Schultze & Weaver was an

architecture 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 countr ...

established 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 ...

in 1921. The partners were Leonard Schultze and S. Fullerton Weaver.

History

Leonard B. Schultze was born in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, on December 5, 1877. He was educated at the City College of New York and ranks high among the most successful pupils of Franco-American architect

Emmanuel Louis Masqueray Emmanuel Louis Masqueray (1861–1917) was a Franco-American preeminent figure in the history of American architecture, both as a gifted designer of landmark buildings and as an influential teacher of the profession of architecture dedicated t ...

, founder of the Atelier Masqueray. Schultze had been an employee of the firm of

Warren & Wetmore Warren and Wetmore was an architecture firm in New York City which was a partnership between Whitney Warren (1864–1943) and Charles Delevan Wetmore (June 10, 1866 – May 8, 1941), that had one of the most extensive practices of its time and w ...

, and during his twenty years in that company's office he had worked on the designs for such projects as New York's

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 ...

. Weaver's primary responsibilities in the new firm were in engineering, business, and real estate. Schultze & Weaver's first major commission was from

John McEntee Bowman John McEntee Bowman (1875 – October 28, 1931) was a Canadian-born businessman, American hotelier and horseman, and the founding president of Bowman-Biltmore Hotels Corp.- - Biography Born in Toronto, Ontario, Bowman began his American work ...

's Biltmore Hotels, for the large

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

hotel today known as the Millennium Biltmore. Miami Biltmore Hotel- Coral Gables, Florida (7301355850)

Their later work included several other projects for the same company, including the

Atlanta Biltmore Hotel The Atlanta Biltmore Hotel and Biltmore Apartments is an historic building located in Atlanta, Georgia. The complex, originally consisting of a hotel and apartments, was developed by William Candler, son of Coca-Cola executive Asa Candler, with ...

, and the

Coral Gables Biltmore Hotel The Miami Biltmore Hotel (commonly called The Biltmore Hotel or The Biltmore) is a luxury hotel in Coral Gables, Florida. The hotel was designed by Schultze and Weaver and was built in 1926 by John McEntee Bowman and George Merrick as part of th ...

. The firm also designed the

Breakers Hotel The Breakers Palm Beach is a historic, Renaissance Revival style luxury hotel with 538 rooms. It is located at 1 South County Road in Palm Beach, Florida. Early history First known as The Palm Beach Inn, the original hotel was opened on January ...

in Palm Beach and the Miami Nautilus Hotel. In addition to their work outside New York, they designed several noted landmark hotels within the city, including The Park Lane Hotel, The Lexington Hotel (now the Radisson Lexington Hotel),

The Pierre Hotel The Pierre is a luxury hotel located at 2 East 61st Street, at the intersection of that street with Fifth Avenue, in Manhattan, New York City, facing Central Park. Designed by Schultze & Weaver, the hotel opened in 1930 with 100+ employees, n ...

and its neighbor, the Sherry-Netherland. Schultze & Weaver architect Lloyd Morgan (1892–1970), in 1929, designed the

Waldorf-Astoria Hotel The Waldorf Astoria New York is a luxury hotel and condominium residence in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The structure, at 301 Park Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, is a 47-story Art Deco landmark designed by architects Schult ...

which, upon its completion in 1931, was the world's largest, with 2,200 rooms. Schultze & Weaver redesigned and renovated the Grand Ballroom in New York City's

Plaza Hotel The Plaza Hotel (also known as The Plaza) is a luxury hotel and condominium apartment building in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is located on the western side of Grand Army Plaza, after which it is named, just west of Fifth Avenue, ...

in the autumn of 1929. Though best known for their work on luxury hotels, Schultze & Weaver also designed schools, hospitals, residential developments, and office buildings such as the 1925 New York headquarters of the

J.C. Penney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Girl ...

Company. Among their other buildings are the Hunter-Dulin building on Sutter Street in San Francisco and Miami's Freedom Tower. They also designed the U.S. Post Office at

Scarsdale, New York Scarsdale is a town and village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The Town of Scarsdale is coextensive with the Village of Scarsdale, but the community has opted to operate solely with a village government, one of several village ...

as consulting architects for the Office of the Supervising Architect. After Weaver died in 1940 Schultze reorganized the firm under the name Leonard Schultze and Associates. During this period the firm designed three large apartment complexes for the

Metropolitan Life Insurance Company MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, wi ...

