Tag Archives: midtown

203 E 45th Street

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203 E 45th Street, home of “The Perfect Pint,” is a bit of a mystery to me. My usual sources have no real information on the building – but then, why would they? The three-story-plus-roof-garden building is a modest structure with no special architectural features.

But it appears to belong in “Holdouts!: The Buildings That Got In The Way” (or the earlier paperback version “New York’s Architectural Holdouts” ), a fascinating book by Andrew Alpern and Seymour Durst. The neighboring 32-story Wyndham Hotel is cantilevered over The Perfect Pint, similar to 160 E 22nd Street.

The Wyndham was originally the Alex Hotel, completed in 2006 on the site of the famed Pen and Pencil restaurant. While there are numerous online articles about the Alex’s early financial troubles, I found none that mention dealings with the owners of the property’s diminutive neighbor.

203 E 45th Street Vital Statistics
  • Location: 203 E 45th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues
  • Floors: 3
203 E 45th Street Recommended Reading

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High Line Park

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New York “Parkitecture”: An abandoned elevated freight rail line on the Lower West Side has a new life as a one-of-a-kind elevated green space. The park winds from 34th Street near 12th Avenue to Gansevoort Street and Washington Street. (The northernmost extension opened in 2014.) You can enter at either end or at several stairways in between. Visit http://www.thehighline.org/ for more information.

Besides being an enjoyable destination unto itself, High Line is an excellent vantage point for spotting architectural landmarks of Chelsea, West Chelsea and Gansevoort Historic Districts.

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Times Square and Vicinity

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Crossroads of the world, heart of the city that never sleeps – the only place where there are crowds on a cold Sunday afternoon. And the only place where bright lights are part of the zoning regulations: You have to have a big electric display on your facade.

Bit by bit, the stately old-guard stone and terra cotta buildings of the early 1900s are being replaced by glass and steel towers, some with bizarre shapes and colors. The building that pretty much started it all – One Times Square, the one-time headquarters of The New York Times – is still there, but hardly in its 1905 form. Allied Chemical covered it in white marble in 1964, and it has since become a 25-story electric signboard. The Paramount Building also survives, along with some theater buildings between Seventh and Eighth Avenues and Bush Tower between Broadway and Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas). Up and down the uptown side streets (43rd – 47th) are plenty of landmark-quality buildings, though – and not just theaters.

You’ll find several distinctive old clubs in the area, and the art deco treasure McGraw-Hill Building and the Port Authority Bus Terminal. You’re also just a hop, skip and a jump from Bryant Park and the main branch of the New York Public Library.

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American Radiator Building

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Passers-by are probably puzzled by the industrial-strength gilt-painted chimerae on Bryant Park Hotel – if they even lift their eyes to the third floor level. But the figures make perfect sense in the context of the facade’s original owners, American Radiator and Standard Sanitary Company.

Originally, this was the American Radiator Building and later known as the American Standard Building. The ground floor initially contained showrooms for the company’s bathroom fixtures.

The 23-story tower still stands out for its colors – black brick trimmed in gold – and unconventional shape. One architecture critic called it “the most daring experiment in color in modern buildings yet made in America.”

According to the Wikipedia article, the building is based on a design submitted for the Chicago Tribune building.

The building was converted to a hotel in 2001; it has New York City landmark status, and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Bryant Park Hotel Vital Statistics
  • Location: 40 W 40th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues
  • Year completed: 1924
  • Architect: Raymond Hood and André Fouilhoux
  • Floors: 23
  • Style: Gothic/Art Deco
  • New York City Landmark: 1974
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1980
Bryant Park Hotel Suggested Reading

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New York Public Library

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With Bryant Park at its back and ample space all around, it’s not just the jewel, it’s also the setting that makes The New York Public Library such standout architecture. (Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets)

The site of the library and adjacent Bryant Park had been the Croton Distributing Reservoir. Bryant Park, incidentally, is a “green roof” for the library’s expanded (in 1980s) storage space.

The fascinating history of the New York Public Library system – and the main branch, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building – is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Public_Library.

The library is about to undergo massive internal changes – a circulating library is being installed in space now occupied by book stacks. (See articles by The New York Times and Wall Street Journal.)

New York Public Library Vital Statistics
  • Location: 476 Fifth Avenue between W 40th and W 42nd Streets
  • Year completed: 1911 (official opening)
  • Architect: Carrère and Hastings
  • Floors: 7
  • Style: Beaux Arts
  • New York City Landmark: 1967 (exterior), 1974 (interior)
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1965
New York Public Library Suggested Reading

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Fred F French Building

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The Fred F. French building was constructed in 1926-27 as headquarters of real estate developer Frederick Fillmore French (who built Tudor City, among other projects). French’s own architect, H. Douglas Ives, collaborated with John Sloan (Sloan & Robertson) to create the Art Deco-cum-Babylonian design. Setbacks are outlined in colorful terra cotta; the massive top panels are of faience, a more expensive glazed version.

The building’s lobby and Fifth Avenue vestibule are small but stunning for their rich colors and gilding. At this writing (August 2012) the ground floor retail space is being renovated for a Tommy Bahama store – one hopes that the storefronts will be in character with the building. The 38-floor French Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004 and became a New York City landmark in 1986.

Sad Admission Department: For many years, I worked one block away from this building and never noticed it.

Fred F. French Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 551 Fifth Avenue at E 45th Street
  • Year completed: 1927
  • Architect: H. Douglas Ives and John Sloan
  • Floors: 38
  • Style: Art Deco
  • New York City Landmark: 1986
  • National Register of Historic Places: 2004
Fred F. French Building Suggested Reading

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