American Radiator Building
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The American Radiator Building (also known as the American Standard Building) is an
early skyscraper The earliest stage of skyscraper design encompasses buildings built between 1884 and 1945, predominantly in the American cities of New York City, New York and Chicago. Cities in the United States were traditionally made up of low-rise buildings, ...
at 40 West 40th Street, just south of
Bryant Park Bryant Park is a public park located in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Privately managed, it is located between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas ( Sixth Avenue) and between 40th and 42nd Streets in Midtown Manhattan. The e ...
, in the
Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...
neighborhood of
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. It was designed by
Raymond Hood Raymond Mathewson Hood (March 29, 1881 – August 14, 1934) was an American architect who worked in the Neo-Gothic and Art Deco styles. He is best known for his designs of the Tribune Tower, American Radiator Building, and Rockefeller Center. Thr ...
and André Fouilhoux in the
Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
and
Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
styles for the
American Radiator Company The American Radiator Company was established in 1892 by the merger of a number of North American radiator manufacturers. The company expanded in the early 20th century into Europe under the brand National Radiator Company. In 1929, it amalgam ...
. The original section of the American Radiator Building, a , 23-story tower, was completed in 1924. A five-story annex, to the west of the original tower, was built from 1936 to 1937. The original structure consists of an eighteen-story tower above a base of five stories, while the western annex only rises five stories. The American Radiator Building's facade is made predominantly of black brick. Gold-colored decorations are used on the building's setbacks and pinnacles. Hood had intended for the original structure to be a standalone shaft, requiring the building to be set back from the lot line and reducing the maximum amount of space available. Inside, the basement, first, and second floors were originally designed as exhibition showrooms, while the upper stories served as office space. The building was completed five years before the American Radiator Company merged with
Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company The original Standard Sanitary was formed when James West Arrott of James West Arrott Insurance company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania took over a bankrupt hooper company that could not pay their insurance premiums. Along with Francis Torrance (they ...
to form American Radiator and Standard Sanitary Corporation, later known as American Standard. American Standard sold the building in 1988 to a Japanese company. The main building was sold in 1998 to Philip Pilevsky, who opened the Bryant Park Hotel there in 2001. The annex operated as the
Katharine Gibbs School Katharine Gibbs College was a for-profit institution of higher learning based in the United States of America, founded by Katharine Gibbs. As the Providence School in Rhode Island, it was founded in 1911 as an institution for the career educatio ...
from 2001 to 2009 and was converted into the
City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...
's
Guttman Community College Stella and Charles Guttman Community College is a public community college in New York City. It is the newest of the City University of New York's (CUNY) community colleges and was founded on September 11, 2011. It opened on August 20, 2012 as ...
in 2012. The American Radiator Building is a
New York City designated landmark The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
and is on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
.


Site

The American Radiator Building is at 40 West 40th Street in the
Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...
neighborhood of
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. The original section of the building occupies a rectangular
land lot In real estate, a lot or plot is a tract or parcel of land owned or meant to be owned by some owner(s). A plot is essentially considered a parcel of real property in some countries or immovable property (meaning practically the same thing) in ...
with a
frontage Frontage is the boundary between a plot of land or a building and the road onto which the plot or building fronts. Frontage may also refer to the full length of this boundary. This length is considered especially important for certain types of ...
of along 40th Street, a depth of , and an area of . There is also a five-story annex at 50 West 40th Street, west of the original tower. The annex's lot covers with a frontage of along 40th Street, extending to the rear of the block at 39th Street. The American Radiator Building is on 40th Street, which forms the southern border of
Bryant Park Bryant Park is a public park located in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Privately managed, it is located between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas ( Sixth Avenue) and between 40th and 42nd Streets in Midtown Manhattan. The e ...
, and between Fifth and
Sixth Avenue Sixth Avenue – also known as Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers, p.24 – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown". It is commercial ...
s. On the same block are the
Engineers' Club Building The Engineers' Club Building, also known as Bryant Park Place, is a residential building at 32 West 40th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, United States. Located on the southern edge of Bryant Park, it was construc ...
,
The Bryant The Bryant is a residential building at 16 West 40th Street, south of Bryant Park, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, developed by HFZ Capital Group and designed by the firm of architect David Chipperfield. The building topped out in 2016, an ...
, and 452 Fifth Avenue to the east; the
Engineering Societies' Building The Engineering Societies' Building, also known as 25 West 39th Street, is a commercial building at 25–33 West 39th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, United States. Located one block south of Bryant Park, it was ...
and the
Haskins & Sells Building Haskins may refer to: * Haskins (surname) * Haskins, Iowa, U.S. * Haskins, Ohio, U.S. * Haskins Laboratories, non-profit researcher See also * Haskin (disambiguation) Haskin may refer to: * Haskin (crater), lunar impact crater * Haskin (surname) ...
to the south; and
Bryant Park Studios The Bryant Park Studios (formerly known as the Beaux-Arts Building) is an office building at 80 West 40th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, at the corner of 40th Street and Sixth Avenue. The building, overlooking t ...
to the west. Other nearby places include the
New York Public Library Main Branch The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, commonly known as the Main Branch, 42nd Street Library or the New York Public Library, is the flagship building in the New York Public Library system in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. T ...
across 40th Street to the north, as well as the
Lord & Taylor Building The Lord & Taylor Building is an 11-story commercial building in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, that formerly served as Lord & Taylor's flagship department store in the city. It is at 424–434 Fifth Avenue between 38th and 39th Streets. ...
to the southeast. The surrounding block of 40th Street had contained brownstone row houses through the 1920s, before they were replaced by the American Radiator Building and several other multi-story structures. The site of the annex was occupied by six houses at 46–52 West 40th Street and 39–43 West 39th Street until the 1930s.


