The 1928 Beaux-Arts Institute of Design -- No. 304 E 44th Street

photograph by Nicolas Lemery Nantel / salokin.com

In 1878, as the Paris Exposition was being organized, New Yorker David Maitland Armstrong was made director of the American art section.  On the continent—and indeed in many drawing rooms of America’s wealthy-- the concept of “American art” was laughable.  When the Exposition was over, no one was laughing.

The New-York Tribune reported “the result was one of the great triumphs of his career and resulted in his election as a chevalier of the Legion of Honor.  It was the real initiation of the French people into a realization that such a thing as American art existed.”

Nevertheless, American art and architecture students who studied at the Ecole Nationale et Speciale des Beaux-Arts in Paris came home with a special prestige.  Those lucky—and wealthy—enough to attend to Ecole received what was at the time the world’s most esteemed training in classical, academic architecture.

In 1893 a group of architects who had studied at the Ecole formed the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects.  The organization was intended to bring the principals of French design and composition to America; as well as to carry on the discipline and concepts of the French academy. 

The Society broadened 23 years later when in 1916 it founded the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design.  Aspiring architects could now receive instruction in the French tradition in New York under a provisional charter of the University of New York.  The private stable of millionaire Jacob Schiff was purchased in 1914 and by 1915 the Institute was fully established in its new home.

The institute soon expanded—offering courses in the decorative arts (sculpture and painting), followed by interior decoration in 1921.  To enable students to study here for free (only a registration fee was required), funds were raised through the annual and fashionable Beaux-Arts Ball (a lavish costume ball), the sale of advertising in the Society’s yearbook, and general contributions.

By the early 1920s it became obvious that the old stable building was no longer adequate.   Growth and added areas of study were taxing the old space and certain departments—mural painting and sculpture, for instance—required large areas.  In October 1927 two old rowhouses at Nos. 304 and 306 East 44^th Street were purchased for $85,000.  The old school in what was now Manhattan’s most exclusive residential district was sold for about twice that amount.

A competition for the design of the new Beaux-Arts Institute of Design was initiated and a jury of six was selected to choose the winning entry.  Professional architect members of both the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design and the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects were informed on October 13, 1927 that the competition would be held a month later, on November 17, 1927 at 12:00.  The winner would be chosen at 4:00 that same afternoon.

Participation in the competition was essentially mandatory.  Architects submitting designs were charged a $25 entry fee; those who sat out the competition were charged $35.  The money would be used as part of the building fund.

Seventy-two of the nation’s most respected architects submitted designs, among them Raymond Hood, William Lamb, Ralph Walker and Chester Aldrich.  The applicants had been given a precise list of design requirements.  At 4:00 on the afternoon of November 17 the winning design of British-born Frederic C. Hirons, of Dennison and Hirons, had been chosen.

Plans for the four-story structure were not filed with the Bureau of Buildings until February 4, 1928.  In reporting on the filing, The New York Times noted that “Dennison & Hirons, the architects, estimate the cost at $100,000.”  That amount—about $1.3 million today-- hinted at a formidable new building.

Six months later the newspaper updated its readers on the progress.  “Work is progressing rapidly on the new home of the Beaux Arts Institute of Design at 304 East 44^th Street,” it said.

“An outstanding feature of the building will be three polychrome terra cotta panels in the façade, ranking with the finest work of that kind in the United States.  The colors will be shaded and blended as if done in oil or water colors.  They will picture the Parthenon in Athens, St. Peter’s Church in Rome and the court yard of the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, those three cities being symbols of sculpture, painting and architecture.”

The Times noted that at the time the institute “has several hundred members.”

In 1928 the fluffy, overly-ornamented Victorian and Edwardian building styles had given way to Art Deco—the visual arts style born in France following the war.  The sometimes brassy new style looked to celebrated the modern age in bold colors, sharp geometric shapes, and stylized forms.  The style would result in ziggurat skyscrapers, chrome-covered diners, and lavish lobbies that would represent, for decades, the visage of Manhattan world-wide.

