Sky Scappers of New York City Essay

The 19th century in the American architecture is significant by an unprecedented pace of urbanization. At the end of XIX century in American architecture reinforced concrete, a frame system, the elevator was invented and began to be used. It was the beginning of skyscrapers and most clients would like to achieve exactly this result in his order for building. Then the competition of the highest building began. Clients demanded their building to be higher from competitors. One of those who found the solution for this situation was an architect of The New York Tribune Building, Richard Morris Hunt. He emplaced a tower on the top of the building. It was impossible to imagine anything like this before but he did it and it was accepted.
The architect created the original design that presented the building in a simple red color without bright strips and pompous decorations which were so popular at those times. According to this design the building should be very high for those times but there were some elements which could make it look even higher. Simple faзade should be combined with the diminished windows and the increasing height of their arches. In such way the building should look even greater than it was supposed to be, but customs did not accept the original design and the architect had to make some changes in it (Harris et al., 411-413).
The customers would like to see something that was more appropriate for the style of those times. So, the final design had brighter color what made faзade more pompous. There were also the horizontal strips which made the visual high of The New York Tribune Building less grandiose and it looked shorter. It did not look like an architect would like it to be – big, high building but it was like small pie cut into pieces.
The initial destination of the tower was also lost in the final design the customer chose. It was lost at the background of the bright faзade which attracted all the attention by its color and two strips of windows merging with their surroundings. It was not so massive but natural at the same time any more. It lost its majesty and now it looked so unnatural and like it stopped on a halfway down the building. Hunt was able to save just some ideas of his original design. That were arches which started at ground and presses to frontons on the roof. This architectural method helped to rehabilitate buildings height and to make it visual higher what was the initial aspect in the original plan. Unfortunately, the final plan diminished the effect The New York Tribune Building might have provided but architects can see the incredible impact that Richard Morris Hunt made on the American architecture of the 19th century. It’s worthy of saying that this building still influence some architect’s choice in modern constructions.

All the constructive works at The New York Tribune Building were finished in 1875. The building was made of bricks and it was 260 feet tall. The New York Tribune Building was the first building where the elevators were used. This technical invention laid the way for skyscrapers building. The building was situated at 154 Printinghouse Square; or the northeast corner of Nassau and Spruce Street. It was part of a group of successful 19th century newspaper buildings fronting Printinghouse Square. It was surrounding by The Building of the World, The City Wall and The New York Times (Nordenson, 74-75).

The elevator was a technical invention which changed people’s ideas about possible height of the buildings. Till those times people had an idea that it’s possible to build only such a building with so many floors that a person can ascend to the upper floor. Normally buildings had just about four or five floors to overcome them easily but the process of urbanization which took place in New York in 19th century changed that rule. There was the fight for land and the only one way to make the building bigger was to make it higher but then people needed some vehicle to ascend to the upper floor. Elevator solved this problem.
But there arose another question, the height of the building was also limited by its capacity to be built so tall as stone and brick were not the best materials for such constrictions. As this is well-known the weight of the upper floors is distributed mostly to the lower floors and there was the necessity to make it of thicker and bulkier materials with the aim to stand the weight of the ever rising upper floors in constructions built of stone and bricks. But from the economic point of view it was not efficient as thicker walls were less functional and cost expensive to build. This problem stopped the process of constructing higher buildings for some time.
This situation is well seen in the case of The New York Tribune Building which had thick walls around the windows at the first floor and the interior load baring walls had to be even thicker. The technical progress made its impact on buildings as well and such material as steel solved this problem and opened the way for skyscrapers. It happened several years later but it helped to make the walls very thin. The New York Tribune Building was destroyed in 1966 and now the site it was built on belongs to the Pace Collage.
The coup in the architecture, which took place in the 20th century, did not touch just the appearance of new forms and the use of new materials. The whole concept of this kind of creativity changed. Until that time, during the process of designing in the foreground stood the aesthetic and philosophical tasks were of the primary importance, and now the main purpose of the architecture was the most rational solution of the practical and functional tasks.
The American Radiator Building or how this building is known today The Bryant Park Hotel is located in New York City, Manhattan on the 40th Street. Built in 1924, it gave the surrounding Bryant Park, and the whole city a special, new charm. The architect of the building Raymond Hood didn’t think that the fate will take him so high. When he started with designing of the radiators covers, he didn’t think that he would be the one, who will create one of the most beautiful buildings in New York (Andrews, 59-60). However, when the company was “American Radiator” decided to build a new office to the exhibition center near Fifth Avenue, it turned to him with the order, as to a person who worked for that company for a long time and was considered to be a reliable architect.
Architects John Howells and Raymond Hood have created a unique masterpiece of combined Gothic and modern design of the building.

It was a 23-storyd construction that had 103 meters height and was made in an architectural art-deco style. It is necessary to note, that building was erected in 1924, and it was some time before that architectural style became popular in New York, so Raymond Hood can be considered to be the one who brought that style to the city. Bryant Park is a nice place and you can even see the Empire State Building from there, but in our case, it is just a background to enjoy the view of The American Radiator Building (Johnson, 36-38). Due to the program, it had to be comparatively small construction and it had to look like a tower. To make this possible, the architect had to make a setback from the neighboring buildings.
The building itself has a steel frame and the faзade is made of the black bricks. Using this color Hood broke all the architectural traditions. The black color was selected in order to make the contrast between the walls and the windows less and thus to give an idea of ​​respectability of the company. The other parts of the facade were made of a material with a golden hue, and the higher you go – the more golden parts you can see. And the entrance was decorated with black marble and mirrors. At the very entrance to the building one can find many sculptures made by Rene Paul Chambellan (Marshall, 45-47). Some of them symbolize transformation of matter into energy, but that’s not strange at all if we remember that it was the American Radiator who ordered the building. Each part of the construction was made in such a way, that it persuaded people in the excellence of the products that company produces. And the black color played a very important role in making such an impression. Small amount of budge details comparing to other buildings of that time together with suitable and moderate usage of terra-cotta ornament made people pay more attention to these parts which seem to be less noticeable in an ordinary surroundings.
Americans were impressed with the final result of the process of construction and it awoke a lot of different positive statements from different people who’s opinions were considered to be respectful at that time including famous architectural historian Talbot Hamlin, who characterized The American Radiator Building to be the best experiment that had ever been done with colors used in contemporary constructions built in the USA. At night time this building is significant by its floodlighting and it attracts attention of those, who are usually not really interested in street architecture, or architecture at all. As a magazine American Architect said The American Radiator Building became one of the sights of the city.
Raymond Hood was an American architect who connected 19th and the 20th centuries. His buildings in neo-gothic and art-deco styles brought him fame and honor of his adherents even though his last buildings were constructed in the international style (Bahamуn, 78-82).
Since 1974 the American Radiator Building is an official New York City landmark. As time passed the Building changed several owners. At first it was sold to the American Standard Company and later Japanese Clio Biz became its owners. The last changes that the building experienced happened in 90’s. At that time the American Radiator Building became the Bryant Park Hotel which functions right now as one of the most famous hotels in New York that attracts tourists because of its historical value in architecture and for people who like nice things and entertainments as a charming boutique establishment.