Item 1 & 2
LP – 2441 & 2442
BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN
CITIES SERVICES BUILDING & FIRST FLOOR INTERIOR, 70 Pine Street (aka 66-76 Pine Street; 2-18 Cedar Street; 171-185 Pearl Street)
The Historic Districts Council is the advocate for New York City’s designated historic districts and neighborhoods meriting preservation.
HDC supports the designation of the former Cities Service Building at 70 Pine Street as a New York City individual landmark and its first floor – at the very least – as an interior landmark. The building is a major monument of the skyscraper boom of the 1920’s and its interior is one of the most spectacular Art Deco interiors in the city. Even Rockefeller Center can hardly rival it.
The former Cities Service Building was one of the most striking participants in the race to build the highest skyscraper in the world that reflected the deep spirit of competition inherent in the financial boom of the late Twenties of the last century. This boom spirit led not only to high speculative stock prices but also to spectacular building heights. The Cities Service Building in fact plays one of the leading roles in a recent book on the race for the championship building heights. It did attain the first place in the race Downtown; but like its nearby contestants it was bypassed by two Midtown rival, the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings, that were to hold the prize well into the new era that followed the Great Depression and a second World War. Even so, it was the tallest of the group of largely slip towers close to Wall Street that long identified the Financial District from afar, and it still holds a prominent visual location from many viewpoints as the easternmost tower of the district.
This rivalry of the towers was in many cases one not merely of height but also of design, and the Cities Service Building was a leader in this contest as well. The slender tower with the elegant spire was striking from afar, and from close up the lower floors are clad both inside and out in remarkable Art Deco designs both in marble and other ornamental stones and in the cast aluminum decorative forms that stand out strongly against darker stone backgrounds. Best known perhaps are the models of the building itself that adorn its major portals and the all but legendary paneled elevator doors by René Chambellan. On both the outside entrances and the interior doorways are stylized motifs, both corporate motifs and those drawn from nature. Metallic forms recalling light waves leading from the cast glass fixtures suggest the electric power Cities Service generated and delivered. Almost everywhere are the triangular logo and related forms that have been variously interpreted as suggesting the financial strength and stability of Cities Service, as recalling the pyramidal top of the building, or even as derived from the upward form of an oil well derrick. This seems a bit of a stretch though…
The forms in the mix that are most clearly derived from nature are those recalling the western plains where the company drew much of its oil supplies from recently developed fields – the sunflower and the butterfly above all. One wonders if it can be from these or related designs that very similar abstracted forms are still widely used in some western states are derived, now seemingly firmly established in a world where realism usually rules.
These motifs and forms dominate the extraordinary interiors. To cope with the strong slope of the streets enclosing the site, doors and entrances were located at two levels and handsomely decorated stairways link the two, so that features are often intervisible. Elaborate elevator doors are found at both levels, and some originally gave access to double-height elevators. We hope that the final designation of the interior will not be limited in such a way as to cover only one floor in the strictest sense but can also extend its protection to the most distinctive parts of the interior. To limit it to one level risks losing some of the most powerful portions and views of the design. These are among the most extraordinary interiors in the city, not just of the Art Deco style, and they should not be lost.
Item 9
CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS
BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN
116336- Block 1199, lot 36-
2-6 West 86th Street aka 255-259 Central Park West – Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District
A Beaux-Arts style apartment building designed by Mulliken & Moelloer and built in 1905-06. Application is to construct a barrier-free access ramp.
While HDC finds that a barrier-free access ramp would be appropriate in this location, we feel the design of the proposed to be too utilitarian for this exuberant Beaux-Arts style apartment building. Instead the rail should pick up the design of the ironwork just above on the second floor. If this is not practical for a ramp, a plain rail could be installed behind the more decorative one to meet codes. Accessibility is an issue facing many historic buildings, but, as we have seen here at the Commission, the answer does not have to be plain. One that compliments the landmark and picks up on the qualities that make the building special, would be a more appropriate choice.
LPC determination: no action
Item 10
CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS
BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN
117081- Block 1501, lot 4-
1083 Fifth Avenue – Carnegie Hill Extension Historic District
A Beaux-Arts style townhouse designed by Turner Kilian built in 1902-02, with an added wing designed by Ogden Cadman, built in 1913-15. Application is to install banner signs.
Fluttering flags marking cultural institutions and announcing their offerings have become a familiar sight on Museum Mile and in other parts of the city. Their temporary nature, both visually and physically, help make them acceptable in certain locations. HDC finds though that the proposed stretch banners with two fixtures each looks too permanent and clutters the façade more than the existing flag poles which extend further out from the building giving the architecture more breathing room. Stretch banners with bottom brackets would create blade signs of a size larger than the Commission would approve.
LPC determination: Approved