The Architecture and Development of New York City with Andrew S. Dolkart Close
Key Figures Commercial Architecture
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Richard Morris Hunt (1827–95)
Richard Morris Hunt was the first American to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and, after his return to New York, he became the most prominent architect in the city. Early in his career, Hunt designed a series of avant-garde buildings, introducing French architectural ideas to America. These include the Stuyvesant (1870–73; demolished), the earliest apartment house planned for the middle class, the Roosevelt Building (1873–74), a cast-iron building with a clearly expressed structure, and the Tribune Building (1873–76; demolished), an early skyscraper that was the third office building in the city that incorporated an elevator. In 1882, Hunt designed William K. Vanderbilt's mansion on Fifth Avenue at Fifty-second Street, an early example of a mansion designed in direct reference to European historical precedents. He later designed many city mansions and country estates for the Vanderbilts and other wealthy New Yorkers. While many of his homes in Newport and similar summer colonies are extant, few of his city buildings still stand.
R. H. Robertson (1849–1919)
Robert Henderson Robertson was a prolific designer on residential, commercial, and institutional buildings in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Early in his career, Robertson worked with architect William Potter, but by 1881 had established his own office. Much of his early work reflects the influence of Henry Hobson Richardson's Romanesque-revival designs, evident, for example, at the Lincoln Building (1889–90) on Union Square, a transitional skyscraper, incorporating an elevator and iron construction, but lacking a steel-skeleton frame. Robertson was one of the first architects to develop a practice that relied heavily on skyscraper commissions. Among his other extant skyscrapers are the American Tract Society Building (1894–95) and the Park Row Building (1896–99), once the world's tallest office building. In the 1890s and early twentieth century, Robertson's designs reflect the change in architectural taste towards building inspired by Renaissance and classical architecture.
Bradford Gilbert (1853–1911)
Bradford Gilbert was the son of a civil engineer who served his architectural apprenticeship in the office of J. C. Cady. After working as the architect for railroad companies, he opened an office in New York in about 1882. Gilbert had a diverse practice, but is best known for his 1888 design of the Tower Building on Broadway, the first skyscraper to incorporate a steel-skeleton frame.
McKim, Mead, and White
Charles McKim (1847–1909), William Rutherford Mead (1846–1928), and Stanford White (1853–1906) established their partnership in 1879 and soon became the most prestigious architectural firm in the United States, designing a wide array of residential, institutional, commercial, and public buildings in New York and other cities. None of the founding partners were advocates of the skyscraper, but younger partners in the office proposed several tall buildings. The most important skyscraper designed by the firm is the Municipal Building (1907–14) on Centre Street at Chambers Street. This prominently sited classical-revival building, dating from 1907–14, was commissioned to house city offices.
Louis Sullivan (1856–1924)
Chicago architect Louis Sullivan was one of the leading figures in the history of American architecture. Sullivan was an early proponent of the tall office building. His skyscrapers exemplify the Chicago notion of finding a new architectural vocabulary for this new type of building, rather than using the established architectural styles. Sullivan designed only one building in New York, the Bayard-Condict Building on Bleecker Street (1897–99). It is one of his major surviving structures, with its tripartite massing, terra-cotta façade, and stylized organic detail.
Ernest Flagg (1857–1947)
Ernest Flagg studied architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts and was one of the few Americans who returned from Paris with an interest in and understanding of French architectural theory. Flagg's practice was limited, in part by his obnoxious personality, but he had a few loyal clients (including several relatives) and designed some of the most important residential, institutional, and commercial buildings at the turn of the twentieth century in New York. He designed homes and stores for the Scribner book publishing family (his wife was a Scribner) and was a favorite architect of the Clark family, which was involved with the Singer Sewing Machine Company. Flagg's most famous building was the Singer Tower (1908) on Broadway (demolished), carefully planned to be the world's tallest building. Flagg was also involved in tenement reform and designed a series of model apartment houses and single-family dwellings.
Cass Gilbert (1859–1934)
Cass Gilbert moved to New York in 1899 after a successful career in St. Paul, Minnesota, that included the design of the Minnesota State Capital. His earliest building in New York was the Broadway-Chambers Building (1899–1900), a skyscraper with significant polychromatic terra-cotta, which still stands on the corner of Broadway and Chambers Street. Gilbert designed several other major skyscrapers, including two major buildings clad in Gothic-inspired terra-cotta, the West Street Building (1905–07; seriously damaged by the collapse of the World Trade Center towers) and the Woolworth Building (1910–13). For many years, the Woolworth was the world's tallest building and remains one of the most prominent features on the city's skyline. Gilbert also designed one of the city's great Beaux-Arts public buildings, the U.S. Custom House at Bowling Green (1899–1907) with its ornate sculptural exterior. Both the Custom House and the Woolworth Building retain their sumptuous interiors.
Francis Kimball (1845–1919)
Francis Hatch Kimball worked in the Boston architectural office of Louis Rogers, later Gridley, and Rogers, supervising the firm's projects in Hartford, Connecticut. While in Hartford, Kimball was appointed supervising architect for the construction of Trinity College, which was designed by English architect William Burges. As a result, Kimball went to London and worked in Burges's office for a year. Kimball also began receiving independent commissions in Hartford. His success led him to relocate to New York in 1879. Kimball became increasingly successful in New York, receiving commissions for office buildings, churches, clubs, theaters, houses, and other buildings. Kimball was one of the first architects in New York to design a significant number of skyscrapers and these tall buildings increasingly became central to his work. His earliest skyscraper is the Corbin Building (1888) on John Street, succeeded by the Empire Building (1897–98), Trinity and U.S. Realty Buildings (1904–07), and others. Kimball was also a pioneer in the use of ornamental terra-cotta, evident on the Corbin Building, the sophisticated row of Queen Anne houses that he designed in 1885 at 133-143 West 122nd Street, and on the Montauk Club in Park Slope, Brooklyn (1889–91).
