OLD NEW YORK
Bryant Park Studios
80 West 40th Street (Also known as 1054-1056
Avenue of the Americas)
Designated a landmark on December 13, 1988
Architect: Charles A. Rich
Built: 1900-01
As New York’s art community grew during the second half of
the 19th century, more space was required for artist studios and
for meeting and exhibition rooms. Bryant Park Studios is one of
the earliest buildings designed specifically to meet some of these
needs, with generous windows facing the northern light preferred by artists, as well as large work areas. Fernand Léger and
Edward Steichen worked here, as did numerous other well-known artists. The studios were commissioned by the prominent American portraitist Abraham Archibald Anderson, who
had experienced a lonely and difficult life in Paris as a young art
student and was anxious to help others once he was established.
The Hearst Magazine Building prior to Lord Norman Foster and Partners
added the 42-story glass tower that rises above the historic base today.
Hearst’s eventually ruinous pattern of speculative real estate purchases and
lack of follow-through may explain the unusual appearance of the building.
GLASS NEGATIVE CREATED BY BAIN NEWS SERVICE. DATE UNKNOWN. REPRODUCTION NUMBER: LC-DIG-GGBAIN-01836. COURTESY OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PRINTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS DIVISION.
Anderson occupied a penthouse apartment in the building until
his death in 1940.
Executed in pink brick with terra cotta and stone details, the
façade displays a tripartite organization. A banded brick and
terra cotta transitional story above a two-story base, grooved to
simulate rusticated stone, leads to the main section, which displays a variety of window treatments and ornament—including
some double-height windows grouped vertically in stone
enframements for dramatic emphasis.
By locating the building just south of Bryant Park, Anderson
felt assured that the desirable northern light would not be blocked
by future tall buildings. Although the building is now surrounded
by towering skyscrapers, it is still used as a studio space; tenants
today include several clothing and interior design firms.
Hearst Magazine Building
951-969 Eighth Avenue
Designated a landmark on February 16, 1988
Architects: Joseph Urban and George B. Post & Sons;
Foster and Partners
Built: 1927-28; 2006
Planned as the centerpiece of William Randolph Hearst’s
plaza, this building is the sole surviving component of a grand
scheme that collapsed because of the Great Depression and
Hearst’s own speculative and extravagant real estate ventures.
Hearst had moved to New York in 1895, seeking national prominence in politics. Initially, he leased two floors in the Tribune
Building in Printing House Square, but as other papers moved
uptown he began to envision a Midtown headquarters in the
Columbus Circle area, a rapidly developing section of
Manhattan close to Carnegie Hall, the Art Students League of
New York and numerous art galleries that he frequented.
Encouraged by expectations for Columbus Circle’s future as
an extension of the theater district, Hearst, as early as 1895, purchased a small block between Columbus Circle and 56th Street.
Plans for this block were abandoned in 1903 when Hearst
bought a larger block immediately south. He followed this pattern of buying blocks and abandoning plans until 1921, when he
finally bought the largest lot in the area “for the headquarters of
his eastern enterprises.” Originally intended to hold a two-story
structure housing stores, offices and an auditorium, it ultimately became the site of the International Magazine Building.
Hearst’s eventually ruinous pattern of speculative real estate
purchases and lack of follow-through may explain the unusual
appearance of the building. It was created by noted architect and
theater and stage designer Joseph Urban as a base for a projected, but never-completed, skyscraper. Hearst had been introduced to Urban by the noted impresario Florenz Ziegfeld, beginning a close association between the two lovers of spectacle.
Urban’s design is itself a theatrical tour de force, recalling the
grandiosity of World’s Fair architecture. Placed atop pylons, figures of German sculptor Henry Kreis dramatically break
through a continuous second-story balustrade and are further
accentuated by columns rising behind them.
A 42-story addition on top of the building, designed by Lord
Norman Foster and Partners, was completed in 2006. Foster’s
award-winning tower is a shining architectural example of blending old and new. The breathtaking glass façade is distinguished by
an unusual triangular framing pattern, and the expansive internal
plaza occupies the entire shell of the historic base. The structure is
certified as the city’s first occupied “green” office tower due to the
number of environmental considerations that factored into its
construction and current management. This outstanding addition
to the skyline is certainly a landmark for tomorrow.
