The Meeting House for the New York Society of Ethical Culture is an Art Nouveau building located within the Central Park West Historic District in New York City. [1] The building was designed by Robert D. Kohn. [2]
The Meeting House for the New York Society of Ethical Culture is an Art Nouveau building located within the Central Park West Historic District in New York City. [1] The building was designed by Robert D. Kohn. [2]
Construction for the meeting house began in 1909, nearly a decade after the New York Society for Ethical Culture bought the land on Central Park West between 63rd and 64th streets. [2] Originally, the Society had been meeting in Carnegie Hall, but decided to build a meeting house of their own. [2] The architect of the building, and a lifelong member of the Society for Ethical culture as well as one of its presidents, Robert D. Kohn, juxtaposed the style of the meeting house with the style of the society's school that shared the same block, Ethical Culture School. [2] [1] The school, which had been completed in 1904, is a five-story, brick building, with large windows facing the expansive Central Park on the other side of the avenue. [2] The school had, however, been designed by other architects: John Carrère and Thomas Hastings. [2] Kohn did not design the meeting house to match the school; rather, he imagined the meeting house in the Art Nouveau style, which effectively conflicted with, but also complemented, the typical image of the school. [2]
Thus, for much of the twentieth century, the meeting house has remained, effectively, the same as it had been done when it was constructed. [2] However, in 1966, the Society for Ethical Culture, along the Y.M.C.A, which was right beside the meeting house, were approached by a developer and former chairman of the City Planning Commission, William F.R. Ballard, and offered a deal to completely the strip of buildings on the block (between 63rd and 64th) street in order to put in a forecourt because of the close vicinity to Lincoln Center. [2] Ultimately, the project did not go through because of the flurry of protests from both the Y.M.C.A and the Society for Ethical Culture. [2]
The central idea of Kohn's design for the meeting house was the idea of simplicity. [3] The exterior of the building is made of white Bedford stone, with few details carved into the stone. [3] Besides the eight niches, the building's exterior stone is relatively simple. [3] Above the wall that faces Central Park and Central Park West, there is a cornice, decorated more so than anything else on the exterior, that connects the meeting house to the Society's other building, the next door Ethical Culture School. [3] Because of the plainness of the exterior wall of building, where there are no windows at the street level that peer into the inside quarters of the building, there are two inscribed tablets that name the building and describe its purpose. [3] However, the entirety of the exterior is not undecorated: Above the main entrance, there is a relief by Estelle Rumbold Kohn, which depicts eight separate figures, arranged in a vigil. [3] Moreover, over the side entrances of the meeting house there are four, relatively small torch-bearing figures designed and crafted by Harriet F. Clark. [3]
In the same vein as the exterior of the meeting house, the interior of the hallowed space is also plain. [3] The meeting space has a circular arrangement: all the seats surround the center platform in a radial fashion. [3] The center platform, itself, also is different from other religious halls because the platform is barely above the seats, indicating that the speaker, physically and figuratively, comes from where the audience sits, and is not separate and apart from the people. [3] Moreover, the simplicity of the design translates into the details of the exterior, from the lack of finishing on the wood to the undecorated walls. [3] However, like the exterior, the interior is not entirely plain and undecorated: Inside the meeting house, there is a stained-glass window designed by Louis le Vaillant. [3] There are also other stained-glass windows, namely the ones that face out onto Central Park West, which are the most visible to the public. [2]
The choice of a simple structure was a deliberate one on the part of Kohn; he wanted to depict a new style for both religious architecture in the city as well as the city's architectural style, as a whole. [2] Primarily, Kohn wanted the structure to be different from other religious buildings in New York City because neither the meeting house nor the Society for Ethical were religious spaces, in reality, like that of a church or Christianity. [4] Moreover, the plain exterior also pursued another argument of Kohn's: He wanted to pose an antithesis to the bustling modern life in the city. [2] Since he felt that much of the city's architecture was garish and over-the-top, he designed the meeting house to be the complete opposite. [2]
