Neo-Gothic
Lefcourt Colonial Building Recommended Reading

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Socony-Mobil Building

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Socony-Mobil Building, aka 150 E 42nd Street, is another piece of New York City “love-it or hate-it” architecture. Landmarked in 2003 as an “impressive skyscraper” with “dramatic stainless steel arches,” it is also on some critics’ “ugliest buildings” list.

The original design, by John B. Peterkin, was a 30-story brick tower rising from a garden atop a three-story granite base. The developer, Galbreath Corporation, was unable to attract prime tenants, so in 1952 new architectural muscle was called in: Harrison & Abramovitz. Principals at that firm had worked with Galbreath on other projects and, incidentally, with the Rockefeller family during construction of New York icons Rockefeller Center and the United Nations.

The Harrison & Abramovitz-revised plan was for a 42-story tower with 13-story wings, clad in stainless steel. The firm was a pioneer in metal-clad architecture, earlier completing the Alcoa Building in Pittsburgh. Aluminum was considerably cheaper than stainless steel, but the steel industry agreed to match aluminum’s price for the opportunity to promote their product.

Why metal at all? Partly marketing – to give the building a modern identity. Partly structural – like glass, metal is lighter and thinner (leaves more rentable floor space) than masonry. Partly speed – metal panels go up faster than brick.

The 7,000 steel panels were embossed with four patterns (selected from more than 100): a rosette-like motif for above and below the windows; a large and small rosette to flank the windows, and two variants displaying a design of interlocking pyramids. These last panels are less wide and appear at the eighth floor where the ceiling is higher, or at the corners of the side elevations.

These controversial patterns were explained as necessary to stiffen the panels, diminish reflections, and create a self-cleaning surface (via wind and rain). The New Yorker‘s architecture critic, Lewis Mumford, called the design a “disaster” and said that the elevations looked as if they were “coming down with measles.”

The “self-cleaning” aspect wasn’t entirely accurate – the building was scrubbed with detergent in 1995.

The building’s four-story blue glass base, not nearly as controversial, is no less striking. The E 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue facades feature massive shallow eyebrow arches of stainless steel, resting on granite piers.

One wonders: Did the architects realize how well the Socony-Mobil Building frames the stainless steel spire of the Chrysler Building across the street? It’s a spectacular photo op!

Trivia: According to the building’s website, elevators to the top floors operate at 1,200 feet per minute, while elevators in the lowest floors operate at only 500 feet per minute.

Socony-Mobil Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 150 E 42nd Street between Lexington Avenue and Third Avenue (full block though to E 41st Street)
  • Year completed: 1956
  • Architect: John B. Peterkin; Harrison & Abramovitz
  • Floors: 42
  • Style: Postmodern
  • New York City Landmark: 2003
Socony-Mobil Building Recommended Reading

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Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House

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Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House is one of New York City’s most important landmarks, both for its history and for its architecture.

Historically, this is the site of New York’s first Custom House; the first building burned down. The choice of architect was the first major use of the 1893 Tarnsey Act, which allowed private architects to design public buildings. Cass Gilbert won the commission, after heated (and controversial) competition. The United States Custom House also served as a test of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission: In 1965 the then-new agency was designating a federal building as a city landmark, and the regional administrator for the General Services Administration (GSA) argued that the city had no authority to regulate federal property. (Nonetheless, the city returned in 1979 to declare the interior as a landmark!)

The building was hugely important to the nation: Import duties charged here and at other ports financed the government, in the days before an income tax. The Customs Service moved to the World Trade Center in 1971. The building was empty for a decade, and slated for demolition until Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D, NY) sponsored a bill to restore the Custom House. Additional legislation required the GSA to find new uses for unused federal buildings (they needed a law to figure that out?). Now, the building is shared by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, the National Archives, and the National Museum of the American Indian (Smithsonian Institution).

You can’t tell it from these photos, but the Custom House is actually trapezoidal: The back of the building is wider than the front.

