139 Fifth Avenue, The Corndiac Building
The Corndiac Building at 139 Fifth Avenue is an elegant building by Alfred Zucker, one of New York City’s most eccentric architectural firms, whose surviving works include the nearby Baudouine Building (capped by a minature Greek Temple the Landmarks Commission called “a little Parnassus in the sky”) and the bizarre Decker Building on Union Square West. The latter is a Moorish-Sullivanesque fantasy designed by the radical-anarchist John H. Edelman and was the home of Andy Warhol’s “Factory” from the lates 1960s through 1973.
Considerably more subdued than either of these designs, 139 Fifth Avenue was originally to have been far more ornate and to have included a pitched roof, stepped gables and an onion-dome-crowned tower. Why the plans were redone remains a mystery, but the extant facade of 1894 is a sophisticated essay in yellow brick featuring a metal balcony that originally displayed the words “The Corndiac.”
Zucker was later to establish his practice in Buenos Aires, where his legacy includes the splendid Marriott Plaza Hotel.