Architecture

The American Radiator Building was designed by
Raymond Hood Raymond Mathewson Hood (March 29, 1881 – August 14, 1934) was an American architect who worked in the Neo-Gothic and Art Deco styles. He is best known for his designs of the Tribune Tower, American Radiator Building, and Rockefeller Center. Thr ...
and
J. André Fouilhoux Jacques André Fouilhoux (September 27, 1879 – June 20, 1945) was a French-born architect active in the United States from 1904 to 1945.''The New York Times''. (July 21, 1945) ''The New York Times'', p. 1. Accessed August 18, 2020. He is most ...
, of the firm Hood, Godley, and Fouilhoux, in a mixture of the
Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
and
Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
styles. It was completed in 1924 as the headquarters of the
American Radiator Company The American Radiator Company was established in 1892 by the merger of a number of North American radiator manufacturers. The company expanded in the early 20th century into Europe under the brand National Radiator Company. In 1929, it amalgam ...
.
Rene Paul Chambellan Rene Paul Chambellan (September 15, 1893 – November 29, 1955) was an American sculptor who specialized in architectural sculpture. He was also one of the foremost practitioners of what was then called the "French Modern Style" and has subseque ...
, a frequent collaborator of Hood and his associate
John Mead Howells John Mead Howells, (; August 14, 1868 – September 22, 1959), was an American architect. Early life and education Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the son of author William Dean Howells, he earned an undergraduate degree from Harvard Unive ...
, created the ornamentation and sculptures. Numerous other contractors were hired for the construction. Only the base of the building was designed in a strictly Gothic style, but the building as a whole contains abstract ornamentation, similar to those used on the
Bush Tower The Bush Tower (also the Bush Terminal Building, the Bush Terminal International Exhibit Building and formerly the Bush Terminal Sales Building) is a skyscraper in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, just east of Times Square ...
and
Woolworth Building The Woolworth Building is an early skyscraper, early American skyscraper designed by architect Cass Gilbert located at 233 Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was the tallest building in ...
. The American Radiator Building's
massing Massing is a term in architecture which refers to the perception of the general shape and form as well as size of a building. Massing in architectural theory Massing refers to the structure in three dimensions (form), not just its outline from ...
is based on Eliel Saarinen's unbuilt competition entry for
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
's
Tribune Tower The Tribune Tower is a , 36-floor neo-Gothic skyscraper located at 435 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Built between 1923 and 1925, the international design competition for the tower became a historic event in 20th-cen ...
, augmented by a strong use of color. The building's design was also inspired by those of two nearby buildings: the base-and-tower massing of the Candler Building and the Gothic details of the
Bush Tower The Bush Tower (also the Bush Terminal Building, the Bush Terminal International Exhibit Building and formerly the Bush Terminal Sales Building) is a skyscraper in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, just east of Times Square ...
. When the building was completed, Hood proclaimed that it was "in some respects a departure from the ordinary high building".


