Emery Roth ( hu, Róth Imre, July 17, 1871 – August 20, 1948) was an American architect of Hungarian-Jewish descent who designed many of the definitive New York City hotels and apartment buildings of the 1920s and 1930s, incorporating Beaux-Arts 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 Unit ...

details. His sons continued in the family enterprise, largely expanding the firm under the name Emery Roth & Sons.

Life and career

Born in Gálszécs,

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

(now

Sečovce Sečovce (; hu, Gálszécs; uk, Сечівці) is a town in the Trebišov District in the Košice Region of south-eastern Slovakia. History The town was first mentioned in year 1255 on the list of king Béla IV of Hungary. In 1494, a Rom ...

, Slovakia) to a Jewish family, he emigrated to the United States at the age of 13 after his family fell into poverty upon his father's death. He began his architectural apprenticeship as a draftsman in the Chicago offices of Burnham & Root, working on the

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...

of 1893. At the Exposition Roth also designed one of his first solo projects; a pavilion that housed a chocolatier. There he met Richard Morris Hunt, who was impressed with his skills and invited Roth to work in his office in New York. Following Hunt's premature death in 1895, Roth moved to the office of Ogden Codman, Jr., a designer and decorator with a Newport clientele. In the interwar years, the firm of Emery Roth delivered some of the most influential examples of architecture for apartment houses in the at-the-time fashionable beaux art-style, especially in

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 ...

. Many of his most notable projects are located on the Upper West Side, specifically Central Park West which is home to the San Remo, the Beresford, the Ardsley, amongst others. In 1938, Roth included his sons Julian and Richard as partners.

Buildings designed

211 Central Park West (The Beresford) by David Shankbone

Emery Roth & Sons

Despite the fact that Roth's sons, Julian and Richard, had joined the firm many years earlier, it was not until 1947 that the firm's name was changed to Emery Roth & Sons, approximately one year before Roth's death. Julian (1901–1992) specialized in construction costs and building materials and technology, while Richard (1904–1987) was named the firm's principal architect. In the 1950s and 1960s Emery Roth & Sons became the most influential

architectural firm In the United States, an architectural firm or architecture firm is a business that employs one or more licensed architects and practices the profession of architecture; while in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark and other countri ...

in New York and contributed substantially in changing the appearance of Midtown and Lower Manhattan. In that particular period of time Emery Roth & Sons designed dozens of speculative office buildings, mostly with curtain wall facades, which soon became a ubiquitous feature of the city. Beginning in the mid-1960s, the firm was also hired as associate architects in large-scale projects like the Pan Am Building (1963), the World Trade Center (1966–1973) and the Citicorp Center (1977). In the early 1960s, Richard Roth's son, Richard Roth, Jr. (b. 1933) became the third generation to join the firm, eventually rising to chief architect CEO and shareholder. As the firm expanded and diversified over six decades, it remained a family business through the 1990s. In 1988 Richard Roth Jr's daughter Robyn Roth-Moise joined the firm as comptroller. Richard Roth Jr's son Richard Lee Roth joined the firm in 1982 and became the chief specification writer for Emery Roth & Sons. Both retired from the firm when Richard Roth Jr retired and was replaced as the company's CEO in 1993 by Robert Sobel, Roth's cousin. Only three years later, in 1996, the firm ceased to operate, apparently because of financial distress. Emery's great-grandson Richard Lee Roth currently works in the architectural profession and resides in South Florida. The extensive architectural records and papers of both Emery Roth and Emery Roth & Sons are now held in the Department of Drawings & Archives at the

Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library The Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library is a library located in Avery Hall on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University in the New York City. It is the largest architecture library in the world. Serving Columbia's Graduate Scho ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

Work by Emery Roth & Sons

* 300 East 57th Street (1947) * Paris Theater & Office Building (1948) * 715 Park Avenue (1949) * 945 Fifth Avenue Apartments (1949) *

Look Building 488 Madison Avenue, also known as the Look Building, is a 25-story office building in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It is along Madison Avenue's western sidewalk between 51st and 52nd Streets, near St. Patrick's Cathedr ...

, 488 Madison Avenue (1949) * 40 Park Avenue (1950) * 45 East End Avenue Apartments (1950) * 85 East End Avenue, NE corner of E83rd St (1950) * 575 Madison Avenue (1950) * 2 Fifth Avenue (1952) * 380 Madison Avenue (1953) * 30 Park Avenue (1954) * 555 Fifth Avenue (1954) * 589 Fifth Avenue (1954) * National Distillers Building (1954) * 430 Park Avenue (Renovation) (1954) *

Baruch Houses Bernard M. Baruch Houses, or Baruch Houses, is a public housing development built by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Baruch Houses is bounded by Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive to the east ...

(1954–1959) * 460 Park Avenue (1955) * Bank of Montreal Building (1955) * Colgate-Palmolive Building (1955) * Davies Building (1955) * 156 William Street (1956) * 415 Madison Avenue (1956) * 485 Lexington Avenue (1956) * 1430 Broadway (1956) * 123 William Street (1957) * 630 Third Avenue (1958) * 750 Third Avenue (1958) * 400 Madison Avenue (1958) * General Reinsurance Building (1958) * 100 Church Street (1958) * 166 East 63rd Street (Beekman Town House) (1959) * 2 Broadway (1959) *

10 Lafayette Square 10 Lafayette Square, also known as the Tishman Building, is a high-rise office tower located in Lafayette Square in Buffalo, New York. Completed in 1959, it is the thirteenth-tallest building in Buffalo, standing at 263 feet (80 m) and 20 sto ...

