1109 Fifth Avenue, the Jewish Museum
The oldest still extant Jewish museum, the first one established in the Unites States and the largest collection of art by Jewish artists and artifacts pertaining to Jewish culture outside of Israel, the Jewish Museum is housed in the magnificent Warburg Mansion, another Chateauesque tour-de-force from C.P.H. Gilbert, whose Ukrainian Institute is houses in a… Continue reading
530 Fifth Avenue, The Bank of New York Building
An all-business essay in very late Art Moderne, The Bank of New York Building at 530 Fifth Avenue was completed in 1959 and reflects in its limestone detailing a bid for contextuality with the famed Rockefeller Center a few blocks to the north. Its dignity has been severely damaged by the discordant shopfronts that now… Continue reading
501 Fifth Avenue
501 Fifth Avenue, the earliest true skyscraper to be erected on the avenue north of 34th Street, was completed in 1917. The building was designed by Montague Flagg (not to be confused with the artist of the same name), brother of the better-known architect Ernest Flagg, and is a handsome example of the Beaux Arts… Continue reading
452 Fifth Avenue, the Knox Hat Building
The jauntiest of Fifth Avenue’s mansards, 452 Fifth Avenue wears its soaring roof like a couture chapeau – and considering that it was constructed as the Knox Hat Building, this is more than appropriate. Designed by John H. Duncan, perhaps best known as the architect of the General Grant National Monument (itself better known as… Continue reading
The New School University Center, 63 Fifth Avenue
Along with 61 Fifth across 13th Street to the south, the New School University Center at 63 Fifth is the first new ground-up construction on Fifth Avenue south of 14th Street in decades. Replacing a generally undistingushed two-story building the design from Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s Roger Duffy features brass “clapboards” and ribbon windows that reference… Continue reading