Form

The original structure measuring tall consists of an eighteen-story tower above a base of five stories. The western annex only rises five stories. According to ''
Architectural Forum ''Architectural Forum'' was an American magazine that covered the homebuilding industry and architecture. Started in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1892 as ''The Brickbuilder'', it absorbed the magazine ''Architect's World'' in October 1938. Ownership ...
'' magazine, the lower floors "form a projecting screen, back of which rises the towering bulk of the building". The writer Eric Nash described the building as the "first true expression of the Art Deco skyscraper silhouette". The original tower contains several setbacks to comply with the
1916 Zoning Resolution The 1916 Zoning Resolution in New York City was the first citywide zoning code in the United States. The zoning resolution reflected both borough and local interests, and was proposed after the Equitable Building was erected in Lower Manhattan ...
. The first setback is on the 4th floor, and there are also setbacks on the 12th, 17th, 22nd, and 23rd floors. Above the 15th story are indentations; those on the northern side of the building are
bevel A bevelled edge (UK) or beveled edge (US) is an edge of a structure that is not perpendicular to the faces of the piece. The words bevel and chamfer overlap in usage; in general usage they are often interchanged, while in technical usage they ...
ed to make the tower appear like a shaft. Within these indentations are narrow window
bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...
. The shaft-like design permitted the tower to be illuminated by natural light from all sides. The shaft-like form was not applied consistently; the rear conformed to the city's setback requirement for backyards, so the south facade of the base and tower are continuous. Hood had intended for the original structure to be a standalone shaft. This required the building to be set back from the lot line, therefore reducing the maximum amount of space available in the building. Conversely, the slight setbacks and the indented corners ensure there would be some air between the tower and all adjacent buildings. The presence of the western annex also protected views from that direction. According to Hood, his team shaped "a small plasteline model into the maximum model that the zoning law permitted", which was similar to the structure's final form. Hood and his client only disagreed over whether the building should be more than twenty stories high and whether additional frontage should be used for the base.


Facade

The American Radiator Building was designed in a black and gold color scheme. These specific colors came from a "somewhat offhand" suggestion made during an early discussion with Hood and Fouilhoux's team. It is not known who exactly suggested the black and gold colors, but architectural writer Walter Littlefield Creese says it may have been Hood's friend, architect
Joseph Urban Joseph Urban (May 26, 1872 – July 10, 1933) was an Austrian-American architect, illustrator, and scenic designer. Life and career Joseph Urban was born on May 26, 1872, in Vienna. He received his first architectural commission at age 19 wh ...
. Hood used the black and gold palette because he believed that conventional office buildings, with their white-masonry facades and dark glass windows, were monotonous. He had compared such windows to "waffles" and wished to find a color to make the window openings more conspicuous. After the tower's completion, Hood anticipated that additional colorful skyscrapers would be developed in New York City. The primary color of black was used to signify coal, while gold-coated decorations were used to symbolize fire. The "gold" was actually bronze powder placed on cast stone, a technique which was devised after a number of experiments by Hood and Fouilhoux's team. Hood had visited
Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
just before the American Radiator Building was built, and he had realized how golden colors had made "gloomy and dingy" buildings stand out, especially if their facades were darker.


Base

The original building's base is clad with polished black
Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
granite. The windows of the former ground-level showrooms contain large plate-glass panes with thin vertical bronze
mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...
s in front of them. The spaces below the windows were originally clad in red
Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...
marble. The main entrance is a round-arched opening between the two original showroom windows. The western edge of the portal contains a plaque with the letters "1924 / Raymond Hood / Architect" embossed in bronze; the plaque originally contained a four-leaf clover, which has since fallen off. There are modified Gothic-style bronze pinnacles above the entrance opening, as well as a bronze frame around it. A
cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
, with
corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...
s and
modillion A modillion is an ornate bracket, more horizontal in shape and less imposing than a corbel. They are often seen underneath a cornice which it helps to support. Modillions are more elaborate than dentils (literally translated as small teeth). All ...
s, runs above the second story. Originally, there were nine corbels, of which six contained ornamental figures depicting negative human emotions. According to the ''
New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...
'', the corbels were inspired by caricatures of medieval
grotesque Since at least the 18th century (in French and German as well as English), grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, mysterious, magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus ...
s. The grotesques on the building were designed in a whimsical manner, with figures that included a pipe fitter with a wrench. The annex is designed in a similar style to the original building's base, with polished black granite on the first two stories. The annex has similar plate-glass panes and bronze mullions to the original building, but it has a revolving door at the center. The corbelled cornice above the second story of the annex is similar to that in the original building.


