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TOM FLETCHER'S new york architecture |
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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 |