The Beaux-Arts Apartments are a pair of apartment towers on 307 and 310 East 44th Street in the
East Midtown
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 Buildi ...
and
Turtle Bay neighborhoods of
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
in
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 ...
. 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
Kenneth Murchison
Kenneth Murchison (1794 - 1 August 1854) was the Resident Councillor of Penang and Resident Councillor of Singapore, as well as the third Governor of the Straits Settlements.
Early life
Murchison was born in Scotland in 1794 to Barbara (née ...
, the Beaux-Arts Apartments were constructed between 1929 and 1930. The complex was originally designed with 640 apartments.
The Beaux-Arts Apartments consist of two towers on East 44th Street; number 307 is on the north sidewalk while number 310 is on the south sidewalk. The two towers are 16 stories and are faced with limestone at the base, dark brick between windows on the upper stories, and light brick between each story. The top four stories of both buildings contain numerous
setbacks, which form terraces for the upper-story units. The interiors largely consist of
studio apartment
A studio apartment, also known as a studio flat ( UK), a self-contained apartment (Nigeria), efficiency apartment, bed-sitter (Kenya) or bachelor apartment, is a small apartment (rarely a condo) in which the normal functions of a number of ro ...
s measuring on average; they are lit by large windows on the outside. The ground floor of the south building, number 310, contains a cafe.
The apartment complex was built just east of the
Beaux-Arts Institute of Design
The Beaux-Arts Institute of Design (BAID, later the National Institute for Architectural Education) was an art and architectural school at 304 East 44th Street in Turtle Bay, Manhattan, in New York City.[stock
In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...]
issues rather than
mortgage loan
A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law jurisdicions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners to raise funds for any p ...
s. The buildings opened to residents in January 1930 during 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 ...
. The Beaux-Arts Apartments avoided foreclosure due to their financing arrangement and were initially popular among businesswomen. The buildings were sold to
the Brodsky Organization in 1973 and 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 ...
designated the complex as a city landmark in 1988.
Site
The Beaux-Arts Apartments are a pair of apartment towers on 307 and 310 East 44th Street, between
Second Avenue and
First Avenue, in the
East Midtown
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 Buildi ...
and
Turtle Bay neighborhoods of
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
in
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 ...
. 307 East 44th Street is on the north side of the street, while 310 East 44th Street is on the south side.
Number 307's 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 ...
covers ,
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 44th Street and a depth of .
Number 310's rectangular land lot covers ,
with a frontage of along 44th Street and a depth of .
Number 310 is directly adjacent to the
Beaux-Arts Institute of Design
The Beaux-Arts Institute of Design (BAID, later the National Institute for Architectural Education) was an art and architectural school at 304 East 44th Street in Turtle Bay, Manhattan, in New York City.[Ford Foundation Building
The Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice (also known as 321 East 42nd Street, 320 East 43rd Street, or the Ford Foundation Building) is a 12-story office building in East Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Designed by architect Kevin Roc ...]
to the south and the
Millennium Hilton New York One UN Plaza
The Millennium Hilton New York One UN Plaza is a 439-room hotel in the East Midtown neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, United States. Designed by architect Kevin Roche of the firm Roche-Dinkeloo and opened in 1976, the hotel is locat ...
hotel and the
Church Center for the United Nations to the east.
In the early 20th century, a large portion of Turtle Bay's population was involved in the arts or architecture. Structures such as the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design and the residential
Turtle Bay Gardens,
Tudor City
Tudor City is an apartment complex located on the southern edge of Turtle Bay on the East Side of Manhattan in New York City, near Turtle Bay's border with Murray Hill. It lies on a low cliff, which is east of Second Avenue between 40th and ...
, and
Beekman Tower
The Beekman Tower, also known as the Panhellenic Tower, is a 26-story Art Deco skyscraper situated at the corner of First Avenue and East 49th Street in Midtown Manhattan, in New York City. The building was constructed between 1927 and 1928 to ...
were constructed for this community.
[; ] William Lescaze
William Edmond Lescaze, FAIA (March 27, 1896 – February 9, 1969), was a Swiss-born American architect, city planner and industrial designer. He is ranked among the pioneers of modernism in American architecture.
Biography
William Lescaze w ...
's renovation of an existing brownstone townhouse on 48th Street, and its subsequent conversion into the
Lescaze House
The Lescaze House is a four-story house at 211 East 48th Street in the East Midtown and Turtle Bay neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It is along the northern sidewalk of 48th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue. The Lesc ...
