320 Fifth Avenue, The Reed Barton Building

One of Robert Maynicke’s best buildings, 320 Fifth Avenue, The Reed Barton Building, is unusual for the architect in being faced entirely in limestone.  The curved corner, handsome in itself, provides a wonderful foil to the angularity of the Empire State Building a block to the north.  The ground floor has seen some depredations, but… Continue reading

244 Fifth Avenue

A narrow limestone-faced shaft, 244 Fifth Avenue is typical of architect Robert Maynicke’s work and, like 236-238 Fifth, is similar to the early skyscrapers that line the Ladies’ Mile south of 23rd Street.

170 Fifth Avenue, The Sohmer Building

Literally a crowning achievement of Robert Maynicke, 170 Fifth Avenue, also known as the Sohmer Building, is the architect’s most extravagant work on this stretch of Fifth Avenue and a worthy visual foil to the famed Flatiron Building located diagonally to the north. The width of the brownstone house it replaced, 170 Fifth is a… Continue reading

149-151 Fifth Avenue

Built in 1917-1918, 149-151 Fifth Avenue is the final building constructed on the Ladies’ Mile to designs by Robert Maynicke and represents the evolution of both the firm of Maynicke & Franke and of commercial architecture in New York. On the cusp of the Roaring Twenties the Beaux Arts style was becoming passe and Art Deco had… Continue reading

142 Fifth Avenue

Not to be confused with the Los Angeles landmark of the same name, the Bradbury Building at 142 Fifth Avenue is a handsome entry in the Beaux Arts style by Robert Maynicke. The westernmost portion of the building’s site contained a structure at 5 West 19th Street that was built sometime before 1879 and was… Continue reading