87 Fifth Avenue

87 Fifth Avenue is a design by Robert Maynicke, an architect whose work dominates both the Ladies’ Mile district and the office architecture of the period. Nearly forgotten today, his buildings helped create a template for the modern workspace in early 20th Century America.

A handsome but restrained Beaux Arts façade of 1901, 87 Fifth Avenue is faced in limestone, terra cotta and buff-colored brick. Two doorways flank a nobly proportioned shop front. The detailing is severe to the point of near abstraction.

An early 20th century tenant of 87 Fifth Avenue was a client with a reputation for fine architecture – Chicago’s Marshall Fields’ department store, whose original building in that city is a major landmark of the period.

We’ll be seeing a great deal more of Maynicke’s work in the upcoming blocks; his work elsewhere in the city includes the wonderfully decrepit-looking Germania Bank Building in SoHo, long noted as the city’s largest single-owner residence. Photographer Jay Maisel maintains the 75-room granite building as his studio/home: the banking hall within is rumored to contain a basketball court.

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