Tower

The original building is clad with black brick starting on the third floor. The third story consists of bays with one or two windows each, as well as carved railings at the bottom of each window and gold
spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fill ...
panels above each window. These bays are separated by slightly projecting black-brick
pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...
s, which in turn have gold pinnacles. This window pattern is repeated in the annex's third floor. The fourth and fifth floors of the annex are slightly set back from the first three stories and contain a facade of black brick, with a gold cornice on top. Projecting brick piers divide these stories into several bays, each with double windows. The tower stories contain projecting bricks in various places, which give it a textured quality. Dark red, light red, amber, and white lights were placed on the setbacks to provide nighttime illumination. Cornices wrap around the building at the 16th and 20th stories. The facade contains various pinnacles and peaks clad with gold, which one publication compared to turrets in old English castles. These ornamental features are actually made of terracotta but are covered in
gold leaf Gold leaf is gold that has been hammered into thin sheets (usually around 0.1 µm thick) by goldbeating and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades. The most commonly used gold is 22-kara ...
. Gold is also used on corbels, cornices, and the spandrels between stories, and the Gothic-style pinnacles at the top of the building are ornamented with gold leaf as well. When the building was being completed, Hood wrote for ''Architectural Forum'' that "false tops have gone out of vogue for office buildings, as well as the fashion of putting an ornamental front on one or two sides of a building". The roof consists of a tank surrounding a chimney and installed on a frame. At night, the gold-leafed terracotta decorations of the American Radiator Building are illuminated; Hood intended for this to draw attention to the shaft. Hood chose not to illuminate the middle stories of the tower "to avoid any simulation of daylight effects". The nighttime lighting gives the crown the appearance of a heated radiator. Other parts of the building were sometimes illuminated as well; in 1928, eleven stories were lit in the shape of a cross to raise awareness for
tuberculosis management Tuberculosis management describes the techniques and procedures utilized for treating tuberculosis (TB). The medical standard for active TB is a short course treatment involving a combination of isoniazid, rifampicin (also known as Rifampin), py ...
.


Features

Initially, the building was designed with of floor area. The annex has either or of space; according to the
New York City Department of City Planning The Department of City Planning (DCP) is the department of the government of New York City responsible for setting the framework of city's physical and socioeconomic planning. The department is responsible for land use and environmental review, p ...
, the annex's
gross floor area In architecture, construction, and real estate, floor area, floor space, or floorspace is the area (measured as square feet or square metres) taken up by a building or part of it. The ways of defining "floor area" depend on what factors of the buil ...
is 91,000 square feet. The building's original heating system consisted of radiators that were linked to a boiler room in the basement, which itself was available for public view. The ventilation system includes an exhaust shaft that led to a penthouse at the building's roof. Power is drawn directly from electric mains under the street. Twenty-five hundred lights were used in the interior, as well as motors capable of . When the building was completed, the elevators used then-innovative technology. For example, the elevator cabs could automatically align to the floor level, and the elevator gates could be opened when the passenger pushed a button, instead of having to be shoved aside manually. Originally, the building had three primary elevators that ran from ground level only to the 16th story, while the top stories were served by a separate elevator. When the Bryant Park Hotel was constructed, elevator shafts were installed to transport guests directly from the lobby to the top stories.


Lower stories

Originally, the basement had low-arched spaces that served as showrooms for furnaces and boilers. The
foundation Foundation may refer to: * Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization ** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S. ** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...
consists of piers extending below the basement floor; the deepest foundation pier is about below street level. The basement includes a 73-seat screening room, which was created when the Bryant Park Hotel was constructed within the building in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The screening room was dug deep into the bedrock, Because of the high
water table The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated. T ...
of the area, the excavation of the screening room entailed installing several pumps and drainage systems. As designed, the American Radiator Building's main entrance led to a vestibule, which in turn led to a corridor, an elevator lobby with three elevators on the left (east) wall, and a central staircase. The vestibule had heavy glass and bronze doors leading to the lobby. The lobby was clad in Monte Cenrato marble panels from South America. The wall panels were encircled with brass moldings, while the marble on the floor was surrounded with brass trips. The cornice was decorated with antique-looking ornamental plaster. Leading off either wall of the corridor were showrooms. Stairs led up from the west showroom to several intermediate display levels, while stairs led down from the east showroom to display level A1. This arrangement, according to Hood, was intended to give "more space in each store without sensibly leaving a general main level". Due to the layout, only the eastern showroom had a mezzanine above it. Bent girders were installed to support the different levels of showrooms, and the structural steel around the elevators were made of thin single-webs. Showrooms were also placed in the ground floor of the annex. When the main building was converted to a hotel in 2001, the lower stories were reconfigured and a restaurant space was created on the ground floor. In addition, two bars, a few shops, and a gym were created within the lower stories, including one bar in the basement. The annex's ground-floor showroom became part of the
Katharine Gibbs School Katharine Gibbs College was a for-profit institution of higher learning based in the United States of America, founded by Katharine Gibbs. As the Providence School in Rhode Island, it was founded in 1911 as an institution for the career educatio ...
.


