The Chrysler Building
Almost a century ago this iconic
Art Deco skyscraper was the
Tallest building in the world
To this day onlookers marvel at
The elegant streamlined spire of
The Chrysler Building
Art Deco
The Hawkeye Plant: Kodak’s Enigmatic Landmark Languishes
Kodak’s role in global photography is legendary. The name Hawkeye is a key part of the company’s legacy and the 759,000-square-foot “Hawkeye Plant” a totem pole of Kodak’s storied past. [Read more…] about The Hawkeye Plant: Kodak’s Enigmatic Landmark Languishes
The Architecture of Joseph Urban: Mar-a-Lago & The New School
Joseph Urban may be a somewhat forgotten figure in America’s annals of culture, but during his lifetime he enjoyed an almost legendary reputation.
An all-round creative talent, Urban was a prolific Gilded Age illustrator, set designer, and architect of private dwellings, theaters, and a university building in the city of New York. His Gingerbread Castle was built for a fairy tale themed amusement park in Hamburg, New Jersey. [Read more…] about The Architecture of Joseph Urban: Mar-a-Lago & The New School
24 Nominations for State and National Registers of Historic Places
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) has announced the nominations of 24 properties and districts to the State and National Registers of Historic Places. The nominations include bank buildings, factories, historic district updates, and more. [Read more…] about 24 Nominations for State and National Registers of Historic Places
Waiters, Restaurers, Automats & Depression Cocktails
An automaton is a machine designed to operate on its own by responding to predetermined instructions. By the mid-eighteenth century, a number of talented craftsmen operated in Paris from
where they exported clockwork automata and mechanical singing birds around Europe and beyond.
The undisputed master in this domain was Jacques de Vaucanson. In 1735, he constructed a life-sized flautist that produced twelve melodies. His masterpiece was unveiled in May 1764 when he presented a “Canard Digérateur” (Digesting Duck) to the public. [Read more…] about Waiters, Restaurers, Automats & Depression Cocktails
Manhattan’s Brill Building & American Pop Music History
During the 1960s, the Brill Building in Manhattan revolutionized all aspects of the music industry. The operations of this one building turned the fledgling genres of rock and pop into a streamlined machine.
In a matter of a few years, the building’s music businesses revolutionized the process of songwriting, recording, and promotion. On top of this, the building produced timeless hits of the 1960s and launched the careers of the biggest singer-songwriters in history. [Read more…] about Manhattan’s Brill Building & American Pop Music History
In Hudson Falls The Strand Theatre Turns One Hundred
Restored by the same architects who helped refurbish the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), the Strand Theatre in Hudson Falls (Washington County, NY) is, against all odds, celebrating its one hundredth anniversary.
And, as many had hoped, it is performing a role in Hudson Falls not unlike the one played by BAM in Brooklyn in the 1970s: helping to bring a neglected downtown back to life. [Read more…] about In Hudson Falls The Strand Theatre Turns One Hundred
Josephine Baker and Illustrator Paul Colin
A century ago this year, Josephine Baker traveled on a one way ticket from Philadelphia to New York City, having left her recently-wed husband behind.