, and a fourth that served as housing for

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

employees in New York. These are listed below.

Selected commissions

As Schultze & Weaver: * 1922 Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel,

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

* 1922 Park Lane Apartment Hotel,

Manhattan, New York City Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

* 1923 Hellman Commercial Trust & Savings Bank Building, Los Angeles * 1923 Jonathan Club, Los Angeles * 1924

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital city, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georgia, Fulton County, the mos ...

* 1924 Hotel Sevilla-Biltmore,

Havana, Cuba Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

* 1924 Pacific Mutual Garage, Los Angeles * 1925

Coral Gables, Florida Coral Gables, officially City of Coral Gables, is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The city is located southwest of Downtown Miami. As of the 2020 U.S. census, it had a population of 49,248. Coral Gables is known globally as home to the ...

* 1925

Palm Beach, Florida Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida. Located on a barrier island in east-central Palm Beach County, the town is separated from several nearby cities including West Palm Beach and Lake Worth Beach by the Intrac ...

* 1925 Hunter-Dulin Building,

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

* 1925 J. C. Penney Co. Building (330 West 34th Street), Manhattan * 1925 Miami Daily News Tower (Freedom Tower),

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

* 1925 Subway Terminal Building, Los Angeles * 1926 Sherry-Netherland Hotel, Manhattan * 1926 Ingraham Building, Miami * 1926

Montauk Manor Montauk Manor is a historic resort hotel located in the hamlet of Montauk in Suffolk County, New York, on Long Island. It was built in 1926 by Carl G. Fisher and is a three-story, 140 decorated condominium apartments in the Tudor Revival style. I ...

Montauk, New York Montauk ( ) is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, on the eastern end of the South Shore of Long Island. As of the 2020 United States census, the CDP's population was 4,318. The ...

* 1928 Brisbane House, Manhattan * 1929 News-Sun Building, Springfield, Ohio"News-Sun building sale finalized", Springfield News-Sun (February 10, 2014) * 1929 Hotel Pierre, Manhattan * 1929

Ballroom, Manhattan * 1929

Lexington Hotel Lexington Hotel or Hotel Lexington may refer to: * Lexington Hotel (Chicago), now demolished * Lexington Hotel (New York City) * Lexington Hotels & Inns, a brand operated by Vantage Hospitality {{dab ...

, Manhattan * 1931 Fifth Avenue Bank Building, Manhattan * 1931

, Manhattan * 1937

United States Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the ...

As Leonard Schultze and Associates, for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company: * 1941

Parkfairfax Parkfairfax is a neighborhood in Alexandria, Virginia, United States, located in the northwestern part of the city near the boundary with Arlington County. Nearby thoroughfares are Interstate 395 (Shirley Highway), State Route 402 (Quaker Lane) ...

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of downtown Washington, D.C. In 2020, the population was 159,467. ...

* 1944

Parkmerced Parkmerced is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, designed by architects Leonard Schultze and Thomas Dolliver Church in the early 1940s. Parkmerced is the second-largest single-owner neighborhood of apartment blocks west of the Mississi ...

, San Francisco * 1944

Park La Brea Park La Brea (Spanish: ''La Brea''—"The tar", after the nearby La Brea Tar Pits) is a sprawling apartment community in the Miracle Mile District of Los Angeles, California. With 4,255 units located in eighteen 13-story towers and thirty-one ...

, Los Angeles As Leonard Schultze and Associates, as housing for the new United Nations: * 1948 Parkway Village,

Kew Gardens Hills Kew Gardens Hills is a neighborhood in the middle of the New York City borough of Queens. The borders are Flushing Meadows-Corona Park to the west, the Long Island Expressway to the north, Union Turnpike to the south, and Parsons Boulevard to t ...

Queens, New York City Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

References

Notes Bibliography * Lamonaca, Marianne and Mogul, Jonathan (eds.) ''Grand Hotels of the Jazz Age; the Architecture of Schultze & Weaver''. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2005. .

External links

*
"It's De Limit"
Forbes article by Finn-Olaf Jones on Schulze & Weaver, April 24, 2006
Metropolis Magazine story on Schultze and Weaver

Wolfsonian exhibit on Schultze and Weaver
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schultze And Weaver Defunct architecture firms based in New York City