Upper stories

The tower section of the American Radiator Building measures . It is designed so that 90 percent of all office space was at most from a window. The office spaces were fairly small, since elevators and stairs took up much of the space; on average, each of the upper floors covered only . A sample floor plan for the 12th through 15th floors indicates that three elevators and two sets of stairs were clustered in a service core near the east wall. Each of these floors also had men's and women's toilets. A smokestack was placed right behind the elevators. At stories with setbacks, there are tiled terraces. , the upper stories contain 125 guestrooms for the Bryant Park Hotel. On the 5th through 17th stories, there are no columns at the tower's front corners because of the presence of the indented corners. As a result, these corners are supported by
cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...
ed girders. Furthermore, while the front and rear walls were already stiffened at their setbacks, the east and west walls had to be stiffened with
gusset plate Gusset plate is a plate for connecting beams and girders to columns. A gusset plate can be fastened to a permanent member either by bolts, rivets or welding or a combination of the three. They are used in bridges and buildings, as well as oth ...
s. Most of the transverse girders in the tower are made of two
I-beam An I-beam, also known as H-beam (for universal column, UC), w-beam (for "wide flange"), universal beam (UB), rolled steel joist (RSJ), or double-T (especially in Polish language, Polish, Bulgarian language, Bulgarian, Spanish language, Spanish ...
s, except at setbacks, where deeper built-up girders are used. Four interior columns, placed within the service core, rise the height of the tower, leaving the remainder of each floor as a column-free space. The tower's other girders are built with a maximum depth of . The rear has a setback of at the 12th floor and at the 17th floor; two of the interior columns terminate above the 17th story. Structurally, the first 17 floors can support
live load A structural load or structural action is a force, deformation, or acceleration applied to structural elements. A load causes stress, deformation, and displacement in a structure. Structural analysis, a discipline in engineering, analyzes the effe ...
s of up to , while the 18th floor and above can support . At the 21st and 22nd floors, there are girders that transfer weight between the centers of different columns. There are heavy girders on the 22nd through 24th floors, which support equipment on the roof. The roof had a spiral stair leading to a water tank, fan room, corridor, and another space.


History

Raymond Hood was a relatively obscure architect when, in 1921, he collaborated with John Mead Howells in an
architectural design competition An architectural design competition is a type of design competition in which an organization that intends on constructing a new building invites architects to submit design proposals. The winning design is usually chosen by an independent panel o ...
, submitting a successful proposal for the Tribune Tower. According to one author, Hood became a prominent architect "from almost complete obscurity and literally overnight". At the time, architects were using classical Beaux-Arts design elements, which were poorly suited to tall structures.


Development

In 1923, the
American Radiator Company The American Radiator Company was established in 1892 by the merger of a number of North American radiator manufacturers. The company expanded in the early 20th century into Europe under the brand National Radiator Company. In 1929, it amalgam ...
started developing a new office building in New York City. The American Radiator Building was only the second skyscraper Hood designed, after the Tribune Tower. The design and construction of the original skyscraper took only thirteen months. The design process started in April 1923, and the steel superstructure was constructed from August 22 to November 21 of the same year. According to Hood, the exterior design had still not been finalized at one-eighth scale until two months after the building's steel was ordered. The color scheme was not finalized until some of the steel had been erected. When the building reached the 17th floor, Hood was still determining how the top of the building could be constructed at one-half scale. The American Radiator Company announced it would occupy the building in January 1924, upon which the building was scheduled to be completed that May. Initially, the American Radiator Company occupied . The company's space included one storefront, part of the 3rd and 4th floors, and the 16th through 24th floors. A. D. Julliard signed a lease for for a store at the base in August 1924. The lease included the multi-tiered storefront on the ground and 2nd stories, as well as the remainder of the 3rd and 4th floors, all connected by a private elevator. Space was also leased to office tenants, such as the Association of Edison Illuminating Companies' electric laboratories, the Clarage Fan Company, and the American Engineering Company. Hood and Fouilhoux's architecture firm also took space in the American Radiator Building. The American Radiator Company acquired a 12-story building at 35–39 West 39th Street, occupying a lot behind the company's tower, in 1928. This sale was intended to protect the views from the American Radiator Building. The next year, American Radiator Company merged with
Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company The original Standard Sanitary was formed when James West Arrott of James West Arrott Insurance company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania took over a bankrupt hooper company that could not pay their insurance premiums. Along with Francis Torrance (they ...
to form American Radiator and Standard Sanitary Corporation, later American Standard. Consequently, the structure was renamed the American Standard Building. American Standard had hired Hood in 1929 to design a westward extension of its tower. Hood drew plans for a tower that would be two and a half times the original building's height, with a black-and-gold facade topped by a pinnacle. These plans were not executed due to financial issues caused by the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
.


