Emery Roth (, died August 20, 1948) was a Hungarian-American architect of

Hungarian-Jewish The history of the Jews in Hungary dates back to at least the Kingdom of Hungary, with some records even predating the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin in 895 CE by over 600 years. Written sources prove that Jewish communities lived i ...

descent who designed many

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

hotels and

apartment building An apartment (American English, Canadian English), flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), tenement ( Scots English), or unit (Australian English) is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) ...

s of the 1920s and 1930s, incorporating Beaux-Arts and

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

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

Life and career

Born in Gálszécs,

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...

(now

Sečovce Sečovce (; ; ) 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, Béla IV of Hungary. In 1494, a Roman Catholic churc ...

, Slovakia) to a Jewish family, Roth 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 Burnham and Root was one of Chicago's most famous architectural companies of the nineteenth century. It was established by Daniel Hudson Burnham and John Wellborn Root. During their eighteen years of partnership, Burnham and Root designed and b ...

, 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 from May 5 to October 31, 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The ...

of 1893. Roth also designed one of his first solo projects at the Exposition: a pavilion that housed a chocolatier. At the Exposition, Roth met

Richard Morris Hunt Richard Morris Hunt (October 31, 1827 – July 31, 1895) was an American architect of the nineteenth century and an eminent figure in the history of architecture of the United States. He helped shape New York City with his designs for the 1902 ...

, 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, Rhode Island Newport is a seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Rhode Island, United States. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and nort ...

, clientele. In the

interwar years In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...

, the firm of Emery Roth delivered some of the most influential examples of architecture for

apartment house An apartment (American English, Canadian English), flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), tenement ( Scots English), or unit (Australian English) is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) th ...

s in the at-the-time fashionable Beaux Arts style, especially in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. Many of his most notable projects are located on the

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper We ...

, specifically

Central Park West Eighth Avenue is a major north–south avenue on the west side of Manhattan in New York City, carrying northbound traffic below 59th Street. It is one of the original avenues of the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 to run the length of Manhattan, ...

which is home to

the San Remo The San Remo is a cooperative apartment building at 145 and 146 Central Park West, between 74th and 75th Streets, adjacent to Central Park on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was constructed from 1929 to 1930 and was desi ...

the Beresford The Beresford is a cooperative apartment building at 211 Central Park West, between 81st and 82nd Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was constructed in 1929 and was designed by architect Emery Roth. The Beresfor ...

, the Ardsley, and others. In 1938, Roth included his sons Julian and Richard as partners.

Buildings designed

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 countr ...

in New York and contributed substantially in changing the appearance of Midtown and

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...

. 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 The MetLife Building (also 200 Park Avenue and formerly the Pan Am Building) is a skyscraper at Park Avenue and 45th Street, north of Grand Central Terminal, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. Designed in ...

(1963), the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are the hundreds of sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may also refer to: Buildings * World Trade Center (1973–2001), a building complex that was destroyed during the September 11 at ...

(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.Richard Roth retires; Robert Sobel succeeds.
''Real Estate Weekly'', September 22, 1993. Retrieved June 16, 2011. 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 Financial distress is a term in corporate finance used to indicate a condition when promises to creditors of a company are broken or honored with difficulty. If financial distress cannot be relieved, it can lead to bankruptcy. Financial dist ...

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

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

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 (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 in the United States, 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. Ro ...

(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 (

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

) (1959) * 355 Lexington Avenue (1959) *

Bronx High School of Science The Bronx High School of Science is a State school, public Specialized high schools in New York City, specialized high school in the Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx Science ...

(1959) * Harriman National Bank Building (1959) * Lorillard Building (1959) * East Ohio Building (

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

, 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 Neuberger Berman Group LLC is an American private, independent, employee-owned investment management firm. The firm manages equities, fixed income, private equity and hedge fund portfolios for global institutional investors, advisors and high-ne ...

Building, originally the Burroughs Building) (1963) * 845 Third Avenue (1963) * 1290 Avenue of the Americas, the

building (1963) *

MetLife Building The MetLife Building (also 200 Park Avenue and formerly the Pan Am Building) is a skyscraper at Park Avenue and 45th Street, north of Grand Central Terminal, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. Designed in ...

(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; financi ...

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 (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 (1969) * 1700 Broadway (1969) *

1345 Avenue of the Americas 1345 Avenue of the Americas (also known as the AllianceBernstein Building and formerly the Burlington House) is a -tall, 50-story skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Located on Sixth Avenue between 54th and 55th Streets, the buildi ...

(1969) * Random House Building (1969) * Schroder Building (1969) * Emigrant Savings Bank Building (1969) * 77 Water Street (1970) *

1633 Broadway Paramount Plaza, also 1633 Broadway and formerly the Uris Building, is a 48-story skyscraper in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Emery Roth and Sons, the building was developed by the Harold Uris, Uris brothers a ...

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

Park Lane Hotel (New York) The Park Lane Hotel is a luxury hotel at 36 Central Park South, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Constructed in 1971, the hotel was designed by Emery Roth & Sons for real estate developer Harry Helmsley. A ...

(1971) * J.P. Stevens Company Tower (1971) * One Battery Park Plaza (1971) * 450 Park Avenue (1972) *

55 Water Street 55 Water Street is a skyscraper on the East River in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The 53-story, structure was completed in 1972. Designed by Emery Roth and Sons, the ...

(1972) * 747 Third Avenue (1972) * Harper & Row Building (1972) * One Dag Hammarskjold Plaza (1972) * Original 5 World Trade Center (1972) * North American Plywood Building (1972) * Franklin National Bank Building (1972) *

(1972–1973) with

Minoru Yamasaki was an American architect, best known for designing the original World Trade Center in New York City and several other large-scale projects. Yamasaki was one of the most prominent architects of the 20th century. He and fellow architect Edward ...

* 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) * Original 4 World Trade Center (1975) *

Citigroup Center The Citigroup Center (formerly Citicorp Center and also known by its address, 601 Lexington Avenue) is an office skyscraper in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. Built in 1977 for Citibank, it is tall and has ...

(1977) * Helmsley Palace Hotel (1981) * Crystal Pavilion (1982) * St. James Tower at 415 East 54th Street (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) * Original 7 World Trade Center (1987) * Ellington Apartments (1987) * 17 State Street (1988) *

1585 Broadway 1585 Broadway, also called the Morgan Stanley Building, is a 42-story office building on Times Square in the Theater District, Manhattan, Theater District neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. The building was designed by ...

(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