, inspired similar renovations to other structures in the neighborhood, such as
219 East 49th Street.
Architecture
Both apartment blocks were 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
Kenneth Murchison
Kenneth Murchison (1794 - 1 August 1854) was the Resident Councillor of Penang and Resident Councillor of Singapore, as well as the third Governor of the Straits Settlements.
Early life
Murchison was born in Scotland in 1794 to Barbara (née ...
as 17-story towers, though only 16 stories are visible from the street.
The
George A. Fuller Company
George A. Fuller (1851 – December 14, 1900) was an American architect often credited as being the "inventor" of modern skyscrapers and the modern contracting system.
Early life and career
Fuller was born in Templeton, Massachusetts, near W ...
was the
general contractor
A general contractor, main contractor or prime contractor is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of a construction site, management of vendors and trades, and the communication of information to all involved parties throughout the course of ...
for both structures.
Both buildings contain steel-framed
superstructure
A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships.
Aboard ships and large boats
On water craft, the superstruct ...
s.
The interiors of the apartment units were designed by multiple architects. The arrangement of the towers across each other was intended to make 44th Street appear as a courtyard.
Facade
The
facades of the buildings are nearly identical. The north building at 307 East 44th Street is eleven
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 ...
wide, while the south building at 310 East 44th Street is twelve bays wide.
The
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 ...
s of both buildings are designed similarly, and the apartment towers themselves are arranged symmetrically in a similar manner to Beaux-Arts structures.
[; ] The main sections are recessed behind their respective sidewalks, with plantings in front.
On either end of both buildings are pavilions, which protrude to the sidewalk at their first thirteen stories. 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 ...
, both buildings contain
setbacks on the 13th through 16th stories, similar to the
Art Deco skyscrapers of New York City.
The design of the neighboring 3 United Nations Plaza's facade was inspired by the Beaux-Arts Apartments.
Base
On both apartment blocks, the 44th Street facade of the first two stories is clad with limestone,
[; ] interspersed with horizontal bands of chrome.
The western ends of the buildings' ground stories are slightly beneath the sidewalk, and there are small planted areas behind iron railings.
Ground-story studio apartments had their own private entrances directly to the street.
At both buildings, ground-story doors and windows are covered by iron grilles, which are designed as grids of rhombuses, while the walls have triangular lighting fixtures.
The only difference at ground level is that, in the south building, the ground story east of the entrance has a glass-and-aluminum wall enclosing a restaurant, rather than plantings. Directly east of the south building is a
colonnade
In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...
, which leads to an open-air courtyard separating the south building from Three United Nations Plaza.
The centers of either building have a double-height entrance pavilion that protrudes to the street, with angled bays containing casement windows on either side. The glass entrance doors and the central second-story window are both flanked by stepped
jamb
A jamb (from French ''jambe'', "leg"), in architecture, is the side-post or lining of a doorway or other aperture. The jambs of a window outside the frame are called “reveals.” Small shafts to doors and windows with caps and bases are know ...
s. A carved geometric
frieze
In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...
is above the second-floor opening of each pavilion. A metal railing, with
chevron
Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to:
Science and technology
* Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines
* Chevron (anatomy), a bone
* '' Eulithis testata'', a moth
* Chevron (geology), a fold in rock ...
-shaped
baluster
A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its cons ...
s, surrounds the balcony on top of each entrance pavilion.
Upper stories
![Beaux-Arts_Apartments_May_2021_13](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Beaux-Arts_Apartments_May_2021_13.jpg)
On each of the buildings' upper stories, there are wide steel
casement window
A casement window is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges at the side. They are used singly or in pairs within a common frame, in which case they are hinged on the outside. Casement windows are often held open using a cas ...
s.
[; ] The buildings have a variety of window styles such as single, double, and triple two-part casements as well as corner windows. On both buildings, the triple casement windows are the most common.
The end pavilions contain windows that wrap around the corners of the facade.
These corner windows, which were included to show that the exterior walls are non-structural,
were built with minimal vertical
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 to avoid obstructing views.
According to Hood, the design of the windows "takes away from the waffle-like character of the usual factory design".
There was 60 percent more glass than in comparable buildings, according to both architects.
Chevron-shaped
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 ...
-style railings, similar in design to those above the entrance pavilions, are used on some of the upper stories.