Cass Gilbert’s Beaux Arts design is filled with symbolism and references to classical architecture. The four monumental sculptures in front of the building, sculpted by Daniel Chester French, represent the continents Asia, Africa, America, and Europe. Statues representing 12 seafaring nations stand above the front facade’s columns; the Corinthian capitals of the columns include the head of Mercury (representing commerce); second-story windows are topped by heads representing the “eight races of mankind.”

How did Belgium wind up among the top 12 seafaring nations? According to “Secret New York, An Unusual Guide,” the statue was originally Germany, but ordered changed after the outbreak of World War I.

Interior details are equally rich (and also designated a New York City Landmark). New York artist Reginald Marsh painted the murals in the second floor rotunda, as part of a Treasury Relief Art Project (an offspring of the W.P.A.) in 1937.

(The GSA has an extensive photo gallery showing interior details.)

Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House Vital Statistics
  • Location: Bowling Green
  • Year completed: 1907
  • Architect: Cass Gilbert
  • Floors: 7
  • Style: Beaux Arts
  • New York City Landmark: 1965, 1979
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1972
Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House Recommended Reading

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De Lamar Mansion

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The De Lamar Mansion (Joseph Raphael De Lamar House), now the Polish Consulate General in New York, is a prime example of Beaux Arts architecture in New York.

C.P.H. Gilbert designed this for Joseph De Lamar, who struck it rich in the Colorado Gold Rush and wanted a home fit to enter New York’s high society. Besides towering over neighboring mansions (such as J.P. Morgan’s home across the street), the De Lamar mansion had the unheard-of luxury of an underground garage, served by electric hoist. [See Daytonian in Manhattan]

Joseph and his 10-year-old daughter Alice – he was divorced – lived in the palatial home with nine servants.

After Joseph died in 1918, Alice moved out and sold the mansion to the American Bible Society, which later sold it to the National Democratic Club. Much later (1973), the Republic of Poland bought the mansion to house its consulate.

De Lamar Mansion Vital Statistics
  • Location: 233 Madison Avenue at E 37th Street
  • Year completed: 1905
  • Architect: C.P.H. Gilbert
  • Floors: 5
  • Style: Beaux Arts
  • New York City Landmark: 1975
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1983
De Lamar Mansion Recommended Reading

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Park East Synagogue

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Park East Synagogue is an “especially imaginative” example of the Moorish Revival architecture popular for 19th century synagogues, in the words of New York’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.

“A detailed description of this complicated facade,” said the Commission, “cannot recreate the liveliness and imagination with which the elements are composed. A multitude of readings is possible and each element is used in an original and sometimes surprising context. Elements that have structural roles are used ornamentally and in conjunction with other elements in a unique manner, such as the frequent use of balusters in place of columns or piers in arcades. This inventiveness adds a playful, almost whimsical, note to the profusely ornamented facade which is reminiscent of the character, if not the detail, of Northern Renaissance architecture.”

The report notes that the towers were originally topped by bulbous domes (similar to Central Synagogue).

The building’s inventiveness fit the congregation, which founding Rabbi Bernard Drachman described as a “harmonious combination of Orthodox Judaism and Americanism.”

At the same time, the synagogue was a huge jump for the architects, Ernst Schneider and Henry Herter, whose main work had been tenements in the Lower East Side and Clinton.

Park East Synagogue Vital Statistics
  • Location: 163 E 67th Street between Third and Lexington Avenues
  • Year completed: 1890
  • Architect: Schneider & Herter
  • Floors: 6
  • Style: Moorish Revival
  • New York City Landmark: 1980
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1983
Park East Synagogue Recommended Reading

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Citigroup Center

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Citigroup Center is remarkable New York architecture, with an engineering story even more dramatic than its photographs. The distinctive floating tower (renamed 601 Lexington Avenue in 2009) became a scary 59-story lesson for architects, engineers, public officials, lawyers and journalists worldwide.

Two elements make Citigroup (originally Citicorp) Center so distinctive: The southwest-facing 45-degree roof and the nine-story stilt base.

The signature angled roof, unmistakably visible for miles, was designed as a solar collector. A power gauge in the lobby once showed how much electricity was being generated by the sun. Apparently the solar panels were no threat to Con Ed – they’ve since been unplugged.

