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Real estate record and builders' guide: [v. 91, no. 2349]: March 22, 1913

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REAL ESTATE BUILDERS AND NEW YORK, MARCH 22, 1913 I THE LEWISOHN BUILDING I A High Class Modern Loft Building—Details of Construction and Equip- | ment—The New Home of The F. 'W. Dodge Company and Allied Interests. I ,iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigiiiiiii!iiii AliHSINESS man sat liy his (Jesk one day about a year ago in an in¬ conspicuous office in lower Fifth ave¬ nue. Before him lay a picture of the New York Central's Gateway to the West. He idly thrummed a pencil as he dreamed of half a million people who would pass through it every day. He saw ten blocks away another mam¬ moth station that could hold 500,000 more, and then he pictured other mil¬ lions both above and beneath the busy streets halting briefly in their tul)e trips to and from their surburban homes. He looked closely ?.t the new station with its ramps and second-story street, and noted that all of its vehicular traffic would be discharged, not in 42nd street, but into 40th street. He figured that 41st street was destined to be a sort of back door or utility street to the new crosstown artery, 42d street, and con¬ cluded that 40th street possessed em¬ bryonic dividends for the far-seeing in¬ vestor, provided he had resources suf¬ ficiently elastic to carry him over the pioneering stage. Not long afterwards the newspapers told the story of the passing of Men¬ delssohn Hall, which had witnessed the evolution of quaint old residential 40th street into a heavy trafficked highway connecting the trunk line railroads go¬ ing North and East with trunk lines to the South and West. Mendelssohn Hall itself had had a hand in the transition of the street because twenty years be¬ fore it had encroached upon the quiet of a residential thoroughfare that boasted its proximity to, yet seclusion from, the pulsating life of the geogra¬ phical center of the Greater City. As Alfred Corning Clark had been a pioneer in establishing the home for the Mendelssohn Glee Club in a residential center, so Philip Lewisohn must be recorded as. having been one of the pioneers in establishing commerce in a thoroughfare which until recent years promised to develop along institutional lines, with banks, clubs and theatres. When Mr. Lewisohn bought the property from the Clark estate for about $400,000 he announced that he would put up a twelve-story bnilding. The more he considered the future im¬ portance of 40th street the more he realized that the plot was not sufficient¬ ly extensive to be improved in accord¬ ance with the commercial prospects in the Grand Central Zone; so he reached over to 41st street and acquired a 60- foot plot running from No. 114 to 118. This gave him a site of about 14,000 square feet, upon which he decided to erect the present twenty-two story structure, known as the "Lewisohn Building." It is owned by tlie "West Fortieth 1 Jlayuielie ii Franke, Architects. THE LEWISOHN BUILDING. An Example of the Most Modern Type of Commercial Con.struction. and Forty-first Street Realty Com¬ pany," of wliich Philip Lewisolin is president. Record time was made in the construction of the building, which was erected from plans by Maynicke & Franke. The building is not only the largest mercantile structure north of 2^(\ street, but in other respects also it is perhaps the most notable of the pro¬ ducts of the current building activity in the mid-town section. It adjoins the Tilden building on the west, and will make quite a diflference in the landscape view from Bryant Park, Construction. Reflecting the trend to soften the out¬ line of modern business structures in :irchitectural treatment, and at the same time embodying the latest im¬ provements for the efficient conduct of business, are the characteristics of the Lewisohn Building, The Building is a high-class loft structure with a frontage of 79 feet, 6 inches in 40th street and 60 feet in 4ist street, with a depth of 195 feet, 5 inches. The materials of construction are lime¬ stone, terra cotta and brick. Appearance Pleasing. In consonance with a spirit whicli is removing the old shaft and boxlike business structures and dictating a more attractive architectural treatment, ihe new Lewisohn Building presents a distinctive appearance, with its modern Gothic facades. The style is a free (iothic in treatment, studied with con¬ formity to details in character with the material used. Terra cotta lends itself to the rendering of Gothic details, fallen into disuse on account of the prohibi¬ tive cost in stone. The modern intro¬ duction of terra cotta into general use as a decorative material is hardly more than a decade old. When the steel frame came in, the use of terra cotta in place of stone as the principal material of the exterior, as well as of the in¬ terior, was imperatively indicated, not only by the cheapness of the material in the comparison, but by its superior adaptability to the expression of the construction. For the expression of a frame, which must be wrapped to pro¬ tect it from the elements, it is clear that great advantages are olifered by the use of a material originally plastic, which can be moulded so as to conform to the structure which it at once conceals and reveals. Terra Cotta Adornment. What may be taken as the base of the building is emphasized by the introduc¬ tion of six symbolic figures, typifying as many arts and industries, freely rendered in the vein of the mediaeval Gothic grotesque. Little touches of ibis kind, lending character and individ- u;ility, should be encouraged in our ar¬ chitecture, which tends to be too im¬ personal, stereotyped and purely utili¬ tarian. .\s a writer on the subject has said, "One is inclined to feel kindly towards the grotesque—it leavens the severity of architecture and furnishes that 'touch of nature' which is said to 'make the whole world kin.' The man