Tag Archives: New York City

Forest Hills Gardens

Collections, Queens, , , , , , , ,

Forest Hills Gardens is a New York City fantasyland – a pricey, exclusive community that takes its privacy (and rules!) very seriously, yet began with the idea of providing affordable housing.

The Russell Sage Foundation bought 142 acres from Cord Meyer Development Company in 1909 to create a “Garden Cities” community for the working poor. Alas, “affordable housing” soon became a myth. Although architect Grosvenor Atterbury used prefabrication techniques to reduce costs, home prices skyrocketed. It’s fair to say that the only working poor you’ll spot in Forest Hills Gardens are the groundskeepers.

While the working class aspirations of the Russell Sage Foundation have slipped away, the architectural vision, at least, persists. Forest Hills Gardens is beautiful.

Some 800 houses and 11 apartment buildings are precisely laid out on what is now 175 acres, following architectural standards set by Atterbury and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. To this day, Forest Hills Gardens Corporation enforces those architectural standards – right down to the paint colors that homeowners are allowed to use – to preserve the residential, garden community atmosphere.

The West Side Tennis Club moved to Forest Hills in 1913, but became a victim of its own success. The Forest Hills Tennis Stadium drew so many tennis fans (and later, concert-goers) that it became a persona non grata because the crowds brought more traffic and trash than prestige. Closed for 20 years, Forest Hills Stadium is trying to make a comeback as a concert venue.

(Also see Forest Hills Inn, one of the apartment buildings – originally a hotel – located on Station Square.)

Forest Hills Gardens Vital Statistics
  • Location: Forest Hills
  • Year completed: 1909-1960s
  • Architect: Grosvenor Atterbury
  • Landscape Architect: Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.
  • Style: English Garden, Tudor, Georgian
Forest Hills Gardens Recommended Reading

Google Map

Forest Hills Inn

Queens, , , , , , , , ,

Forest Hills Inn is the first thing a visitor sees when entering Forest Hills Gardens at Station Square. The nine-story Tudor-styled building towers over the square and the Long Island Railroad station that it faces.

It’s an Inn in name only: The 1912 relic, surprisingly not landmarked, turned coop in 1967. The Inn is actually three connected buildings on Station Square (a fourth building, Forest Hills Inn Apartments, was added in 1917).

In its heyday, Forest Hills Inn had 150 rooms and hosted public events. Now, it has 50 apartments plus retail spaces including a cafe on Station Square.

Forest Hills Inn Vital Statistics
  • Location: One Station Square
  • Year completed: 1912
  • Architect: Grosvenor Atterbury
  • Floors: 9
  • Style: Tudor
Forest Hills Inn Recommended Reading

Google Map

Bronx County Building

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Bronx County Building (originally Bronx County Courthouse) is a monumental landmark of limestone and marble that blends modern and classical forms. It is made more prominent by its siting, raised on a granite podium between two parks – Joyce Kilmer Park to the north, Franz Sigel Park to the south.

The podium, most visible on the west and north facades, is functional: It contains a garage, among other things.

The design is symmetrical, each side almost identical except for the sculpture. A six-columned portico is centered on each side, flanked by a pair of pink marble sculpture groups. The north and south facades are broken by 13 lines of windows; the east and west facades have 15 bays. Polished copper spandrels separate the windows; the first-floor spandrels have nickel inlays.

The county’s judicial needs have outgrown the building – at one point the building was so crowded that there were reports of juries deliberating in storage rooms. Larger courts have since been built to the east on E 161st Street and to the north on Grand Concourse. The building now serves as the Bronx County municipal building.

Bronx County Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 851 Grand Concourse at E 161st Street
  • Year completed: 1935
  • Architect: Joseph H. Freedlander and Max L. Hausle
  • Sculptors: Charles Keck (frieze), Adolf A. Weinman (Grand Concourse sculpture groups), George H. Snowden (E 161st Street sculpture groups), Joseph Kiselewski (Walton Avenue sculpture groups), Edward F. Sandford Jr. (E 158th Street sculpture groups)
  • Floors: 10
  • Style: neo-Classical, Moderne
  • New York City Landmark: 1976
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1983
Bronx County Building Recommended Reading

Google Map

711 Brightwater Court

Brooklyn, , , , ,

711 Brightwater Court is a colorful six-story Art Deco apartment building in Brighton Beach, “Little Odessa,” a short block from the Boardwalk.

Confession: I didn’t discover this by researching in AIA Guide to New York City or NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. I spotted it in an episode of the sci-fi series “Person of Interest.” (The program uses NYC locales even to masquerade as foreign cities.)

Some of the terra cotta needs repair or replacement, but I hope I look as good when I reach 80 years old!

I couldn’t find the name of the architect – if anyone knows, please let me know via the Contact form. Thanks!