Born an illegitimate child in a St Louis ghetto on June 3, 1906, Freda Josephine McDonald had a dismal childhood of poverty living in an area of rooming houses, run-down apartments and brothels near Union Station. The city was beset by racial tension and violence. [Read more…] about Josephine Baker and Illustrator Paul Colin
Central Park Casino: The Epitome of Jazz Age New York City
The Central Park Casino, situated at Fifth Avenue and 72nd Street, was a premier New York City restaurant and nightclub, epitomizing the era of the Jazz Age. The Casino, with its grand dining room and perfectly polished dance floor, entertained some of the most prominent names in New York, from Tammany Hall politicians to Broadway stars and even royalty. Yet this exclusive, glamorous, and somewhat dangerous, appeal that was the Casino’s trademark, led to its demise during the darkest days of America’s great financial crisis. [Read more…] about Central Park Casino: The Epitome of Jazz Age New York City
Historic Preservation: Landmark Society Names Five to Revive
The Landmark Society of Western New York has announced its 2022-23 Five to Revive – a list that identifies opportunities for targeted, strategic revitalization. The announcement was made at a news conference last week at the Landmark Society headquarters in the Warner Castle in Rochester. [Read more…] about Historic Preservation: Landmark Society Names Five to Revive
Arthur Szyk: The Artist As Soldier
On April 30th, 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt opened New York’s World’s Fair with an address in which he praised the commercial festival as a “symbol of peace.” An idea dreamed up at the height of the depression, the theme of the Fair was “The World of Tomorrow.” Its opening slogan was an inspiring “Dawn of New Day.” [Read more…] about Arthur Szyk: The Artist As Soldier
Guide to NYC’s Art Deco Architectural Treasures Published
Of all the world’s cities, perhaps none is so defined by its Art Deco architecture as New York. Anthony W. Robins’ new book New York Art Deco: A Guide to Gotham’s Jazz Age Architecture (SUNY Press, 2017) leads readers step-by-step past the monuments of the 1920s and 30s that recast New York as the world’s modern metropolis.
Robins’ new guide includes an introductory essay describing the Art Deco phenomenon, followed by eleven walking tour itineraries in Manhattan each accompanied by a map designed by New York cartographer John Tauranac and a survey of Deco sites across the four other boroughs. Also included is a photo gallery of sixteen color plates by Art Deco photographer Randy Juster. [Read more…] about Guide to NYC’s Art Deco Architectural Treasures Published
1930s Gotham Rising: New York Skyscrapers
The skyscraper can trace its ancestry back many years, millennia in fact, before the existence of New York City. The book of Genesis tells the story of Babel, the Babylonian city in which Noah’s descendants tried to erect the mythological tower: ‘Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into Heaven.’ For their presumption the people were punished: their words were made incomprehensible to one another. This aetiological tale of the diversity of speech could easily be applied to New York, home to the speakers of some 800 languages, a city in which cab drivers routinely set their satnavs to Russian, Bengali or Serbo-Croatian. [Read more…] about 1930s Gotham Rising: New York Skyscrapers
Art Deco Mailboxes: An Illustrated History
Art Deco Mailboxes: An Illustrated Design History (W.W Norton & Co., 2015) by Karen Greene and Lynne Lavelle features a full-color photographic survey of early mailboxes, located in New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and beyond. Many of these mailboxes have since been removed, forgotten, disused, or painted over, others are still in use, are polished daily, and hold a place of pride in lobbies throughout the country.
As American art deco architecture flourished in the 1920s and 1930s, mailboxes and their chutes became focal points in landmark buildings and public spaces such as the GE Building, Grand Central Terminal, the Woolworth Building, 29 Broadway, the St. Regis Hotel, the Waldorf Astoria, and more. [Read more…] about Art Deco Mailboxes: An Illustrated History
Landmark Society Names 2014 Five to Revive
The Landmark Society of Western New York has announced its 2014 Five to Revive – a list of historic sites it has determined to be in need of targeted revitalization. The announcement was made at the Landmark Society headquarters on Fitzhugh St. in Rochester. [Read more…] about Landmark Society Names 2014 Five to Revive
Harlem Blues: Last Party At The Lenox Lounge
On New Year’s Eve the cigar smoke was thick on the sidewalk in front of the famed jazz club, the Lenox Lounge. Men in tuxes and women in clingy gowns stepped out of white stretch limos, three deep on Malcolm X Avenue, a.k.a Lenox Avenue in Harlem, as blue notes popped from the chromed doorway.
A huge bejeweled crowd could be glimpsed dancing and drinking through the wide octogon window. [Read more…] about Harlem Blues: Last Party At The Lenox Lounge