Carrère and Hastings
John Carrère (1858–1911) and Thomas Hastings (1860–1929) both studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and worked in the office of McKim, Mead, and White before establishing their own partnership in 1885. The firm was successful in the 1880s and early 1890s, but rose to national prominence by winning the competition for the New York Public Library in 1897. This is one of the most remarkable French-inspired Beaux-Arts public buildings in the country. The firm designed many superb city and country houses and public buildings. Although they designed a few early tall buildings, the partners were ambivalent about the skyscraper. The office's major skyscrapers were not designed until the late 1910s and early 1920s when, in association with other architects, the office worked on the Cunard Building (1917–21) and the Standard Oil Building (1920–28), which stand across the street from each other on Broadway at Bowling Green.
Ernest Graham and Associates
Ernest Graham (1866–1936) became the partner of prominent Chicago architect Daniel Burnham in 1900 and after Burnham's death in 1912 organized the successor firm of Ernest Graham and Associates (later Graham, Anderson, Probst, and White). Although most of the firm's work was in the Midwest they designed buildings from coast to coast. Graham's most important New York work is the Equitable Building (1913–15) on Broadway between Pine and Cedar Streets.
York and Sawyer
Edward York (1863–1928) and Philip Sawyer (1868–1949) had both trained in the office of McKim, Mead, and White. In 1898, York and Sawyer established their own firm, which became especially successful in the design of banks and hospitals. The firm's bank buildings are among the finest built in the United States in the early decades of the twentieth century. These palatial Renaissance and classical bank buildings express the interest that the directors of savings banks had in erecting buildings where working people could bank in splendor. Among the great banks designed by York and Sawyer are the Italian Renaissance–inspired Brooklyn Trust Company (1913–16) on the corner of Montague and Clinton Streets in Brooklyn Heights and Central Savings Bank (1926–28) on Broadway and Seventy-third Street; the classical-revival style Greenwich Savings Bank (1922–24) on Broadway and Thirty-sixth Street; and the Byzantine-inspired Bowery Savings Bank (1921–23) on East Forty-second Street. The firm's largest bank was that designed for the Federal Reserve (1919–24) on Maiden Lane. Each of these banks has a magnificent banking hall with a spectacular use of marble, stone, iron, and other materials.
Samuel Yellin
Samuel Yellin (1885–1940) was America's master iron craftsman of the twentieth century. From his workshop in Philadelphia, Yellin created magnificent medieval- and Renaissance-inspired ironwork for buildings across the country. In New York, major installations of Yellin ironwork are evident at York and Sawyer's Central Savings Bank (1926–28) and Federal Reserve Bank (1919–24).
Warren and Wetmore
Whitney Warren (1864–1943) and Charles Wetmore (1866–1941) first gained prominence as the designer of the New York Yacht Club (1899–1900) and for their work on Grand Central Terminal (1903–13, with Reed and Stem). In the early decades of the twentieth century, Warren and Wetmore received a succession of commissions for city and country houses from their wealthy friends and relatives. Beginning in 1910, the firm designed tall hotels in the area around Grand Central and became increasingly involved in the design of skyscrapers. The office designed some of the earliest skyscrapers erected in New York following the passage of the comprehensive zoning law of 1916. These included the Heckscher Building (1920–21) and the Aeolian Building (1925–27), both on Fifth Avenue, and the New York Central Building (1927–29) straddling Park Avenue north of Grand Central.
Eliel Saarinen (1873–1950)
Eliel Saarinen had a successful practice in his native Finland before moving to Cranbrook, outside Detroit, in 1924. In 1922, Saarinen entered the competition for the Chicago Tribune Tower. His design, which adapted the setback requirements of New York's 1916 zoning code, came in second place. However, the design was widely published, and it had a profound influence on skyscraper design in New York and elsewhere in America. Ralph Walker's Barclay-Vesey Building (1923–27), Irwin Chanin and Sloan and Robertson's Chanin Building (1927–29), and H. Douglas Ives and Sloan and Robertson's Fred French Building (1926–27), are but three examples of skyscrapers influenced by the massing of Saarinen's design.
Ralph Walker (1889–1973)
After study at M.I.T. and work in architectural offices around the country, Ralph Walker settled in New York in 1916 where he was employed at the firm of McKenzie, Voorhees, and Gmelin. In 1923, Walker was put in charge of the design of the new headquarters for the New York Telephone Company, known as the Barclay-Vesey Building. This is the earliest New York skyscraper that employed the requirements of the 1916 zoning code in an expressive manner. Walker's emphatically vertical design rises through a series of dramatic setbacks to a buttressed crown and is highlighted with a distinctive nontraditional, naturalistic ornamental vocabulary. In 1926, Walker became a partner in the firm of Voorhees, Gmelin, and Walker. He continued to design expressive skyscrapers including those for Western Union (1928–30) on Hudson Street and AT&T's (1930–32) on Broadway. His career culminated with the design of the Irving Trust Building (1928–31) at 1 Wall Street with its undulating façade, crystalline crown, and sumptuous public interiors.
Daniel Burnham (1846–1912)
Daniel Burnham's Chicago architectural firm was responsible for the design of buildings and urban planning schemes across America. Burnham's office became closely associated with the development of the skyscraper, especially in Chicago and other Midwestern cities. In New York City, his major work is the Flatiron Building (1901–03), which became a romantic symbol of New York. Burnham was a proponent of city-beautiful planning, evident at the layout of the World's Columbia Exposition in 1893, his plans for Chicago, Washington, D.C., and other cities, and his design for Washington's Union Station (1903–07).
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