Although modern skyscrapers dominate today’s New York City skyline, the City is a living illustration and history of 19th Century architectural styles and the craftsmanship that went into the construction of many of the older buildings in New York is unbelievable.    Row houses (three to five story narrow buildings with windows in the front and back) of various styles were constructed from 1800 – 1930.  Brownstone row houses became very popular in many parts of the City.  Detailed descriptions of these styles can be found in the Guide to New York City Landmarks and they include:

 

  • Federal (1800 – 1835) the first architectural style of a newly liberated country of America and a modified style of Georgian buildings in London;
  • Greek Revival (1830 – 1850)
  • Gothic Revival (1840 – 1860)
  • Italianate Style (1840 – 1870)
  • Anglo-Italianate Style (1840 – 1860)
  • Second Empire Style (1860 – 1875)
  • Neo-Grec Style (1865 – 1885)
  • The Queen Anne (1870 – 1890) and Romanesque Revival Style (1880 – 1890), and
  •  European Revival Style (1880 - 1925) 
 
Not surprising, there were a number of prominent and successful architects who lived in New York and competition for assignments could be fierce.  Some important and favorite architects are:
 
  • CASS GILBERT (1859 - 1934), the Woolworth Building and the Washington's U.S. Supreme Court
  • RAYMOND HOOD (1881 - 1934), the Daily News Building, McGraw-Hill Building and Rockefeller Center
  • RICHARD MORRIS HUNT (1827 - 1895):  Carnegie Hall, the Roosevelt Building, the facade of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the base of the Statue of Liberty, William K. Vanderbilt's mansion on 52nd Street & Fifth Avenue and many other mansions including the Vanderbilt House in Asheville, North Carolina
  • JAMES RENWICK (1818 - 1895):  Grace Church, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Our Lady of the Scapular and St. Stephen (E. 28th Street) and Washington's Corcoran Gallery and the Smithsonia Institution.
  • EMERY ROTH (1871 - 1948):  Hotel Belleclaire (Broadway & 76th Street), the Ritz Tower, the Oliver Cromwell Hotel, the Beresford Apartments, The Eldorado, the Ritz-Carlton, Villard Houses, and the First Warsaw Congregation Synagogue in the East Village.

 

Photo 1:  The Chrysler Building (Art Deco)

Photo 2:  Old Police Headquarters (Edwardian Baroque style at 240 Centre Street)

Photo 3:  Ansonia Hotel (Beaux Arts style) on the Upper West Side

Photo 4:  Saint Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral (design based on 17th Century Baroque churches in Moscow) on the Upper East Side at 15 E. 97th Street. 

Photo 5:  Bernard Tschumi's Blue Building is viewed here from Essex Street on the Lower East Side.  This uniquely shaped building is very innovative with its irregular pattern of blue and black windows that almost sparkle and contracts sharply with the old tenement buildings of this neighborhood.

 

During the last five years, residential tower skyscrapers and apartment complexes have been or are being designed for Manhattan -- often by well-known international architects.  The New York Times has called this current period the "narcissistic age."  Some see these designs as innovative architecture; others find them "flashy expressions of architectural vanity."  It will be interesting to witness how these building change the City's skyline.  Some of them include:

  • Frank Gehry's 74-story Beekman Street tower near City Hall;
  • Julian Schnabel's Palazzo Chupi on West 11th Street; 
  • Neil Denari's high rise on West 23rd Street at High Line Park; and
  • Jean Nouvel's 75-story museum tower for the Museum of Modern Art on a small lot at West 53rd Street will be a tall, thin, needle-like glass skyscraper evoking a classic New York architectural design and was inspired by the drawings of Hugh Ferriss (see link here).