The stilt base was designed to turn a profit, not heads. It was almost a disaster.

The nucleus of the building’s site was owned by St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, which wanted to sell the land and use the profits to build a new church in a less valuable location. As Citicorp assembled the other pieces of the site, St. Peter’s discovered that they couldn’t locate a suitable new church site. Oops. Citicorp’s solution was to build a new church on the corner, and erect the office tower above the church. (See “Holdouts!: The Buildings That Got in the Way” by Andrew Alpern and Seymour Durst for the full story.)

With the church located on the corner, the tower supports had to be placed at the center of each wall, instead of at the corners. This, in turn, required special bracing to transfer the weight of the building to the piers.

There was a miscalculation. In determining the maximum loads, LeMessurier had considered the effect of winds perpendicular to the facades – but not “quartering” winds that would push against two sides simultaneously. Making matters worse, the steel contractor had substituted bolted joints for the much stronger (but $250,000 more expensive) welded joints that were specified. LeMessurier discovered the error and the bolt substitution a year after the building was completed. The engineer ordered wind tunnel tests and discovered to his horror that the building was vulnerable to winds over 70 m.p.h.

After urgent meetings with Citicorp, LeMessurier ordered two-inch-thick plates to be welded in place over the bolted joints. Welders worked every night for three months in a race against hurricane season. They almost lost: Hurricane Ella was headed for New York on Sept. 1, 1978 but fortunately it turned out to sea, averting a massive evacuation of the neighborhood. (The Red Cross had estimated 200,000 deaths if the building toppled.)

The massive repair project went virtually unreported for 17 years – a newspaper strike hit New York just as the repairs began; The New Yorker broke the story in 1995. Diane Hartley, a Princeton engineering student, was the hero in this drama. In the course of writing her thesis, she had questioned LeMessurier’s calculations – triggering his reevaluation of the design. LeMessurier’s unflinching disclosure of the problem is today used as a case study in professional ethics.

In 2002 the building was reinforced again – this time one of the massive base columns was encased in steel and copper to protect against a terrorist bomb blast.

The engineering crisis overshadowed Citicorp Center’s other impressive features: Double-decker elevators used interior space more efficiently; a tiered, sunken plaza beneath the building’s southwest corner provides space for sidewalk cafes and entry to the subway system; a 410-ton “tuned damper” system in the crown minimizes the building’s wind-induced swaying.

Drama notwithstanding, Citigroup Center is an impressive and attractive addition to New York’s architectural treasure chest, whether viewed from afar, up close or inside.

Citigroup Center Vital Statistics
  • Location: 601 Lexington Avenue between E 53rd and E 54th Streets
  • Year completed: 1977
  • Architect: Hugh Stubbins, Jr.
  • Structural Engineer: William LeMessurier
  • Floors: 59
  • Style: Postmodern
Citigroup Center Recommended Reading

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21 West Street

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21 West Street (aka Le Rivage), a slender 31-story Art Deco landmark, was converted from offices to apartments in 1998. The building complements the adjoining Downtown Athletic Club, designed by the same architects but built five years earlier.

When built in 1931 (at the same time as the Empire State Building), 21 West Street was across the street from the waterfront. Upper-story tenants then had an unobstructed view of the Hudson. Battery Park City was built on landfill placed in 1980 from excavation for the World Trade Center.

The exposed corners of the building are cantilevered, allowing corner windows. The building was promoted as “An office building with glass corners.” The original red window frames have been replaced by a more neutral tan matching the brick surrounds.

Starrett & Van Vleck used different-colored bricks to create a “woven” texture and to accentuate the building’s vertical lines. The Washington Street facade has setbacks at the 10th and 16th floors; all three facades have setbacks above the 21st, 26th, 29th and 30th floors.

21 West Street Vital Statistics
  • Location: 21 West Street at Morris Street
  • Year completed: 1931
  • Architect: Starrett & Van Vleck; conversion: SLCE Architects
  • Floors: 31
  • Style: Art Deco
  • New York City Landmark: 1998
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1999
21 West Street Recommended Reading

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Bowling Green Offices

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Bowling Green Offices is New York’s only “Hellenic Renaissance” style building.* It’s an architectural style invented by brothers William and George Ardsley as “a free but pure treatment of ancient Greek architecture.”