The windows on each story are separated vertically by panels of alternating red and black brick.
This created "stripes" similar to those used on the
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 ...
, which Hood had also designed. These stripes were placed between windows on the same floor, in a manner more akin to the
International Style, rather than between windows in the same bay on different floors, as was typical of the Art Deco style.
The
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 ...
s between the windows on different stories are continuous horizontal bands of light-colored
buff
Buff or BUFF may refer to:
People
* Buff (surname), a list of people
* Buff (nickname), a list of people
* Johnny Buff, ring name of American world champion boxer John Lisky (1888–1955)
* Buff Bagwell, a ring name of American professional ...
brick.
Hood said the spandrels were intended to give the structures a horizontal emphasis, which fit the shapes of each building.
The end pavilions are clad with light-colored brick similar to that used on the spandrels between different stories.
The designs of the main facades are continued on the western and eastern sides of both buildings. The buildings' western and eastern sides are exposed to varying extents, but all have dark brick stripes at their centers, behind which are stairwells.
[; ] Some portions of the south building's eastern side have a stucco wall rather than brick cladding; the stucco indicates the silhouette of a former four-story building to the east.
On the 13th through 16th stories of both buildings, there are setbacks facing 44th Street, which form terraces on each story. In either building, six of the bays contain setbacks of uniform depth on each story. The remaining bays (five in the north building and six in the south building) are set back in a different pattern. In each building, these consist of the center (one bay in the north, two in the south); the second-bay on either side of the center; and the outermost bays. The center and outermost bays of each building contain square profiles, while the second-from-center bays are angled. The center bay(s) have a setback only at the 16th story, and the other four bays have setbacks on each of the 14th through 16th stories. Mechanical brick penthouses are on the roofs of both buildings.
The rear of the north building contains terraces with gradual setbacks, but the rear of the south building is not visible from the street.
Murchison wrote that the setbacks were included to "add to the desirability of many apartments".
Architectural writer
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 ...
compared the massing of the upper stories to a jigsaw puzzle.
Interior
Lower stories
![Beaux-Arts_Apartments_May_2021_14](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Beaux-Arts_Apartments_May_2021_14.jpg)
Initially, the lobbies of both buildings were decorated in a modern style, with side walls made of brown glass, interspersed with aluminum and brass trim.
The lobbies were also decorated with strips of chrome, and the ceilings were adorned with silver leaf motifs. The modernist style was continued in the elevator cabs, which had glass-rod ceilings and lacquered aluminum walls.
According to Murchison, the metal-paneled walls of the elevators were designed without mirrors "just to hide from yourself your own appearance when you come in at 4 A.M."
The ground story of number 310 had a small restaurant named Cafe Bonaparte, operated in part because most units did not have full-service kitchens.
[; ] Winold Reiss
F. Winold Reiss (September 16, 1886 – August 23, 1953) was a German-born American artist and graphic designer. He was born in Karlsruhe, Germany, the second son of Fritz Reiss (1857–1914) and his wife. He grew up surrounded by art, as his fa ...
designed the cafe's rooms
with yellow, green, and blue decorations.
Cafe Bonaparte was intended to not only provide room service for residents but also serve as a social gathering place.
The cafe was also decorated with fabric walls, fluted
wainscoting
Panelling (or paneling in the U.S.) is a millwork wall covering constructed from rigid or semi-rigid components. These are traditionally interlocking wood, but could be plastic or other materials.
Panelling was developed in antiquity to make roo ...
, and a ceiling with zigzagging grilles. A similar ground-floor space in number 307 was originally outfitted with a room-service kitchen but no restaurant. Single-room
maisonette
An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are man ...
s, behind the lobbies and restaurant spaces in either building, extended to the rear of the respective building.
Apartments
The Beaux-Arts Apartments were arranged with 800 rooms between them, split into 640 residential units.
The northern building (number 307) had 328 apartments and seven
penthouse apartment
A penthouse is an apartment or unit on the highest floor of an apartment building, condominium, hotel or tower
A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distingui ...
s, while the southern building (number 310) had 345 apartments and six penthouses.
All units from the first to thirteenth stories of each building were arranged as single-room
studio apartment
A studio apartment, also known as a studio flat ( UK), a self-contained apartment (Nigeria), efficiency apartment, bed-sitter (Kenya) or bachelor apartment, is a small apartment (rarely a condo) in which the normal functions of a number of ro ...
s. One- to three- bedroom apartments were arranged on and above the fourteenth floor of each building.