Expansion and mid-20th century

In February 1936, American Standard paid the
Bowery Savings Bank The Bowery Savings Bank was a bank in New York City, chartered in May 1834. By 1980, it had over 35 branches in the New York metropolitan area. In 1992, it was sold to H. F. Ahmanson & Co. for $200 million. The bank's first branch at 130 Bowe ...
$500,000 for the six adjacent houses at 46–52 West 40th Street and 39–43 West 39th Street. The structures were planned to be replaced with a showroom annex of no more than six stories. The new showrooms of the American Radiator Building opened in June 1937. The first exhibit held in the showrooms was a program about the planned redevelopment of Sixth Avenue after the planned demolition of the Sixth Avenue Elevated. Twenty-one of the project's laborers were given awards for the quality of their craftsmanship. The expanded showrooms were initially used for exhibits such as "an ideal city of 2000 AD", displayed in 1937; an exhibit of home appliances, in 1938; and a model of the northern section of Sixth Avenue, in 1941. American Standard sold the structure behind its tower, at 35–39 West 39th Street, in 1950. The expanded tower continued to be occupied by office tenants such as the
North Star Woolen Mill The North Star Woolen Mill, now the North Star Lofts, is a building in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The building, located in the St. Anthony Falls Historic District, was originally a textile mill for the North Star Woolen Compa ...
Company, as well as the
Mosler Safe Company The Mosler Safe Company was an American multinational manufacturer of security equipment specializing in safes and bank vaults. In 2001, the company was acquired by Diebold Inc. after going bankrupt. History In 1867, Gusdtave Mosler and Fred B ...
, the latter of which moved to the structure after American Standard acquired it in 1967. The
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
(LPC) held public hearings in September 1974 to determine whether to designate the American Radiator Building, along with Bryant Park and part of the New York Public Library's interior, as a city landmark. If approved, these would be the city's first modern-era, scenic, and interior landmarks, respectively. American Standard opposed the designation, stating that "the building has no historical significance at all" and claiming that it was only meant to "last a commercial length of time". Only two skyscrapers, the
Flatiron Building The Flatiron Building, originally the Fuller Building, is a triangular 22-story, steel-framed landmarked building at 175 Fifth Avenue in the eponymous Flatiron District neighborhood of the Boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New ...
and the
Manhattan Municipal Building The David N. Dinkins Municipal Building (originally the Municipal Building and later known as the Manhattan Municipal Building) is a 40-story, building at 1 Centre Street, east of Chambers Street, in the Civic Center neighborhood of Manhatt ...
, were designated as city landmarks at the time. LPC chairwoman Beverly Moss Spatt said at the time that the "city is in serious trouble", with lawsuits questioning the commission's authority. The three landmark designations were granted in November 1974, and the designations were ratified by the
New York City Board of Estimate The New York City Board of Estimate was a governmental body in New York City responsible for numerous areas of municipal policy and decisions, including the city budget, land-use, contracts, franchises, and water rates. Under the amendments effec ...
early the next year. The American Standard Building was added to the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
on May 7, 1980.


Conversion

American Standard reduced the number of employees working at its New York City headquarters in the 1980s, decreasing the workforce from 500 to 200 within five years. In early 1988,
Black+Decker Black+Decker Inc. is an American manufacturer of power tools, accessories, hardware, home improvement products, home appliances and fastening systems headquartered in Towson, Maryland, north of Baltimore, Maryland, USA, where the company was o ...
made a surprise offer to buy American Standard and sell off the American Standard Building. In light of its downsizing, American Standard sold the tower and annex to Japanese company Clio Court (also known as Clio Biz) that September for $43 million. Clio initially proposed converting the building into a luxury hotel with either 160, 200, or 250 rooms. The high price was in part due to high demand for luxury hotels at the time. Clio contemplated erecting at least 15 stories above the annex but did not have a construction estimate at first. American Standard planned to sublease some space in the building in the meantime. Following a lack of interest from Japanese investors in American real estate, the building stood vacant during the 1990s. When
Christopher Gray Christopher Stewart Gray (April 24, 1950 – March 10, 2017) was an American journalist and architectural historian,Schneider, Daniel B (August 27, 2000)"F.Y.I. Hell's Kitchen in the Raw" ''The New York Times''. March 4, 2010. noted for his week ...
wrote about the building for ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' in 1994, it had already been unoccupied for four years. In the 1990s, the building was also used as an observation area for fashion executives who were watching fashion shows in Bryant Park. By 1997, the shows had moved to
Chelsea Piers Chelsea Piers is a series of piers in Chelsea, on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located to the west of the West Side Highway ( Eleventh Avenue) and Hudson River Park and to the east of the Hudson River, they were originally a pa ...
, partly because Clio was trying to the American Standard Building and partly because of discontent over the Bryant Park location. The ownership of the main tower and its annex were split afterward. Fashion designer
Tommy Hilfiger Thomas Jacob Hilfiger ( /hɪlˈfɪgər/; born March 24, 1951) is an American fashion designer and the founder of Tommy Hilfiger Corporation. After starting his career by co-founding a chain of jeans/fashion stores called People's Place in upst ...
reportedly expressed interest in leasing the American Standard Building as his company's headquarters, but no deal was ever made.


