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New York
Architecture Images- Midtown Cheney Silk Company Building |
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architect |
French metalworking company Ferrobrandt |
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location |
181 East 34th Street (cnr 34th Street and Lexington Ave.) |
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date |
1925 |
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style |
Art Deco |
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construction |
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type |
Office Building |
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images |
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notes |
Almost as soon
as they returned, the Americans began to incorporate these motifs in their
buildings. And in some cases—as here at the Cheney Silk Company's offices
and showrooms—they actually imported French decorative arts. This showroom
opens in 1925, and it is actually the first instance of this art-deco style
to appear in New York. Cheney was a New England silk company that had very
strong relations with France, from which they imported a lot of silk. So
when Cheney was opening its showrooms on Madison Avenue and Thirty-fourth
Street, it had the French metalworking company Ferrobrandt design the
showroom's storefront. It was the first example that all New Yorkers could
see of this new French decorative style. You can see on this storefront,
which miraculously still survives, the frozen-fountain motif over the
doors—a motif eventually used on many of the city's buildings. And here at
the great bronze doors, you can see organic ornament being used in a very
stylized way. Note the curving and also the very pointy forms juxtaposed
with one another. These motifs will start to appear all over the city as New
York architects begin using the French art-deco motifs. Andrew Dolkart |