In both buildings, the walls of even-numbered stories were plastered in white, while the walls of odd-numbered stories were plastered in rough brown. The pantries and bathrooms were plastered in white and the corridors were finished with a rough texture.
Cork floors were installed in the studios and communal corridors to provide soundproofing; they were attached directly to the concrete slabs and thinner than wooden floors.
The cork tiles were thick and were laid in a random pattern. The corridors are also outfitted with garbage chutes.
The small studio apartments in the Beaux-Arts Apartments typically measure only .
The original furniture in the studio apartments had simple furnishings such as
kitchenette
A kitchenette is a small cooking area, which usually has a refrigerator and a microwave, but may have other appliances. In some motel and hotel rooms, small apartments, college dormitories, or office buildings, a kitchenette consists of a small ref ...
s and
twin-size folding beds.
Though the kitchenettes were not meant for cooking,
they were designed to uniform dimensions of .
The upper part of the pantries had a sink and kitchen cabinet,
while the lower section had
mini-fridges designed by
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...
. There were either one or two folding
Murphy bed
A Murphy bed (also known as a pull-down bed, fold-down bed, or wall bed) is a bed that is hinged at one end to store vertically against the wall, or inside a closet or cabinet. Since they often can be used as both a bed or a closet, Murphy beds m ...
s in the walls of each studio apartment,
which were installed on movable tracks in the walls. Single studio apartments also have up to five closets.
Bathrooms are arranged so they did not open into living rooms;
a small foyer in each studio unit leads to the unit's bathroom.
Bathrooms throughout the building are built to a uniform size of , with a recessed tub, a small toilet, a sink, and black tiling.
There are also one-and-a-half-story duplex studios on the top floors of each building.
The duplex studios' rooms could be as much as across and high. The arrangement of these duplexes is influenced by the presence of the exterior setbacks. The studios are arranged so two of the larger studios' bedrooms, one on top of the other, span three stories. In the lower duplex units, the studios and bedrooms are both on the 14th floor, but in the upper duplex units, the studio is seven steps below the 16th-floor bedroom and seven steps above the 15th-floor bedroom.
Some of the rooms had galleries with wrought-iron railings, which, according to the original renting agent, gave the impression of a spacious house.
The 17th floor of each building contains single-height studios and bedrooms, and the penthouse contains suites with one, two, and three rooms.
History
The Beaux-Arts Institute of Design had been founded to train architects in the style of the French
École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth century ...
.
During the late 1920s, the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design was housed at 126 East 75th Street on the
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...
of Manhattan.
The institute hired Hood and Murchison to find a site that was "somewhere nearer the architects' and draftsmen's zone of activity", which was in Turtle Bay.
In November 1927, the institute bought a site at 304 and 306 East 44th Street, on which it planned to build a four-story building, for $125,000.
The institute dedicated its new building exactly one year later.
Construction
![Beaux-Arts_Apartments_May_2021_32](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Beaux-Arts_Apartments_May_2021_32.jpg)
As the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design was completing its new headquarters, it formed the Beaux-Arts Development Corporation to develop a residential studios near the institute's buildings.
Hood and Murchison were selected as the development's architects. According to ''The New York Times'', the architects envisioned buying all the land on the surrounding section of 44th Street, "making of the street a sort of uptown artistic centre" close to
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...
.
The ''Times'' claimed that "this is probably the first time that such a group of artists and allied professions has ever gotten together to develop for their own account real estate in New York".
Hood and Murchison had initially contemplated constructing the entire development as artists' studios, but they abandoned that plan in favor of more traditional apartment construction.
At the time of the Beaux-Arts Apartments' construction, artists' studio buildings such as the
Gainsborough Studios
Gainsborough Pictures was a British film studio based on the south bank of the Regent's Canal, in Poole Street, Hoxton in the former Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch, north London. Gainsborough Studios was active between 1924 and 1951. The com ...
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 ...
generally had high ceilings, but the word "studio" was increasingly being used to refer to small apartments with few rooms.
The Beaux-Arts Development Corporation acquired two plots in December 1928, totaling . These consisted of a site at 308–320 East 44th Street, across from the institute on the north side of the street, as well as a site at 307–317 East 44th Street, right next to the institute on the south side.