711 Brightwater Court Vital Statistics
  • Location: 711 Brightwater Court at Coney Island Avenue
  • Year completed: 1935
  • Architect: Martyn N. Weinstein
  • Floors: 6
  • Style: Art Deco
711 Brightwater Court Recommended Reading

Google Map

Staten Island Savings Bank

Staten Island, , , , , , , ,

Staten Island Savings Bank is a tall single-story structure filling the triangular plot across Water Street from Tappen Park and Edgewater Village Hall.

According to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, “The bank is a fine example of Beaux Arts classicism. It presents two well-defined facades replete with classical symmetry, recognizable Renaissance motifs such as the rusticated wall and arched windows framed within pilasters, and ideal proportions. More importantly, the subtle insertion of the circular colonnaded portico between the acutely angled facades, thus creating the main entrance, is a masterful means of turning an otherwise difficult acute angle into a positive element. A precedent for this treatment had been established by Sir John Soane in his design for the Bank of England in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century which may be the source for Aldrich’s design.”

Staten Island Savings Bank Vital Statistics
  • Location: 81 Water Street at Beach Street
  • Year completed: 1925
  • Architect: Delano & Aldrich
  • Floors: 1
  • Style: neo-Classical
  • New York City Landmark: 2006
Staten Island Savings Bank Recommended Reading

Google Map

Edgewater Village Hall

Staten Island, , , , , , , ,

Edgewater Village Hall is, in the words of the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, “a superb example of Victorian architecture.” When built, the structure housed courts and other civic functions of the Village of Edgewater – long before Staten Island became part of New York City.

The windows and doors are exceptional. The paired ground-floor windows and doors have semicircular transoms under keystone arches. The second-story dormers are cut into the cornice line, and project out from the facade. Stained-glass transoms top the double-hung sashes.

Tappen Park, the building’s setting, was originally Washington Square. It was renamed in honor of World War I veteran James Tappen in 1934.

Edgewater Village Hall Vital Statistics
  • Location: 111 Canal Street at Tappen Park, Stapleton, S.I.
  • Year completed: 1889
  • Architect: Paul Kuhne
  • Floors: 2
  • Style: Romanesque Revival / Victorian
  • New York City Landmark: 1968
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1980
Edgewater Village Hall Recommended Reading

Google Map

387 St. Paul’s Avenue

Staten Island, , , , , , ,

387 St. Paul’s Avenue is the “poster child” of Staten Island’s historic houses. The exuberant Queen Anne style, sunny palette, and impeccable maintenance make it a much-photographed home in the St. Paul’s Avenue / Stapleton Heights Historic District.

According to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission designation report, “This exceptional Queen Anne-style house was built by brewery baron George Bechtel as a wedding present for his daughter Anna Bechtel Weiderer (1867-1899), whose husband, Leonard Weiderer, owned a glass factory in Stapleton. George Bechtel’s home, a large Greek Revival house fronting on Van Duzer Street (demolished), was located on a spacious lot that extended to the rear of this property allowing Bechtel to create a family enclave with merged gardens. The Weiderer house was constructed by the Stapleton builder Henry Spruck who in the early 1900s published a pamphlet illustrating the building which he credited to the architectural firm of Kafka & Lindenmeyr. Given the date of the house, it must have been the work of the firm’s founder Hugo Kafka, Sr. (1843-1915). Born in Prague, Kafka was educated at the Polytechnikum in Zurich, where he studied under Gottfried Semper. In 1874, he immigrated to Philadelphia to work with Herman Schwarzmann on the Centennial Exposition of 1876. In 1878 Kafka moved his architectural practice to New York. He had numerous commissions for apartment buildings and houses and also designed the Joseph Loth Silk Ribbon factory (1885-86, a designated New York City Landmark) at 1818-1838 Amsterdam Avenue, and Saint Peter’s German Evangelical Reformed Church, now the Free Magyar Reformed Church, Kreischerville, Staten Island (1883, a designated New York City Landmark), a work with which Bechtel would have undoubtedly been familiar.

“Kafka’s design for the Weiderer House is distinguished by its complex massing and its interplay of geometric forms and light and shadow. There is a turreted corner tower, curved bays, recessed porches set off by round openings, a variety of intersecting hipped and gabled roofs, and exuberant detailing, Resting on a base of massive stone boulders, the walls are clad with shingles cut in a variety of shapes and laid in horizontal bands. Multi-pane windows are arranged in differing configurations and most contain stained glass. This large mansion has twenty-four rooms, twenty-four stained-glass windows, and six fireplaces. The Weiderers lived at 387 St. Paul’s Avenue for only a few years. Leonard died in 1891, and his widow moved to Germany and remarried in 1894; she died in 1899 at age 31. George Bechtel had died in 1889, so the house passed to his widow Eva who had taken charge of the family brewery to protect the interests of her thirteen year old son. She continued to occupy the Van Duzer Street House.

