55 Fifth Avenue
Built as the Hotel Grovesnor, 55 Fifth Avenue currently houses a mix of office space and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law for Yeshiva University. Designed by the firm of Maynicke and Franke and completed in 1910, it is the tallest commercial building south of 14th Street at 19 floors. A classic steel skeleton structure with Beaux Arts details, it is representative of the new trends in commercial architecture at time.
The structure stands on the site of the house of James Lenox, whose library made up the nucleus of the original collection of the New York Public Library.
Called “a pioneer in the building of loft buildings” by the New York Times, Robert Maynicke’s firm was responsible for numerous such buildings throughout the city, including several on Fifth Avenue, particularly along the “Ladies’ Mile” historic district just north of 14th Street. We’ll be seeing much more work by this overlooked architect as we move further north.