The 1927 National Broadcasting Co Bldg - 711 Fifth Avenue

 

In 1918, architect Floyd Brown branched into real estate development, founding the Bethlehem Engineering Company.  In 1925 he acquired the five five-story mansions at the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 55th Street as a site for a 15-story commercial building.

When this photograph was taken in June 1925, the end of the line for these handsome mansions was near.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

Construction began in 1926 and as the structure rose on December 8, 1926, The New York Times reported that it "will be known as the National Broadcasting Company Building, as a result of negotiations recently completed."  Saying it would "house the greatest broadcasting plant in the United States," the article explained that the National Broadcasting Company would occupy the 14th and 15th floors.

Construction was completed on October 1, 1927.  Faced in limestone, the tripartite Renaissance Revival design included classical elements, like the two Fifth Avenue entrances below triangular pediments carved with wriggling serpents, and double-height engaged Corinthian columns and pilasters at the second and third floors that separated imposing arched openings.

The the entrances within classical Roman-style enframements announce "National Broadcasting Bldg" under the fearsome looking serpents within the pediment.  1928 image by Wurts Bros., from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

The ground and second floors held stores and a bank.  The Chatham-Phenix Bank engulfed most of the second floor (which had a ceiling height of  22 feet); the Knox Hat Co. leased the store between the two Fifth Avenue entrances "and half of the second floor," according Men's Wear on May 11, 1927; a Samuel Rugof drugstore moved into the 3,000-square-foot corner space; and the hosiery firm Peck & Peck leased the northern store.  (The wife of Mayor James J. Walker officially opened the Peck & Peck store on November 14, 1927.)

The National Broadcasting Company hired architect Raymond Hood to design their studios and offices.  In April 1927, The New York Times reported that he was designing studios in themes--one based on a Gothic church, another on the Roman Forum, a Louis XIV space, and one studio devoted to jazz.  The article called the latter, "wildly futuristic, with plenty of color in bizarre designs."  Buildings and Building Management said that Hood, "set out to give the rooms an atmosphere in keeping with the spirit of radio...The decorations are simple rather than ornate, and not at all fantastic.  The note of modernity was achieved mainly by the effective use of color."

A National Broadcasting Co. reception room (above) and a studio. Proceedings of The Institute of Radio Engineers, May 1929 (copyright expired)

The Fifth Avenue Association annually honored "the best new and altered buildings constructed during the past year," as described by The New York Times on February 12, 1928.  Bethlehem Engineering Corporation was awarded second prize "for new buildings" as builder and architect.  The committee noted, "The design shows originality in composition, but the details and architectural treatments throughout are copies of pure classical examples, together with a small amount of the Pompeian in the bronze storefront."

Banners in 1928 announce that the Chatham-Phenix National Bank would be occupying the ground floor.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

The National Broadcasting Company aired two stations from the building, WEAF and WJZ.  By the time it moved in, the firm was leasing four floors.  Buildings and Building Management explained on April 9, 1928 that the 13th and 14th floors held the eight studios, while offices occupied the 11th and 12th.

The building's other tenants were almost entirely millinery firms, according to The New York Times on August 22, 1928.

The listeners of National Broadcasting Company shows who gathered around their living room radios could only imagine the scenes in the studios.  The live audiences saw "announcers in dinner jackets and prima donnas in red velvet gowns," as described by The New York Times on November 3, 1928.  

At least two exceptions to that type of entertainment occurred that fall.  On October 4, 1928 the National Broadcasting Company aired the first game of the World Series.  The New York Times reported, "Faraway localities heard the account of the game as a result of a hook-up of more than fifty stations which extended from Maine to California and Georgia to Washington."  And the following month, on November 3, a studio was converted to a newsroom as the results of the Presidential election came in by wire and were updated to listeners around the country.

The following year, the National Broadcasting Company landed three important contracts.  Singer Rudy Valee and his band, the Connecticut Yankees, signed an agreement; on May 6, John Philip Sousa, "band leader and composer, who has refused until not to appear before a microphone," according to The New York Times, began a series of weekly concerts; and in December, the Metropolitan Opera Company signed an agreement to present the first ever grand opera broadcast, Aida.