In 1929 Wurts Bros. captured the year-old building.  The fifth-floor penthouse would be added decades later.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult_VPage&VBID=24UAYWDQRD72&SMLS=1&RW=1280&RH=915

Hirons’ completed buff brick building was a severe study in no-nonsense Art Deco.  With no zig-zagging lighting bolts, no stylized waterfalls and none of the Rockefeller Center glitz; it made only temperate use of visual design.  Two Greek-styled sculptural panels depicting architecture flanked the parapet at the fourth floor and carved Art Deco capitals capped the muscular brick three-story piers.  Above the double-height entrance, gutsy Deco lettering announced the Institute’s name.  Three limestone blocks at the second floor openings were intended to hold sculptural allegories of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture; but the plan was never executed when the necessary funds were not raised.

photograph by Nicolas Lemery Nantel / salokin.com

The piece de resistance, of course, was the three terra cotta panels described earlier by The New York Times.   Designed by Hirons’ favorite architectural sculptor, Rene Chambellan, they were produced by the Atlantic Terra Cotta Company.  (Hirons and Chambellan were already working together on a new project--the Art Deco State Bank & TrustCo. Building on 43^rd Street and Eighth Avenue).

The three magnificent terra cotta panels depicted the Parthenon, the Ecole des Beaux Arts, and St. Peters Basilica --
photograph by Nicolas Lemery Nantel / salokin.com

With the Institute in its new home, the Society continued its regimen, including the annual Beaux Arts Ball.  On January 24, 1930, despite the ongoing Great Depression, the event did not hold back on the expected grandeur.  Noting that “The proceeds of the ball are devoted to the education work of the Beaux Arts Institute of Design, which gives instruction in architecture, painting and sculpture to deserving students,” The New York Times described the upcoming Ball on January 5 at the Astor Hotel.

“This year the grand ballroom, to be known as ‘il Palazzo,’ will be decorated to represent the great central court of the Palace of Lorenzo the Magnificent in Florence.  From the main cornice surrounding the court, enormous drapes of red and gold will be suspended and these will be drawn apart with golden cords and tassels to reveal the balconies in which the nobility will assemble to view the historic pageant.”

The “pageant” was to represent scenes in the French court during the Renaissance and the court of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain.  The cast of the production included more than 300 “people of high station in society and the arts.”

The north ballroom, said the newspaper, “will be styled ‘il Cortile’ and will be treated as a walled garden through which the entrance to the grand ballroom will be made.  The south ballroom will be called ‘il Mercato’ and all the wares appropriate to the market place will be displayed lavishly therein.”

The Times described fountains, statuary, vases and flowers and added “The splendor of this setting will be further enhanced by the throng of several thousand guests, all garbed in the luxurious costumes of the Renaissance.”

Within the next decade the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design building was purchased by the Reeves Sound Studios and converted to offices, recording studios, editing labs and viewing theaters.   Today it is home to Egypt’s Permanent Mission to the United States.

photograph by Nicolas Lemery Nantel / salokin.com

Despite its several uses since the 1940s, Frederick C. Hirons’ brawny Art Deco design manifested in brick is virtually unchanged.  It is a much overlooked treasure on an otherwise unexciting block.

The Art Deco 1929 State Bank & Trust Co. Building -- 8th Avenue at 43rd Street

Although tacky shop signs mar the street level, the Art Deco design remains intact -- photo by Alice Lum

New York, as well as the rest of the country, experienced radical changes after World War I.  Conventional ideas regarding social proprieties, art and music were shaken.  Shocked socialites gasped at the thought of flappers with bobbed hair exposing their knees and dancing the Charleston.   

As the Roaring ‘20s swept across the nation, architecture changed as well.  Fussy Edwardian ornamentation was stripped away, replaced by the clean, geometric and idealized lines of the new Art Deco movement.

