January 10, 2006
NY's golden hotel era architects: Schultze & Weaver
The Roaring '20s was a grand era for excess, travel and hotel construction in New York City. Among the elegant new skyscrapers added to the city's skyline were the Hotel Pierre (1929-30,) the Lexington (1928-29,) the Sherry-Netherland, (1926-27,) the Park Lane, (1922-24,) and lastly, the Waldorf-Astoria (1929-31.) In addition to their luxury, they had one key element in common: they were all designed by Schultze & Weaver, a team that also built the Miami Biltmore in Coral Gables, the Breakers in Palm Beach, the Biltmore in Los Angeles and the Sevilla Biltmore addition in Havana, Cuba.
As if you need an excuse to sneak off to Florida in the middle of winter, the Wolfsonian museum in Miami Beach has opened an exhibit devoted to the architects and their opulent designs: "In Pursuit of Pleasure Schultze & Weaver and the American Hotel."
Made up of architect drawings, original furniture, hotel china, a ball gown, photographs, vintage travel brochures, floor-to-ceiling watercolors of the hotels and even movie clips from the 1945 Warner Bros. film "Weekend at the Waldorf," the exhibit is just so much eye candy.
There are also great glimpses into some of the hotel's inner workings, such as a typed document from Dec. 22, 1930, calculating the costs to build the Waldorf. With the heading "Forecast of Ultimate Cost on the Basis of Orders now given or definitely decided upon," the tabulation lists all the subcontractors, including Cutler Mail Chute Co., Hay Foundry & Iron Works, Otis Elevator Company, Revolving Door Inc., United Cork Specialties and Swonson Wood Floor Co.
The total: $8,392,263.95.
There is a brochure for "Montauk Beach of Long Island" with the sales pitch that it's "The Miami Beach of the North." You'll find floor plans of the Sherry-Netherland, which was the tallest residential building in the world -- "and four feet higher than the Washington Monument" -- when it opened in November 1927. It catered to long-term tenants with suites with as many as six rooms and four baths. And there are pictures of the "service pantries" in the hotel suites where "staff members warmed meals sent up from the main kitchen."
The exhibit recounts the evolution of the luxury hotels in America, and weaves in a little New York City history as well.
America's first first-class hotel was Boston’s Tremont House (1829,) with a series of new hotels competing with each other during the early 19th century. The original Waldorf-Astoria was a single hotel, consisting of two joined buildings; the Waldorf, opened in 1893 and the Astoria, opened in 1897. "With the neighborhood in decline," it was torn down in 1929 to make way for the Empire State Building. At the same time, plans were drawn up by Leonard Schultze and S. Fullerton Weaver for the current Waldorf-Astoria.
As the Great Depression hit, the grand hotels emptied and the Waldorf-Astoria was the firm’s last hotel commission. Instead, they took on public works projects and large housing developments. Only a handful of hotels were built in New York City during the next three decades. In 1961, the Morris Lapidus-designed Summit Hotel was the Manhattan's first large luxury hotel built since the Waldorf-Astoria.
Two publications cover the works in the exhibition, "Grand Hotels of the Jazz Age: The Architecture of Schultze & Weaver," and "The American Hotel" issue 25 of The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, a Wolfsonian publication. The Wolfsonian is in talks to bring the exhibit to New York, but no details have been finalized.
There are other bits of the New York memorabilia in the Wolfsonian's permanent collection, including a turnstile from the main lobby of the Brooklyn Museum, circa 1932; a stainless steel, wood and plastic model of New York’s 1939 World’s Fair; and an intricate metal and glass post/sign for the Interborough Subway, circa 1904, designed by Heins & Lefarge but made by Pulsifer & Larsen Co. of New York.
The Wolfsonian is just a short walk from Miami Beach's famed Art Deco hotels on Ocean Drive. The Wolfsonian, affiliated with Florida International University, is located at 1001 Washington Avenue, map. The hotels exhibit is open through May 28.
Picture credit: Presentation drawing of Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, Rendered by Lloyd Morgan (American, 1892–1970) in graphite and charcoal on board, ca. 1930 Photo by Silvia Ros, provided by The Wolfsonian–Florida International University.
January 10, 2006 06:05 PM in Architecture, History, Hotelology, Midtown, Out of Manhattan, Romance
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