“Around 1899, Anna’s sister, Agnes Bechtel Wagner, moved to this house where she resided until the late 1920s. Today, it remains remarkably intact and has recently been restored. It was the
subject of a public hearing by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1980.”

The owners kindly permitted me to take photos of the rear of the home.

My only grumble: I wish the wires were underground!

387 St. Paul’s Avenue Vital Statistics
  • Location: 387 St. Paul’s Avenue at Occident Avenue.
  • Year completed: 1887
  • Architect: Hugo Kafka
  • Floors: 3
  • Style: Queen Anne
  • New York City Landmark: 2004
387 St. Paul’s Avenue Recommended Reading

Google Map

818 Flatbush Avenue

Brooklyn, , , , , ,

818 Flatbush Avenue is a two-story commercial building in Flatbush, unremarkable except for Art Deco terra cotta uncannily similar to that of the Chanin Building on E 42nd Street in Manhattan.

The Brooklyn store and office building and the Chanin Building were both completed in 1929 – but were planned by different architects. Boris W. Dorfman planned the Flatbush Avenue structure; Sloan & Robertson designed the famous skyscraper. The NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission reports that Chanin Building’s terra cotta was created by sculptor Rene Chambellan and architect Jacques Delmarre (of the Chanin Construction Company).

I suspect that Mr. Chambellan was also responsible for the Brooklyn art, but I can’t find any documentation.

Newspaper accounts show that real estate and construction could move at lightning pace in 1929. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that the existing three-story apartment building and lot were being auctioned on April 15. By June, new owners Flatbush Improvement Corporation had picked an architect and filed plans for a new $45,000 building. On December 10, the Department of Buildings issued a Certificate of Occupancy for the structure, completed the previous day. In just over eight months developers bought the property, demolished the old building, and completed the new structure.

818 Flatbush Avenue Vital Statistics
  • Location: 818 Flatbush Ave. at Canton Ave.
  • Year completed: 1929
  • Architect: Boris W. Dorfman
  • Floors: 2
  • Style: Art Deco
818 Flatbush Avenue Recommended Reading

Google Map

Sunnyside Gardens

Collections, Queens, , , , , , , , , , ,

Sunnyside Gardens is among America’s first planned communities. (Forest Hills Gardens began development in 1909.) Although the architecture itself is not extraordinary, the integration of green spaces and enforced uniformity creates a distinctly suburban ambience. Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in New York City anymore.

The 600-building development by City Housing Corporation was created under guidelines of the Regional Planning Association of America, according to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, and based on the English Garden City concept. It was built in stages, from 1924 through 1935. Two architects – Clarence Stein and Henry Wright – designed the buildings; landscaping was designed by Marjorie Sewell Cautley.

The entire 16-block area was planned as affordable housing for working-class families. Economies of scale, the use of common brick throughout, and innovative financing schemes made good on the “affordable” promise. (Forest Hills Gardens, another planned community four-and-a-half miles to the southeast, began as “affordable housing” but wound up as anything but.)

Although the majority of the units are semi-detached two-story homes built around common garden courtyards, there are also a few four-story apartment buildings and two super-block six-story complexes (Phipps Garden Apartments and Sunnyside Garden Apartments).

The developers tried to protect the community’s shared green spaces by including 40-year easements in the deeds. As these easements expired in the 1960s, some homeowners began fencing and building. In response, in 1974 the Department of City Planning designated Sunnyside Gardens a special planned community preservation district. In 2007 the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission conferred landmark status.

Sunnyside Gardens Vital Statistics
  • Location: Sunnyside, Queens – area bounded by 38th (Barnett) Ave on the north to Skillman Avenue on the south; 43rd Street on the west to 52nd Street on the east – plus a finger extending two blocks south along 47th and 48th Streets.
  • Year completed: 1927, 1932, 1935
  • Architect: Clarence Stein, Henry Wright (principal architects)
  • Floors: 2-6
  • Style: Colonial Revival
  • New York City Landmark: 2007
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1984
Sunnyside Gardens Recommended Reading

Google Map

Where Do I Get Inspiration?

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With a million buildings in the New York Metropolitan Area, how does one decide what to photograph and research?

Books are one source of inspiration. Initially, the “AIA Guide to New York City” was my main guide. But after the architecture bug has taken hold, inspiration comes from everywhere.

This morning, I’m off to Brighton Beach because I saw (and subsequently tracked down with Google Street View) 711 Brightwater Court in a “Person of Interest” episode. Gorgeous Art Deco, seems to be in good shape – I just hope it’s not time for the building’s Local Law 11 maintenance and attendant scaffolding.

My Plan B is to shoot five other buildings in the seven adjoining blocks. Stay tuned.