The architectural team of Dennison & Hirons were high on the Art Deco bandwagon.  English-born Frederic Charles Hirons probably met his partner, Ethan Allen Dennison in Paris while the pair studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.  They opened their office together in 1910 in New York City with Hirons doing most of the designing and Dennison handling the business end.

In those early days they produced extravagant Beaux-Arts-style structures often ornamented with terra cotta embellishments.  By the 1920s the architects had turned to Art Deco, but continued to use the highly-versatile material for decoration.  

Architects customarily commissioned artists to execute the sculptural details of their designs and the practice continued with the new Art Deco structures.    Hirons’ favorite architectural sculptor was Rene Chambellan, a New Jersey-born artist whose details in bronze, stone and terra cotta graced important buildings throughout New York City and elsewhere.

Hirons told a journalist from Pencil Points, “The most satisfactory way is to select a painter or sculptor by quality of his work –and not by competitive bids.”

On February 19, 1928 the United Capitol National Bank and Trust Company announced plans for a new bank building on the northwest corner of 8^th Avenue and 43^rd Street on a plot 60 x 100 feet.   The bank commissioned Dennison & Hirons to produce their three-story building.

The bank was founded in 1890 at 347 Grand Street and in the course of its three decades had undergone several name changes.  By the time the new building opened on January 17, 1929 – just nine months before the onset of the Great Depression – its name was changed again, to the State Bank & Trust Company.

The building embodied everything that the Jazz Age stood for:  it was new.  A sturdy stone block with a wrapping cornice, it relied on light and shadow for visual interest.  Recessed windows were separated by two-story pilasters, allowing for dimension and depth.  Bronze Art Deco panels separated the tall banking floor from the third.  But most eye-catching were Chambellan’s sculptured capitals – Art Deco stylized foliate forms in colorful terra cotta.

Colorful terra cotta capitals crown the fluted stone pilasters, separated by bronze panels -- photo by Alice Lum

Throughout the next few decades, as had been its habit, the bank would change its name repeatedly; becoming Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company in 1961.  Around 1990 the bank abandoned its striking building, which would sit empty and neglected for eight years.

photo by Alice Lum

In the meantime, during the 1970s, Robyn Goodman and Carole Rothman founded the Second Stage Theater with the intention of producing, for the most part, American plays (which would account for the decidedly American spelling of Theater).  By the late 1990s the highly-successful group was ready to expand.

Esteemed Dutch architect and designer Rem Koolhaas was commissioned to transform the bank into an up-to-date theater.  He worked rich Richard Gluckman in the renovation and in 1999 it was ready for unveiling – a sleek 296-seat playhouse with little hint of its former use on the inside but virtually intact on the exterior.

photo by Alice Lum

The auditorium was placed on the second floor in what had been the main banking area.  New York Times architectural critic Herbert Muschamp may have wanted just a little more, calling it “an architectural hors d’oeuvre, really just a piece or two of sushi on a plate.

“But it’s fresh and tangy, a morsel of the sophisticated design many New Yorkers have been craving,” he added.  “To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, this latest addition to the Theater District is exquisite and leaves one unsatisfied.”

Koolhaas kept the original, tall banking floor windows.  The seats are constructed of material first designed to manufacture bicycle seats.

The AIA Guide to New York City was pleased, saying the “interior is appropriately spartan (no 1920s retro flamboyance here),” although it added, “but the bathrooms are orange.”

Muschamp summarized “Straightforwardness filtered through a wayward imagination: this is a Koolhaas design, all right.  A theater with windows?  No wall between lobby and auditorium?  These ideas may be odd to contemplate, but they fit.”

Most importantly, Second Stage Theater adds one more example to the list of successfully recycled vintage structures.  The exterior, with what the AIA Guide described as “multicolored column capitals in a rich abstraction of Art Deco variations on a Classical theme,” remains a familiar anchor at 8^th Avenue and 43^rd Street. 

Dennison & Hirons’ wonderful design – at once austere and jazzy – is preserved as a reminder of pre-Depression days when times were changing and everyone, it seemed, was growing rich.