Take a Walk 06/30/2023
Welcome back to my daily walk diaries. Today we walked around between 5th ave and Park Ave because I was going to check out the Morgan Library & Museum (which if you live in NYC and you didn't know they have free friday's, they do). Anyways I was a little early for the entry time so I walked around and here were the buildings that caught my eye. If you want to listen to the music I was listening to while you read this, I made a playlist of it. Buckle in, this might be a long one.
Edit: As I was writing this entry I accidentally deleted ~1.5 hrs of work so Im going to keep this rewrite real brief. sry :/
The Robb House
Built 1892
Architect: Stanford White
Fellow Architect/architectural critic of the time Russel Sturgis (who I love) said of this building, "not a palace, but a fit dwelling house for a first-rate citizen."
Curious as to whether one of those medallions on the third floor was replaced since they're slightly different.
The Haviland Building/Lightolier Building/Morgan Lofts
Built 1912, unknown architect
The interesting split facades and bell tower are without a doubt what grabbed my eye.
Funny enough they also stood out on the back of the building when I took a trip around the block without even realizing they were the same building!
Next we have Tiffany & Co.'s second building, built after their previous cast-iron store at Union Square, and as a posthumous completion in honor of Tiffany founder, Charles Tiffany.
Built 1905
Architect: Stanford White! (yes again)
Just look at those Corinthian orders! This building is massive.
(Now is probably a good time to bring up my camera situation.) I've been shooting these on my iPhone 8 mainly because my only other camera is film, and because of it's convenience. However I may end up getting another camera so that my pictures don't come out with such poor quality. (I wish I remember how I worded this during the first take of this post, it was much better)
This is the CUNY Graduates Building, formerly known as its original identity the B. Altman department store. The past 3 buildings in fact were part of a push up 5th ave from Barclay's St downtown where Haviland's, Tiffany's, and Altman all had stores previously.
Built 1906
Architect: Trowbridge & Livingston
The back of the Altman building has this interesting moment where seemingly 3 portions of the building meet. I say 3 instead of the obvious division of the top addition only because if you look closely at the roof overhang on the left, it turns 90 degrees into the building before the 4th window in.
Regardless this transition between is artfully done both between the front and the back, as well as between the base and the upper addition in the reference but not direct copying of window/facade themes.
The Stewart Building
Built 1914
Architect: Whitney Warren
(Bonus picture of the proximity to the Empire State Building)
Right across the street from the Tiffany building lies this beautifully ornamented loft/department building with terracotta tiles said to resemble Josiah Wedgwood jasperware pottery.
Before we get to the Chrysler building this building caught my eye with it's geometric ornamentation on the facade of the building, which I assumed was to fit in amongst the foothills of such an icon in Art Deco Architecture (the Chrysler Building).
This is the Socony-Mobil Building
Built in 1956
Architect: Harrison & Abramovitz
The Icon in question, The Chrysler Building.
Built 1930
Architect: William Van Allen
There is a wealth of knowledge on the internet about this art deco beauty, but I'm just going to give you my brief takeaway.
First, that entry way!!! I'm in love, its so grand and those angles are so pleasing to look at. There is one on each side of the building facing the street and boy oh boy it does not lose it's charm the second time you see it.
I also wanted to point out that, um, the base of the building is not centered????? I had literally no idea prior to this but if you look, in the third picture there are three bays of windows to the right of the center and five bays to the left. No your eyes aren't tricking you that's really how it looks in person.
In the tune of imperfections to such a seemingly pristine design, the backwall isn't actually perpendicular to the road or to the rest of the building. It wanders off at some other angle as seen in the fourth picture.
I give it a 9/10 still, it's imperfections are even more reason to love it. They give it an organic beauty that art deco even tends to reference and emphasize, the beauty in natural forms.
Right around the corner of the Chrysler Building is Tudor City, and here are just some highlights. In the order of most difficult things to photograph, these buildings are all built up in a style I like to call the princess tower style with an elaborate penthouse on top. Here are some of the highlights of this group of blocks on the east side.
45 Tudor City Pl. (pics 1 & 2) aka Prospect Tower & St. Albans Church
Built 1927, the worlds first residential housing skyscraper
Architect: H. Douglas Ives
Around the corner (which regrettably is not pictured) is Harry Osborne's penthouse in the Spider-man movies at 5 Tudor City Pl. aka Windsor Tower
The Church of the Covenant (pic 3)
Built 1871
Architect: J. Cleveland Cady
Woodstock Tower (pic 4)
Built 1929
Architect: H. Douglas Ives
(pics 5-7) The Cloister & The Manor
Built 1927 & 1928
Architect: H. Douglas Ives
I think this is also an interesting marrying of facade courses.
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