(

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

) (1959) * 355 Lexington Avenue (1959) * Bronx High School of Science (1959) * Harriman National Bank Building (1959) * Lorillard Building (1959) * East Ohio Building (

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...

, Ohio) (1959) * 10 East 70th Street Apartments (1960) * 80 Pine Street (1960) * Imperial House, 150 East 69th Street (1960) * Mutual of America Building (1960) * 850 Third Avenue (1961) * Pfizer Building (1961) * Diamond National Building (1961) * 60 Broad Street (1962) * 215 East 68th Apartments (1962) * 1180 Sixth Avenue (1962) * Bankers Trust Building (1962) * Tower East Apartments (1962) * Hanover Bank Building (1962) * 1212 Sixth Avenue (1963) * 250 Broadway (1963) * 605 Third Avenue, (f/k/a Neuberger Berman Building, originally the Burroughs Building) (1963) * 845 Third Avenue (1963) * 1290 Avenue of the Americas, the Neuberger Berman building (1963) * MetLife Building (Pan Am Building) (1963) *

Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) was a U.S. investment bank founded by William H. Donaldson, Richard Jenrette, and Dan Lufkin in 1959. Its businesses included securities underwriting; sales and trading; investment and merchant banking; finan ...

Building (1963) *

277 Park Avenue 277 Park Avenue is an office building in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It stands on the east side of Park Avenue between East 47th and 48th Streets, and is tall, with 50 floors. It is tied with two other buildings, 55 Wat ...

(1964) * 641 Lexington Avenue (1964) * Harcourt, Brace & World Building (1964) * Sterling Drug Company Building (90 Park Avenue) (1964) * 600 Madison Avenue (1965) * Bankers Trust Annex Building (1965) * Xerox Building (1965) * MGM Building (1965) * Leverett Saltonstall Building (1965) * Financial Times Building (1965) * 675 Third Avenue (1966) * MacMillan Building (1966) *

299 Park Avenue 299 Park Avenue is an office building on Park Avenue between 48th and 49th streets in the Midtown neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. History Designed in the International Style by Emery Roth & Sons, the building was opened in 1967. I ...

(a.k.a. Westvaco Building) (1967) * 909 Third Avenue (1967) * ITT-American Building (1967) * General Motors Building (1968) * 10 Hanover Square (1969) * 100 Wall Street (1969) *

345 Park Avenue 345 Park Avenue is a skyscraper in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It occupies an entire city block bounded by Park Avenue, Lexington Avenue, 51st Street, and 52nd Street. Completed in 1969, with 44 floors, the building ...

(1969) * 1700 Broadway (1969) *

1345 Avenue of the Americas 1345 Avenue of the Americas, also known as the Building, is a -tall, 50-story skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Located on Sixth Avenue between 54th and 55th Streets, the building was built by Fisher Brothers and designed by Em ...

(1969) * Random House Building (1969) * Schroder Building (1969) * Emigrant Savings Bank Building (1969) * 77 Water Street (1970) * 1633 Broadway (Paramount Plaza) (1970) * 1133 Avenue of the Americas (formerly Interchem Building) (1970) * 22 Cortlandt Street (1971) * 200 Water Street (a.k.a. 127 John Street) (1971) * 600 Third Avenue (1971) *

888 Seventh Avenue 888 Seventh Avenue is a 628 ft (191m) tall modern-style office skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan which was completed in 1969 and has 46 floors. Emery Roth & Sons designed the building. 888 Seventh Avenue is "L"-shaped in plan, with wings ext ...

(1971) * Capitol-EMI Building (1971) *

Park Lane Hotel (New York) The Park Lane Hotel is a New York City luxury hotel at 36 Central Park South, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in Midtown Manhattan, overlooking Central Park. Constructed in 1971, the hotel was designed by the prolific architecture firm, Emery ...

(1971) * J.P. Stevens Company Tower (1971) * One Battery Park Plaza (1971) *

450 Park Avenue 450 Park Avenue (also known as Franklin National Bank Building) is an office building on Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The building has 33 floors and is tall. 450 Park Avenue has a steel skeleton with concrete floors. The ...

(1972) * 55 Water Street (1972) * 747 Third Avenue (1972) * Harper & Row Building (1972) * One Dag Hammarskjold Plaza (1972) * North American Plywood Building (1972) * Franklin National Bank Building (1972) * World Trade Center (1972–1973) with Minoru Yamasaki * 100 East Pratt Street Building (1973) * Blue Cross Building (1973) * Merchandise Mart Building (1973) * Sovereign Apartments (1973) * Winstar Building and Addition (1974) * 100 William Street (1974) * Citigroup Center (1977) * Helmsley Palace Hotel (1981) * Crystal Pavilion (1982) * 575 Fifth Avenue (1983) * 900 Third Avenue (1983) * 1155 Avenue of the Americas (1984) * Manhattan Tower (1985) * Symphony House Apartments (1986) * Fifth Avenue Tower (1986) * 7 World Trade Center (1987) * Ellington Apartments (1987) *

17 State Street 17 State Street is a 42-story office building along State Street and Battery Park in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Completed in 1988, it was designed by Roy Gee for Emery Roth and Sons for developers William Kaufm ...

(1988) *

1585 Broadway 1585 Broadway, also the Morgan Stanley Building, is a 42-story office building on Times Square in the Theater District neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The building was designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects and Emery ...

(1989) * 546 Fifth Avenue (1990) * Oxford Condominiums (1990)

References

External links

Emery Roth architectural drawings and autobiography, circa 1907-1949 (bulk circa 1920-1939)
held in th

Emery Roth & Sons architectural records and papers, 1906-1996 (bulk 1951-1994)
held in th