Main tower

The real estate developer Philip Pilevsky bought the main tower for $15 million in 1998 and began turning it into a 170-room hotel. The hotel was one of several being established outside the traditional hotel districts in New York City. Daiwa Real Estate originally committed to funding the hotel conversion but reneged when Pilevsky experienced financial issues with other projects in late 1998.
David Chipperfield Sir David Alan Chipperfield, (born 18 December 1953) is an English architect. He established David Chipperfield Architects in 1985. His major works include the River and Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire (1989–1998); the Museum ...
was hired as the conversion architect. The city-landmark status required that the renovation architects be particularly careful about the restoration of the facade; the designation prohibited some proposed changes such as bigger guestroom windows. At about forty places, bricks had been taken out so air-conditioning could be installed. The architects needed to close these holes with hundreds of black bricks, which had been difficult to obtain in the original construction; contractors reused some of the bricks from the interior, which were made of the same material. The Bryant Park Hotel opened in early 2001 and was frequently fully occupied during its first two months. The Japanese restaurant Koi opened in the ground floor in 2005, The hotel became popular with musicians such as
Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...
and
Rihanna Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, actress, and businesswoman. Born in Saint Michael and raised in Bridgetown, Barbados, Rihanna auditioned for American record producer Evan Rogers who invited her to the ...
, as well as those in the fashion and film industries, in part because
New York Fashion Week New York Fashion Week (NYFW), held in February and September of each year, is a semi-annual series of events in Manhattan typically spanning 7–9 days when international fashion collections are shown to buyers, the press, and the general publ ...
was hosted in Bryant Park. However, by May 2011, the Bryant Park Hotel had fallen behind on its $89 million mortgage. The Moroccan-themed Célon Bar & Lounge opened in the basement in 2017, replacing the hotel's Cellar Bar. The Bryant Park Hotel closed temporarily in early 2020 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in New York City The first case of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City was confirmed on March 1, 2020, though later research showed that the novel coronavirus had been circulating in New York City since January, with cases of community transmission confirme ...
. By mid-2020, Pilevsky, along with hotel co-owners Raymond Gindi and Joseph Chehebar, had hired Philips International to advertise all in the main building as office space. The men planned to rent the space in sections ranging from . The hotel reopened with limited service in September 2020 and was 20 percent occupied by March 2021.


Annex

The Atlanta-based Homestead Properties had purchased the annex for $19 million, intending to convert it into an extended-stay hotel, though this never happened. In 2001, the annex was converted to the New York location of
Katharine Gibbs School Katharine Gibbs College was a for-profit institution of higher learning based in the United States of America, founded by Katharine Gibbs. As the Providence School in Rhode Island, it was founded in 1911 as an institution for the career educatio ...
. Gibbs School operated until 2009, when it closed all of its locations. Afterward, the
City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...
(CUNY) indicated its intent to sign a lease for the American Radiator annex, which would house a new community college. The school, subsequently renamed
Guttman Community College Stella and Charles Guttman Community College is a public community college in New York City. It is the newest of the City University of New York's (CUNY) community colleges and was founded on September 11, 2011. It opened on August 20, 2012 as ...
, opened in 2012.


