CONTEMPORARY NY
145-french1.jpg (26639 bytes) New York Architecture Images- Midtown

THE FRED F. FRENCH BUILDING

architect

Sloan & Robertson and H. Douglas Ives

location

551 Fifth Avenue 

date

1926-1927

style

Art Deco

construction

The 38-storey building rises from a three-storey base clad in limestone and decorated bronze paneling. The austere, vertically accentuated facade of orange brick is enhanced by terra-cotta decor on the setbacks. The narrow, east-west slab of tower rises uninterrupted for 17 floors on the Fifth Avenue side all the way to the triplex penthouse above the last setback, topped by a watertank housing at 131 m with large, colourful rectangular panels depicting allegorical themes (image). On the eastern portion of the plot, the building rises as a wing with a series of setbacks. 

type

Office Building

 

 

images

 

 
 
 

contact

nyc-architecture.com

  Special thanks to Carter B. Horsley of the  www.thecityreview.com