VINTAGE MANHATTAN SKYLINE

HISTORIA DE LOS RASCACIELOS DE NUEVA YORK

Today, in the "Historia de los Rascacielos de Nueva York" blog (in Spanish), we share the article about two buildings of the transition to Modernism in the mid-20th century: the buildings 477 Madison Avenue and 261 Madison Avenue (1953 and 1954).

https://historiadelosrascacielosdenuevayork.blogspot.com/...

The 25-story Colgate-Palmolive Building. 300 Park Avenue between west block between 49th to 50th Streets. Emery Roth & Sons, architect, 1954-1955.

The Colgate-Palmolive Building during its construction. View looking northwest from the corner of Park Avenue and east 54th Street. Summer, 1954.

Photo: Unknown.

Source: Architectural Forum. May, 1955.

The 16-story 430 Park Avenue Building. West side of Park Avenue between 55th to 56th Street. Original Beaux-Arts residential building: Warren & Wetmore, 1916. Renovation an convertion to a modern glass, stainless steel and white brick office building: Emery Roth & Sons. 1953-1954.

View looking southwest of the 430 Park Avenue Building shortly after its reconvertion to a modern office building. Late 1954.

Photo: Adolph Studly-Emery Roth & Sons

Source: Progressive Architecture. June, 1957.

AMF Building, 261 Madison Avenue (Robert & Sylvan Bien, 1954). 

View looking sotheast of AMF Building, shortly after its completion, in 1954.

Photo: Wurts Brothers

Source: Robert A.M. Stern, Thomas Mellin, y David Fishman: “New York 1960. Architecture and urbanism between the Second World War and the Bicentennial” (New York. The Monacelli Press. Second Edition. 1997).

Aerial view looking southwest of Midtown Manhattan in Spring, 1954. 

The Empire State Building (Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, 1931) are at left with the United Nations headquarters (Wallace K. Harrison, 1948-1952), Daily News (Hood & Howells, 1930) and Chrysler Building (William Van Allen, 1930), at center.

Photo: Unknown.

Source: “A Pictorial Booklet of the United Nations” (Boston, A Natural Color.Co. Publication, Circa, 1960).

View looking northeast of Midtown Manhattan skyline from Weehawken, New Jersey, in 1954. The Rockefeller Center complex are at right.

Photo: Robert S. Sisson

Source: National Geographic Magazine. December, 1954.

The 22-story Davies Building. 460 Park Avenue, northwest corner with East 57th. Street. Emery Roth & Sons, 1954,. View looking northwest from 57th. Street, in spring, 1955. This skyscraper was one of the first building in New York City that built with prefabricated materials, and the aluminium and glass facade’s panels were installed in the building in a one day-labor journal (June 21, 1954).

Photo: Ezra Stoller.

Sorce: Robert A.M. Stern, Thomas Mellin, y David Fishman: "New York 1960. Architecture and urbanism between the Second World War and the Bicentennial". New York. The Monacelli Press. Second Edition. 1997.

Midtown Manhattan’s Grand Central District skyscrapers in this view looking northeast from Empire State Building. Late 1954.

Photo: Empire State Building, Inc.

Source: "Observatory Empire State Building" (New York, Empire State Building, Inc. Circa, 1955).

Midtown Manhattan looking north from Empire State Building. Late, 1954.

Photo: Empire State Building, Inc.

The 56-story Art Deco’s Chanin Building. 122 East 42nd Street, on the west side of Lexington Avenue between 41st. to 42nd. Streets. Irwin S. Chanin-Sloan & Robertson, architects, 1928. 

View looking southwest from 42nd Street and Third Avenue, in Spring, 1954. The parking lot in foreground, below Lexington Avenue will be replace by the future Socony-Mobil 45-story skyscraper. 

Buildings behind Chanin Building are 275 Madison Avenue (Kenneth Franzheim, 1931) and 100 Park Avenue (Kahn & Jacobs, 1949) at left, and Lincoln Building (James Edwin Ruthver Carpenter, 1930) at rfight.

Photo: Wurts Bros.

Source: Donald Martin Reynolds, "The Architecture of New York City. History and Views of Important Structures, Sites and Symbols" (New York. Macmillan. 1984).

Aerial view looking southwest of Midtown Manhattan in Spring, 1954. The Empire State Building (Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, 1931) are at left with the United Nations headquarters (Wallace K. Harrison, 1948-1952), Daily News (Hood & Howells, 1930) and Chrysler Building (William Van Allen, 1930), at center.

Photo: Unknown.

Source: "A Pictorial Booklet of the United Nations" (Boston, A Natural Color.Co. Publication, Circa, 1960).

Night view of Midtown Manhattan looking south from Rockefeller Center’s R.C.A. Building. Fall, 1954. The Empire State Building (Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, 1931) are at center dominates the skyline. The 500 Fifth Avenue tower (Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, 1931) are at left, foreground.

Photo: Unknown.

Source: "Nester's New York in color, in pictures, in design, in maps. A Great City Illustrated" (New York, Nester´s Map & Guide Corp. 1970).

The United Nations’ Secretariat skyscraper (Wallace K. Harrison, 1950) and Midtown Manhattan skyline in this night view looking southwest from Welfare (Roosevelt) Island in fall 1954. At center are the Empire State (Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, 1931) and Daily News (Hood & Howells, 1930) buildings and the Chanin (Sloan & Robertson, 1928) and Chrysler (William Van Allen, 1930) are visible at far right.

Photo: Unknown.

Source: "A Pictorial Booklet of the United Nations" (Boston, A Natural Color.Co. Publication, Circa, 1960).

Aerial view of Midtown Manhattan’s skyscrapers looking southwest in Spring 1954 showing a few modern buildings in the start of mid-century building boom. United Nations Headquarters (Wallace K. Harrison and and International Architects comitee, 1948-1952) are at foregrpound. The 102-story Empire State Building (Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, 1931) are at left dominating the skyline, and the 77-story Chrysler Building (William Van Allen, 1930) are on the center, at bakground.

Photo: Unknown.

Source: "A Pictorial Booklet of the United Nations" (Boston, A Natural Color.Co. Publication, Circa, 1960).

The 30-story American Machines and Foundry (A.M.F) Building. 261 Madison Avenue between East 38th to 39th Streets. Robert & Sylvan Bien, architects, 1952-1954. 

View looking southeast of the recently completed A.M.F. Building in 1954.

Photo: Wurts Brothers.

Source:  Robert A.M. Stern, Thomas Mellin, David Fishman: "New York 1960. Architecture and urbanism between the Second World War and the Bicentennial" (New York. The Monacelli Press. Second Edition. 1997).

Aerial view of the Empire State Building (Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, 1931) and it's neighborhood in early 1954.

Photo: Unknown.

Source: "Souvenir and Easy Guide to New York City" (New York, Manhattan Post Card, Co. Inc. 1974).

Demolition of Center Theatre in Rockefeller Center, showing part of the steel skeleton of the U.S. Rubber Building. November 1954

Photo: Edward Ratcliffe-Rockefeller Center, Inc.

Source: Alan Balfour "Rockefeller Center. Architecture as Theater" (New York. McGraw-Hill. 1978).