Whatever the style, it has crisp, lively ornamentation that stands out from its neighbors on “Steamship Row.” (When Bowling Green Offices was built, One Broadway was still a Queen Anne-style red brick building, and the Cunard Building had not yet been built; the Hudson River was just three blocks to the west.)

In plan, the building is U-shaped, with the base at the north, next to the Cunard Building. The light court in the middle of the U is aligned with the light court of One Broadway, the neighbor to the south.

This was the site of high drama: White Star Line, an early tenant, was besieged by worried relatives and friends of passengers aboard The Republic, which had been rammed by the Italian ship Florida in 1909. All passengers were safe in that incident, but three years later the offices were jammed again as news of the Titanic spread. Drama of a different sort hit the building in 1915: Seven elevators simultaneously fell; and seven months later, four elevators repeated the performance.

In 1920, the owners added a 17th floor and, at the north end of the building, a four-story tower.

Architect George Ardsley is better known as an author of 25 books on decorative art, and as a designer of pipe organs – including the famed Wanamaker organ in Philadelphia.

* The only other building in this style was the Layton Art Gallery in Milwaukee, now demolished.

Bowling Green Offices Vital Statistics
  • Location: 3-11 Broadway between Battery Place and Morris Street
  • Year completed: 1898
  • Architect: William James Audsley and George Ashdown Audsley
  • Floors: 21
  • Style: “Hellenic Renaissance”
  • New York City Landmark: 1995
Bowling Green Offices Recommended Reading

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Keuffel & Esser Company Building

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Keuffel & Esser Company Building, a New York landmark designed by De Lemos & Cordes, is well-preserved Renaissance Revival architecture on Fulton Street.

Like many commercial buildings in lower Manhattan, this has been converted (2010) to residential use – Compass Points Condominiums. “Compass Points” refers to two of Keuffel & Esser’s lines of business: Drafting/drawing instruments and surveying instruments.

Unlike many commercial buildings in lower Manhattan, this facade has been well preserved and restored. The Fulton Street side is the building’s most impressive facade, although the back of the building (42 Ann Street) is actually one story taller.

Architects Theodore W. E. De Lemos and August W. Cordes were successful designers of commercial buildings. Among their accomplishments are the Macy’s department store (original Broadway building), the Siegel-Cooper Department Store (now occupied by Bed Bath & Beyond) on Sixth Avenue, and the original Empire State Building (named for the Empire State Bank), 640 Broadway at Bleecker Street.

Keuffel & Esser Company Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 127 Fulton Street (block-through to Ann Street) between Nassau and William Streets
  • Year completed: 1893
  • Architect: De Lemos & Cordes
  • Floors: 8
  • Style: Renaissance Revival
  • New York City Landmark: 2005
Keuffel & Esser Company Building Recommended Reading

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898 Park Avenue

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Golden-hued 898 Park Avenue is a wonderful 14-story Romanesque building by the same architect who designed the 19-story Art Deco building across the street: both 1920s structures are luxury cooperative apartments.

(John Sloan also designed the Pershing Square Building, similar in color and style to 898 Park Avenue.)

The facade was restored in 2009; the building lost some of its original terra cotta decoration over the years, but what remains is still impressive and beautiful.

When built, 898 Park Avenue had just eight units according to Luxury Apartment Houses of Manhattan: Six full-floor duplex apartments on the upper floors, a one-floor apartment on the second floor, and a doctor’s suite on the ground floor. According to City Realty’s listing, the building is still limited to only 10 apartments.

At this writing (February 6, 2014), two of those apartments are available: A two-bedroom unit for $6 million and a four-bedroom apartment for $9 million.

898 Park Avenue Vital Statistics
  • Location: 898 Park Avenue at E 79th Street
  • Year completed: 1923
  • Architect: John Sloan and Adolph E. Nast
  • Floors: 14
  • Style: neo-Romanesque
  • New York City Landmark: 1981 (Upper East Side Historic District)
898 Park Avenue Recommended Reading

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