In the late 1970s, the Society for Ethical Culture in New York attempted to annul the landmark statuses for its meeting house and school, both located on Central Park West, because they wanted to redevelop the area. [5] The reason for this was because the land, in the over seventy years that the Society had owned it, had appreciated greatly in value, and the Society wanted to capitalize on this change. [6] The Society's leaders were not planning on using the land to advance the wealth of the organization, but rather to fund its charitable and philanthropic efforts as well as the Ethical Culture School, which was the justification for their legal action against the landmark status. [6] Specifically, the Society argued that the landmark statuses of both buildings were inhibiting their economic agency over the land because the Society was not able to change any part of the land due to the restrictive historical landmark status. [7] Nevertheless, in Society of Ethical Culture in the City of New York v. Spatt, the court, and the judge presiding over the case, ruled in favor of keeping the landmark statuses for the meeting house and the school, effectively ruling against any of the future actions proposed by the Society. [6] The court decided that, in reality, the Society's claims of economic hardship due to the landmark statuses was unfounded, and that it appeared that Society, instead, simply wanted to make money off of the land, without any care for the historical importance of either the school or the meeting house. [6]
In 2001, the Society for Ethical Culture began to restore and renovate, at that point, the nearly century-old meeting house. [2] The purpose of the renovation was, primarily, to repair the roof, and also restore the original masonry of the building. [2] The project was undertaken by architect Walter Melvin, and the budget, for the overall restoration, was $1,022,000. [2] The meeting house celebrated its 100th anniversary on October 23, 2010. [1] The celebration included both a new dedication ceremony as well as a proclamation issued from the Mayor of New York, at the time, Michael Bloomberg. [1] The proclamation declared that that date to be, within the boundaries of New York City, "New York Society for Ethical Culture Day," specifically citing the great importance of the Society and its philanthropic efforts on New York culture . [1]
The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West Side is adjacent to the neighborhoods of Hell's Kitchen to the south, Columbus Circle to the southeast, and Morningside Heights to the north.
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and culturally significant buildings and sites by granting them landmark or historic district status, and regulating them after designation. It is the largest municipal preservation agency in the nation. As of July 1, 2020, the LPC has designated more than 37,800 landmark properties in all five boroughs. Most of these are concentrated in historic districts, although there are over a thousand individual landmarks, as well as numerous interior and scenic landmarks.
The Auditorium Building in Chicago is one of the best-known designs of Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler. Completed in 1889, the building is located at the northwest corner of South Michigan Avenue and Ida B. Wells Drive. The building was designed to be a multi-use complex, including offices, a theater, and a hotel. As a young apprentice, Frank Lloyd Wright worked on some of the interior design.
The Avery Coonley House, also known as the Coonley House or Coonley Estate was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Constructed 1908–12, this is a residential estate of several buildings built on the banks of the Des Plaines River in Riverside, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. It is itself a National Historic Landmark and is included in another National Historic Landmark, the Riverside Historic District.
Unity Temple is a Unitarian Universalist church in Oak Park, Illinois, and the home of the Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation. It was designed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and built between 1905 and 1908. Unity Temple is considered to be one of Wright's most important structures dating from the first decade of the twentieth century. Because of its consolidation of aesthetic intent and structure through use of a single material, reinforced concrete, Unity Temple is considered by many architects to be the first modern building in the world. This idea became of central importance to the modern architects who followed Wright, such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and even the post-modernists, such as Frank Gehry. In 2019, along with seven other buildings designed by Wright in the 20th century, Unity Temple was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.
William Bunker Tubby was an American architect who was particularly notable for his work in New York City.
The First Unitarian Society of Madison (FUS) is a Unitarian Universalist congregation in Shorewood Hills, Wisconsin. Its meeting house was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built by Marshall Erdman in 1949–1951, and has been designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark for its architecture. With over 1,000 members, it is one of the ten largest Unitarian Universalist congregations in the United States.
