608 Fifth Avenue, The Goelet Building

A beautifully modulated and detailed Art Deco building, 608 Fifth Avenue, the Goelet Building, was commissioned by the aristocratic family of the same name whose house stood a block south across the street. Designed by Victor Hafner with the engineer Edward Hall Faile, the building has been praised by architectural critic Paul Goldberger as “New… Continue reading

607 Fifth Avenue, The McCutcheon Building

A transition from the Beaux Arts mode that had long held sway in Midtown to the Rockefeller Centre Moderne that came to dominate the area, the McCutcheon Building at 607 Fifth Avenue is a restrained design by Cross & Cross, Better known for their vibrant Art Deco buldings, such as the spectacular General Electric Building… Continue reading

604 Fifth Avenue

Currently almost completely covered by a billboard advertising its availability, 604 Fifth Avenue is one of the few completed works by William Van Alen, the architect of the Chrysler Building. Constructed in 1925 as a location for the Childs restaurant chain, 604 Fifth Avenue featured a sophisticated curved façade that took advantage of light then… Continue reading

601 Fifth Avenue, 603, Fifth Avenue and 605 Fifth Avenue

601 Fifth Avenue, 603, Fifth Avenue and 605 Fifth Avenue are a trio of altered but still notable small commercial buildings. At the center, 603 Fifth Avenue is perhaps the best and still relatively intact above the streetscape, a buxom survivor from the neighborhood’s domestic period.  Remodeled from an older brownstone in 1903 as the… Continue reading

600 Fifth Avenue

600 Fifth Avenue is a late example of Rockefeller Center Moderne, a style which maybe said to spread throughout the Midtown corridor by architectural osmosis. Designed in 1949 for the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company by architects Carson & Lundin, who had worked on some of the Center’s later additions, the structure was later acquired… Continue reading