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UPtown

DOWNTOWN | GREENWICH VILLAGE | FLATIRON DISTRICT | FIFTH AVE AND BEYOND | MIDTOWN | 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)

uptown

DOWNTOWN GREENWICH VILLAGE FLATIRON DISTRICT FIFTH AVE AND BEYOND MIDTOWN UPTOWN
​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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