Impact


Reception

When the building was completed, architect
Harvey Wiley Corbett Harvey Wiley Corbett (January 8, 1873 – April 21, 1954) was an American architect primarily known for skyscraper and office building designs in New York and London, and his advocacy of tall buildings and modernism in architecture. Early life ...
observed that "Comment upon the new building has been sharply divided", quoting one critic who cited the color scheme as a source of argument.
Hugh Ferriss Hugh Macomber Ferriss (July 12, 1889 – January 28, 1962) was an American architect, illustrator, and poet. He was associated with exploring the psychological condition of modern urban life, a common cultural enquiry of the first decades of ...
wrote that the design "provoked more arguments among laymen on the subject of architectural values than any other structure in the country". Architectural media perceived the building as a novelty. ''Architecture and Building'', for instance, said the design "is unusual, but not therefore unnecessarily ugly", and therefore effective as an advertisement for the American Radiator Company''.'' ''Architecture'' magazine's editors stated in 1925 that the building's "very atmosphere", including its color scheme, was "symbolic of its function". Orrick Johns of ''The New York Times'' said that the building "has broken through the color line", saying: "It certainly is something new and tremendous but, like jazz and the Ku Klux, hard to place." An anonymous critic in ''The Villager'' said that the American Radiator Building "distilled" what they perceived as a monotonous skyline. Architect Talbot Hamlin also praised the building's symbolism as "the perfect artistic expression of the rush and excitement of modern life" and called it the "most daring experiment in color in modern buildings yet made in America". Upon Hood's death in 1934, the ''
New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...
'' called the building "among the finest modern achievements in architecture", along with Hood's McGraw-Hill Building,
Daily News Building The Daily News Building, also known as The News Building, is a skyscraper at 220 East 42nd Street in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The original building was designed by architects Raymond Hood and John Mead ...
, and
Beaux-Arts Apartments The Beaux-Arts Apartments are a pair of apartment towers on 307 and 310 East 44th Street in the East Midtown and Turtle Bay neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. Designed by Raymond Hood and Kenneth Murchison, the Beaux-Arts Apartment ...
. Praise continued even in later years. In 1987, architects
Philip Johnson Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the pos ...
and
John Burgee __NOTOC__ John Burgee (born August 28, 1933) is an American architect noted for his contributions to Postmodern architecture. He was a partner of Philip Johnson from 1967 to 1991, creating together the partnership firm Johnson/Burgee Architects. ...
named the American Standard Building as having one of the city's most distinctive roofs. The design was additionally noted for its use of lighting. According to art and architectural historian Dietrich Neumann, the design "helped to introduce a new age of color and light in American architecture." Other critics were less appreciative of the novel color scheme. An article published in ''Architecture'' magazine during 1925 said that the facade design "shocked and offended some of our good friends from the Middle West who saw it for the first time recently". Journalist
Herbert Croly Herbert David Croly (January 23, 1869 – May 17, 1930) was an intellectual leader of the progressive movement as an editor, political philosopher and a co-founder of the magazine ''The New Republic'' in early twentieth-century America. His pol ...
felt that the American Radiator Building was "not particularly successful in itself", though he believed the decorative scheme was useful as an inspiration for future colorful buildings in New York City. Similarly, George Harold Edgell said the design's "effect is theatrical to a degree that opens it to the charge of vulgarity", questioning whether a radiator company required such a prominent edifice.


Awards and media

In December 1924, the Fifth Avenue Association dubbed the American Radiator Building as the second-best new building erected around Fifth Avenue during that year. The Community Trust of New York installed a plaque near the original building's entrance in 1962, commemorating the building's architectural significance. According to Christopher Gray, the American Radiator Building was "so powerful that it inspired other works of art". These artworks included
Georgia O'Keeffe Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) was an American modernist artist. She was known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe has been called the "Mother of Amer ...
's 1927 painting '' Radiator Building – Night, New York'', as well as nighttime photographs by
Samuel Gottscho Samuel Herman Gottscho (February 8, 1875 – January 28, 1971) was an American architectural, landscape, and nature photographer. Gottscho was born in Brooklyn in New York City. He acquired his first camera in 1896 and took his first photo ...
. The
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is a museum of American art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The museum, founded by Alice Walton and designed by Moshe Safdie, officially opened on 11 November 2011. It offers free public admission. Overview ...
describes ''Radiator Building – Night, New York'' as O'Keeffe's "grandest statement on New York City".


See also

*
List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan from 14th to 59th Streets A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
*
National Register of Historic Places listings in Manhattan from 14th to 59th Streets This is intended to be a complete list of properties and districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places on Manhattan Island, the primary portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan (also designated as New York County, New York ...


References


Notes


Citations


Sources

* * * * * * * *


External links


Hotel website

Floor plans from ''Architectural Forum'' (1924)
{{Portal bar, Architecture, New York City, NRHP 1924 establishments in New York City 2001 establishments in New York City Art Deco architecture in Manhattan Art Deco skyscrapers Bryant Park buildings Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan Hotels established in 2001 New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan Office buildings completed in 1924 Skyscraper hotels in Manhattan