Douglas Elliman & Co. were hired as the agents for the new buildings to be built on those sites.
Plans for the north building, to be designed by
Frederick A. Godley 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 ...
, were filed the same month.
In February 1929, the
National City Company and the
United States Realty and Construction Company announced that they would finance the buildings' construction with the sale of
stock
In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...
s in Beaux-Arts Apartments Inc., a syndicate of architects representing the buildings' developer.
The financing was the first of its type, as typical buildings were financed with
mortgage loan
A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law jurisdicions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners to raise funds for any p ...
s. The financing consisted of
common stock
Common stock is a form of corporate equity ownership, a type of security. The terms voting share and ordinary share are also used frequently outside of the United States. They are known as equity shares or ordinary shares in the UK and other Com ...
, issued on a one-to-one basis with either of two issues of
preferred stock
Preferred stock (also called preferred shares, preference shares, or simply preferreds) is a component of share capital that may have any combination of features not possessed by common stock, including properties of both an equity and a debt ins ...
, which would raise the $5.25 million construction cost.
Among the investors in the corporation were Hood and Murchison, as well as architects and designers
Chester Holmes Aldrich
Chester Holmes Aldrich (4 June 1871 – 26 December 1940) was an American architect and director of the American Academy in Rome.
Early life
Aldrich was born in Providence, Rhode Island. He was the third son of Anna Elizabeth (née Gladding) an ...
, John W. Cross,
William Adams Delano
William Adams Delano (January 21, 1874 – January 12, 1960), an American architect, was a partner with Chester Holmes Aldrich in the firm of Delano & Aldrich. The firm worked in the Beaux-Arts tradition for elite clients in New York City, Long I ...
,
William H. Gompert William H. Gompert (1875 -1946) was the Architect and Superintendent of School Buildings for the New York City Board of Education. According to researcpublished by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, Gompert was educated at Adelphi ...
,
Charles Klauder
Charles Zeller Klauder (February 9, 1872 – October 30, 1938) was an American architect best known for his work on university buildings and campus designs, especially his Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh, the first educat ...
,
Benjamin Wistar Morris, James W. O'Connor, and
Whitney Warren
Whitney Warren (January 29, 1864 – January 24, 1943) was an American Beaux-Arts architect who founded, with Charles Delevan Wetmore, Warren and Wetmore in New York City, one of the most prolific and successful architectural practices in the ...
.
That April, the George A. Fuller Company ordered of structural steel from McClintic-Marshall for the two buildings.
A resident manager was appointed in November 1929.
Early years
The Beaux-Arts Apartments were both completed by January 1930. At the time, Douglas Elliman & Co. said many leases for small studios had been signed.
In total, 23 people owned all of the buildings' preferred stock. Though most of the investors were architects or otherwise associated with the arts, they also included realtors Douglas L. and Roland Elliman; attorneys Huber B. Lewis, William B. Symmes, and George G. Schreiber; businessmen
William Walter Phelps
William Walter Phelps (August 24, 1839 – June 17, 1894) was a United States Congressman and diplomat who served as United States Ambassador to Germany and Austria-Hungary.
He was the son of John Jay Phelps, a successful New York City m ...
and
John Kilpatrick
John Reed Kilpatrick (June 15, 1889 – May 7, 1960) was an American athlete, soldier, and sports businessperson. He is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame and College Football Hall of Fame.
Kilpatrick was born to a Canadian mother and American ...
; and the Fuller Construction Company.
In spite of the fact that the buildings were completed at the start of 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 ...
and, therefore, had fewer tenants, their financing arrangement was one factor in why neither building went into foreclosure.
According to a Douglas Elliman spokesman, the buildings' furnished apartments would help attract tenants faster than non-furnished apartments would.
Eight suites in the apartments were furnished for potential tenants to view,
including two units designed by
Pierre Dutel in contrasting modernist and traditional styles.
The newly completed buildings received an award of "construction merit" from ''Building Investment Magazine'' in February 1930. An open-air cafe in the courtyard of the south building opened that June. The Beaux-Arts Apartments were initially especially popular among businesswomen, who comprised more than half of the residents by July 1930. At that point, the buildings had 270 tenants, with an average of fifteen tenants signing leases every week. According to Douglas Elliman's informal survey of residents, one in five female tenants were married but had leased suites in the buildings for the workweek. By 1931, sixty suites in the south building were being operated like a short-term hotel. Most early tenants lived alone or with a partner. Among the first residents were sculptor
Jo Davidson
Jo Davidson (March 30, 1883 – January 2, 1952) was an American sculptor. Although he specialized in realistic, intense portrait busts, Davidson did not require his subjects to formally pose for him; rather, he observed and spoke with them. H ...
and architect
Talbot Hamlin, as well as Kenneth Murchison.
