NYC Landmarks: uptown

UPtown

USS Maine monument (1913)

Architect: Harold Van Buren Magonigle
Built to honor those who died aboard the USS Maine on February 15, 1898, after a mysterious explosion destroyed the ship while at anchor in Havana Harbor
The battleship Maine was patrolling the waters near Havana protecting US commercial interests while Cuba was still a Spanish colony. There was an explosion which sank the ship. 258 people died.
This incident caused Spanish-American War which lasted for 4 months in 1898. As a result, Spain ceded Cuba, Puerto Rico and Philippines to the US
Pulitzer's World and Hearst's Journal started an aggressive campaign blaming Spain and provoking a war
Hearst started a fund raising campaign to built a monument under the slogan "Remember the Maine!"
The top figure is the goddess Columbia rising from the sea. (Audrey Munson is the model)

Andrew Carnegie Mansion now Cooper Hewitt Design Museum (1901)

Andrew Carnegie built it as his retirement home
In 1901 he sold his Carnegie Steal to J.P. Morgan. He was worth $480 million
Mansion had 64 rooms, passenger elevator and an early prototype of central air conditioning
After death of his wife, the mansion was sold to Smithsonian

The Ansonia (1903)

Architect: Paul E. Duboy
Developer: William Earle Dodge Stokes
Built as a residential hotel - the most lavish in the world
Amenities included telephone service in each apartment * lobby fountain with live seals * largest closed pool in the world * rooftop farm providing fresh produce for the tenants * grand ballrooms * restaurants decorated in the style of Louis XIV * a palm court * tearooms and cafes * a bank * a barbershop and tailor * Turkish baths
The building was completely fireproof which made is soundproof
The farm on the roof," Weddie Stokes wrote years later, "included about 500 chickens, many ducks, about six goats and a small bear.
Famous former residents include: Babe Ruth, Theodore Dreiser, Florenz Ziegfeld, Yehudi Menuhin, Igor Stravinsky, Arturo Toscanini, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Gustav Mahler
When built it was the largest hotel in the world. It had 1,400 rooms, 4.5 miles of hallways and could 1,300 dinner guests

Frick Mansion (1914)

Architect: Thomas Hastings
Henry Clay Frick was Carnegie's partner who made his millions in steel
Second park of his life was spent buying art. The Mansion was build as a private residence and a place to house his collection
Frick wanted to outdo Carnegie mansion making it "look like a miner's shack"
From the very beginning, the house was intended to become a museum
The collection opened to the public in 1935
The collection includes masterpieces by Holbein, Titian, El Greco, Bellini, Turner, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Velázquez, Veronese, and Vermeer (it features 3 paintings by Vermeer)

Riverside Church (1930)

Architects: Charles Collens, Henry C. Pelton
Architectural style: Gothic Revival architecture
The Riverside Church is an interdenominational, interracial, international, open, welcoming, and affirming church and congregation.
Built on the idea and the money of John D. Rockefeller Jr.
The Riverside Church is built as a steel-frame skyscraper
The tower has 22 stories for offices, meeting and class rooms
Built in just 4 years
Rockefeller paid the architects to go to Europe for ideas. The church combines elements of French, Italian and Spanish design
One of the last examples of revival architecture in the city
When the church was finished Rockefeller was already planning the Rockefeller Center

The Guggenheim Museum (1959)

Designer: Frank Lloyd Wright
Year: 1959
The museum was founded 1939. In 1943, Solomon R. Guggenheim hired Frank Lloyd Wright to design a home for his priceless collection of non-objective art
The design is meant to destroy all that is "square"
Museum is Write's last major work
The reaction to the building was very negative. It was called everything from bathtub to battleship
10,000 people came to the opening
Still, one of the most visited museums

The Lincoln Center (1962)

Architects: Wallace Harrison, Philip Johnson, Eero Saarinen, Max Abramovitz, etc
The are in the West 60th know as Juan Hill was populated by Puerto Rican immigrants
West side was developed in the early 1900s, but by 1950s it became quite shabby
As a part of Robert Moses' effort to clean up the slums, the are was designated for the LincolnSquare Urban Development Project
JD Rockefeller III was chosen to lean the project who picked Wallace Harrison to be the chief architect
The plan was to create a performance conglomerate consisting of Met Opera, NY Philharmonic, NYC Ballet and The Juliard Music school
The project displaced 7,000 people without properly rehousing them
However, in terms of revitalizing the neighborhood, it was a success

The Time Warner Center (2004)

Architect: David Childs
Main tenant was Time Warner
The building is mixed-use: office building, condos, shopping mall, concert venue
Time Warner Center will be renamed the Deutsche Bank Center which had signed a 25 year lease
The complex’s south tower at 25 Columbus Circle, features luxury condominiums, and the north tower, at 80 Columbus Circle, contains apartments from the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. The building is home to CNN’s New York City headquarters, five-star restaurants, and high-end retail.
Time Warner moved to Hudson Yards
In 2006 the property had the highest-listed market value in New York City

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