The James Charnley Residence, also known as the Charnley-Persky House, is a historic house museum at 1365 North Astor Street in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1892, it is one of the few surviving residential works of Louis Sullivan.
Scandinavia House – The Nordic Center in America is the American-Scandinavian Foundation's cultural center at 58 Park Avenue, in Murray Hill, Manhattan, New York City. It is dedicated to preserving the history of the Scandinavian and Nordic countries in the United States through exhibits and programming. This cultural center hosts exhibitions of fine art, design as well as performing arts pieces from Nordic countries. The center also introduces the local population and guests with Scandinavian languages and customs by organizing courses.
Robert D. Kohn was an American architect most active in New York City.
The Central Park West Historic District is located along Central Park West, between 61st and 97th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 9, 1982. The district encompasses a portion of the Upper West Side-Central Park West Historic District as designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, and contains a number of prominent New York City designated landmarks, including the Dakota, a National Historic Landmark. The buildings date from the late 19th century to the early 1940s and exhibit a variety of architectural styles. The majority of the district's buildings are of neo-Italian Renaissance style, but Art Deco is a popular theme as well.
55 Central Park West is a 19-floor housing cooperative on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Built in 1929, it was designed by the architectural firm Schwartz & Gross. The building is a contributing property within the Central Park West Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Hyde Hall is a neoclassical country mansion in Springfield Center, New York, designed by architect Philip Hooker for George Clarke (1768–1835), a wealthy landowner. The house was constructed between 1817 and 1834, and designed with English and American architectural features. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986 for its architecture, and the completeness of its architectural documentary record. It is one of the few surviving works of Philip Hooker, a leading 19th-century American architect.
The Barclay–Vesey Building is an office and residential building at 140 West Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The 32-story building was designed in the Art Deco style by Ralph Walker of Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker, and was Walker's first major commission as well as one of the first Art Deco skyscrapers. It occupies the entire block bounded by West Street to the west, Barclay Street to the north, Vesey Street to the south, and Washington Street to the east, abutting the World Trade Center.
The Second Unitarian Church in Brooklyn was a historic church in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, New York City. It was built from 1857 to 1858 and was demolished in 1962. The Church became known as a prominent cultural center in Brooklyn. One of the church's members, Mary White Ovington, co-founded the NAACP, and the church was an abolitionist hub.
The Architecture of Buffalo, New York, particularly the buildings constructed between the American Civil War and the Great Depression, is said to have created a new, distinctly American form of architecture and to have influenced design throughout the world.
Art Deco architecture flourished in New York City during the 1920s and 1930s. The style broke with traditional architectural conventions and was characterized by verticality, ornamentation, and building materials such as plastics, metals, and terra cotta. Art Deco is found in government edifices, commercial projects, and residential buildings in all five boroughs. The architecture of the period was influenced by worldwide decorative arts trends, the rise of mechanization, and New York City's 1916 Zoning Resolution, which favored the setback feature in many buildings.
500 Park Avenue is an office and condominium building on the southwest corner of Park Avenue and 59th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, composed of the 11-story Pepsi-Cola Building and the 40-story 500 Park Tower. The original Pepsi-Cola Building along Park Avenue was constructed from 1958 to 1960 and designed by Gordon Bunshaft and Natalie de Blois of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM). The tower along 59th Street was constructed between 1981 and 1984 to designs by James Stewart Polshek & Partners.
The Engineers' Club Building, also known as Bryant Park Place, is a residential building at 32 West 40th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, United States. Located on the southern edge of Bryant Park, it was constructed in 1907 along with the adjoining Engineering Societies' Building. It served as the clubhouse of the Engineers' Club, a social organization formed in 1888. The building was designed by Henry D. Whitfield and Beverly S. King, of the firm Whitfield & King, in the neo-Renaissance style.