In March 1933, a shuttle bus route started running between the Beaux-Arts Apartments and Grand Central Terminal. Though 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 ...
'' termed it "perhaps the shortest bus route in the country", it carried 50,000 passengers in its first six months, and another route to
Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center is a large complex consisting of 19 commerce, commercial buildings covering between 48th Street (Manhattan), 48th Street and 51st Street (Manhattan), 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 14 original Art Deco ...
was created that October. The buildings' rear apartments were more difficult to rent in part because they faced commercial concerns that operated at night, making noise. To solve this problem, in 1938, glass-block walls and air conditioning units were installed in some rear units. The same year, Leon and Lionel Levy filed plans to convert the southern apartment block, 310 East 44th Street, into a hotel. The Beaux-Arts Apartments' private bus services to Grand Central and Rockefeller Center were discontinued in 1943 by order of the Office of Defense Transportation; at the time, the buses carried 200 passengers daily.
Later years
By the late 1960s, both of the Beaux-Arts Apartments were converted to standard residential apartments. The entrances of both structures were overhauled and the original lobby decorations were removed entirely.
In 1968, the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
proposed building a set of twin towers on the entire block bounded by 43rd Street, First Avenue, 45th Street, and Second Avenue, serving as an expansion of
its headquarters one block east. This would have entailed destroying the Beaux-Arts Apartments, whose owners expressed surprise at the proposal and said they would continue to operate the apartment buildings. While the UN proposal was slightly modified in late 1969, the plans still called for demolishing the apartments. The UN ultimately decided instead to build a skyscraper on a smaller lot rather than raze the site.
Beaux-Arts Properties sold the Beaux-Arts Apartments to
the Brodsky Organization for $8.1 million in 1973. Brodsky said at the time that it would continue to maintain the building.
Under Brodsky, the southern apartment block at 310 East 44th Street was converted from a hotel to residential apartments; this was one of several residential conversions Brodsky performed during that time. With the expansion of the UN headquarters in the 1970s and 1980s, all of the neighboring buildings to the east were demolished, and new structures were erected, blocking the Beaux-Arts Apartments' eastern facades. One and Two United Nations Plaza and the Kuwaiti and Nigerian missions to the United Nations were built on the north side of the street, on both sides of 307 East 44th Street, while the
UNICEF
UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...
headquarters and UN Church Center were built on the south side, adjacent to 310 East 44th Street. The residents of the Beaux-Arts Apartments could not have large gatherings on 44th Street for over a decade, since the street had to be closed for construction.
On July 11, 1989, 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 ...
designated the buildings as city landmarks. The upper floors were refurbished in 1997 as part of a $120,000 project.
The buildings continue to be operated by the Brodsky Organization .
Critical reception
When the buildings were completed in 1930, 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 ...
'' called the apartments "a type of building distinctly different and yet lacking none of the conveniences expected and demanded in modern apartments".
Upon Hood's death in 1934, a few years after the buildings' completion, 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 buildings "among the finest modern achievements in architecture", along with Hood's
American Radiator Building
The American Radiator Building (also known as the American Standard Building) is an early skyscraper at 40 West 40th Street, just south of Bryant Park, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It was designed by Raymond Hood and ...
,
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
McGraw Hill Building. In the book ''New York 1930'', architectural writer
Robert A. M. Stern
Robert Arthur Morton Stern, usually credited as Robert A. M. Stern (born May 23, 1939), is a New York City–based architect, educator, and author. He is the founding partner of the architecture firm, Robert A.M. Stern Architects, also known a ...
characterized the buildings as the "most interesting side street apartments" of the period between the two world wars.
In 1997,
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 an article headlined "A Matched Pair of 1930 Monuments to Art Deco" 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 which he said of the ongoing restoration: "the original jazz-age optimism of this unusual project is more idea than reality".
See also
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References
Notes
Citations
Sources
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{{portal bar, Architecture, New York City
1930 establishments in New York City
New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan
Residential buildings completed in 1930
Residential buildings in Manhattan
Turtle Bay, Manhattan