On April 18, 1939, the Associated American Artists opened their "sumptuous galleries," as described by The New York Times, with an exhibition of Thomas Hart Benton.  Three months later, the women's accessory store Lederer de Paris, Inc. opened in one of the retail spaces.

Views of the elegant American Artists galleries in 1939.  Photograph by F. S. Lincoln, from the collection of the New York Public Library

In 1941, Le Pavillon opened, with its entrance at 5 East 55th Street.  The exclusive restaurant was the target of a frightening and well planned robbery six years later on March 15, 1947.  At 7:00 that night, a man entered the building on Fifth Avenue.  He stepped into an elevator and told the 19-year-old operator, Arthur Carter, to obey his commands.  He was acutely aware of details about the building and even Carter.  "Remember, you have a wife and baby," he said, brandishing the firearm.  

The gunman apparently knew that the restaurant's cashier would soon be taking the afternoon's receipts to the office.  When Marie Jacqueline Casanova entered the elevator, the thug ordered Carter to take to ascend to the deserted seventh floor.  Here he took the restaurant's $1,500 receipts and Marie Casanova's handbag.  "Then he walked downstairs and disappeared," reported The New York Times.

While Le Pavillon hosted celebrated and wealthy patrons over the years, one party stood out in 1953.  On November 12, The New York Times reported that President Harry Truman, the First Lady, and their daughter, Margaret (with her escort, Robert Diendorfer), dined here before attending The Tea House of the August Moon at the Martin Beck Theatre.

In March, 1955, the Columbia Pictures Corporation acquired 711 Fifth Avenue "for its own use and occupancy," according to The Times.  The article said that as tenants' leases expired, Columbia would take over those spaces.  The firm's planned $3 million renovations would entail, "new elevators, air conditioning, recessed lighting from soundproofed ceilings, and modern plumbing, lavatory and electrical installations," said the article.

In October 1958, Henri Soulé took over the Le Pavillon space for his La Côte Basque.  The redecorating included murals by Bernard Lamotte.  Like Le Pavillon, it became a center of high-society luncheons and dinners.

Included in Columbia Pictures Corporation spaces was a screening room--in effect a small motion picture theater.  Films were screened here to invited audiences prior to their releases.  On December 13, 1967, for instance, The New York Times reported, "Truman Capote invited about 85 of his friends to a private viewing of 'In Cold Blood' last night in a screening room at the Fifth Avenue offices of Columbia Pictures."  Private screening or not, it was an glamorous affair.  "Women in short dresses, many of them wearing mink coats, and men in dark suits emerged regally from limousines and taxis," said the article.  Among them were Princess Lee Radziwill, Patricia Kennedy Lawford, Leonard Bernstein, Bennett Cerf, the William S. Paleys and Katherine Graham.

The building was sold in 1978, and in 1983 the Coca-Cola Company purchased the leasehold.  The New York Times explained on July 27, "Columbia Pictures, a major tenant in the midtown Manhattan building, is a subsidiary of the Coca-Cola Company."  The Coca-Cola Company installed its New York headquarters in the building.

The once-staid Fifth Avenue neighborhood became less so when Coca-Cola Fifth Avenue, a retail merchandise store, opened in November 1991.  The 500 different items ranged in price from 75 cents to $6,000 for a neon sign.  And then, three years later in December 1994, the Walt Disney Company rented 30,000 square feet for its Disney Store, displacing the elegant La Côte Basque restaurant in doing so.

But Fifth Avenue was not totally ready to accept change.  On October 6, 1996, The New York Times Anthony Ramirez reported, 

On Fifth Avenue, you can have 28 American flags snapping smartly over the front of Saks Fifth Avenue.  Or you can have four elegant white awnings shading Cartier.  Or you can have Atlas holding up a giant clock over the entrance to Tiffany's.  But you can't have man-size brass moldings of Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Pluto the dog jutting out a good six feet over the front door of the Disney Store.

Brendon Sexton, president of the Municipal Art Society, commented, "I love 42nd Street, but it shouldn't be on Fifth Avenue."

In September 2019, SHVO acquired 711 Fifth Avenue and commissioned architect Peter Marino to remodel the interiors.  The exterior, which does not have landmark protection, was preserved intact, and is essentially unchanged since the building opened in 1927.

photographs by the author