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NYC - The Helmsley Building
Image by wallyg
The Helmsley Building, designed by Warren & Wetmore, is a 35-story building straddling Park Avenue. Before being dwarfed by the Pan Am Building (now Met Life Building), it served as a visual termination point for Park Avenue, behind Grand Central Terminal.
Built in 1929 as the headquarters for the New York Central Railroad Company, founded by Cornelius Vanderbilt, it was originally called the New York Central Building. When New York Central sold the building to real estate mogul, Harry Helmsley, he renamed it the New York General Building--with the "C" and "T" in Central were masterfully chiseled into "G" and "E" respectively. His wife, Leona Helmsley, infamous for her well-publicized tax evasion indictment in 1989, later renamed it the Helmsley Building. Helmsley-Spear Management owned the property until 1998 when it was sold to Max Capital, and later, in 2006, to Istithmar, an investment firm owned by the royal family of Dubai, for 5 million. Stipulations required the name to remain unchanged.
Before the electrification of the New York Central Railroad in 1912-1913, the neighborhood north of Grand Central Terminal was populated with open-air railway yards and tracks used by steam locomotives. The electrification and covering of the yards enabled the continuation of Park Avenue to the north and new building construction such as this.
The middle part of the building, flanked by 15-storey wings on the sides, rises as a tower to the pilastered top and the pyramidal roof, topped by a copper-clad lantern at 172.5 m. At night the roof and lantern are illuminated. At the base of the tower, there are two large portals on either side of the lobby to provide access for traffic from Park Avenue through the building, to the elevated platforms past Met Life and Grand Central Terminal, and to Park Avenue South via the Pershing Viaduct. Similarly, pedestrian traffic is led through in two tunnels with connections to retail space.
The ornate art deco clock was erected 68-feet above street level on the cornice above the portal in 1928. Edward Frnacis McCartan created the piece during his three-year appointment to the New York City Art Commission. Cut in limestone, the clock features two statues four times life size. The male figure on the left is Transportation, symbolizing the spirit of speed. He rests his arm on a winged wheel of Progress and holds the staff of Mercury. On the right is a female figure, Industry, who embraces a staff in her arm, while resting on a beehive. Several other smaller symbolic figures round out the design including the Liberty Cap, crowning the clock's top. The clock, 45 feet in width and 19 feet high , has a dial which spans 9 feet in diameter.
The entrance lobby has lavish white travertine and marble decor complete with mirrors and chandeliers. Bronze reliefs above the elevator doors depict a winged helmet surrounding a globe, symbolizing the American empire's global reach. The elevator car ceilings are painted to represent clouded skies.
On September 10, 1931, capo de tutti capi Salvatore Maranzano was murdered in his ninth-floor office here by hitmen sent by Lucky Luciano and Vito Genovese, ambitious underlings whom Maranzano had hired Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll to kill.
The Helmsley Building, formerly the New York Central Building, was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1987.
NYC - The Helmsley Building
Image by wallyg
The Helmsley Building, designed by Warren & Wetmore, is a 35-story building straddling Park Avenue. Before being dwarfed by the Pan Am Building (now Met Life Building), it served as a visual termination point for Park Avenue, behind Grand Central Terminal.
Built in 1929 as the headquarters for the New York Central Railroad Company, founded by Cornelius Vanderbilt, it was originally called the New York Central Building. When New York Central sold the building to real estate mogul, Harry Helmsley, he renamed it the New York General Building--with the "C" and "T" in Central were masterfully chiseled into "G" and "E" respectively. His wife, Leona Helmsley, infamous for her well-publicized tax evasion indictment in 1989, later renamed it the Helmsley Building. Helmsley-Spear Management owned the property until 1998 when it was sold to Max Capital, and later, in 2006, to Istithmar, an investment firm owned by the royal family of Dubai, for 5 million. Stipulations required the name to remain unchanged.
Before the electrification of the New York Central Railroad in 1912-1913, the neighborhood north of Grand Central Terminal was populated with open-air railway yards and tracks used by steam locomotives. The electrification and covering of the yards enabled the continuation of Park Avenue to the north and new building construction such as this.
The middle part of the building, flanked by 15-storey wings on the sides, rises as a tower to the pilastered top and the pyramidal roof, topped by a copper-clad lantern at 172.5 m. At night the roof and lantern are illuminated. At the base of the tower, there are two large portals on either side of the lobby to provide access for traffic from Park Avenue through the building, to the elevated platforms past Met Life and Grand Central Terminal, and to Park Avenue South via the Pershing Viaduct. Similarly, pedestrian traffic is led through in two tunnels with connections to retail space.
The ornate art deco clock was erected 68-feet above street level on the cornice above the portal in 1928. Edward Frnacis McCartan created the piece during his three-year appointment to the New York City Art Commission. Cut in limestone, the clock features two statues four times life size. The male figure on the left is Transportation, symbolizing the spirit of speed. He rests his arm on a winged wheel of Progress and holds the staff of Mercury. On the right is a female figure, Industry, who embraces a staff in her arm, while resting on a beehive. Several other smaller symbolic figures round out the design including the Liberty Cap, crowning the clock's top. The clock, 45 feet in width and 19 feet high , has a dial which spans 9 feet in diameter.
The entrance lobby has lavish white travertine and marble decor complete with mirrors and chandeliers. Bronze reliefs above the elevator doors depict a winged helmet surrounding a globe, symbolizing the American empire's global reach. The elevator car ceilings are painted to represent clouded skies.
On September 10, 1931, capo de tutti capi Salvatore Maranzano was murdered in his ninth-floor office here by hitmen sent by Lucky Luciano and Vito Genovese, ambitious underlings whom Maranzano had hired Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll to kill.
The Helmsley Building, formerly the New York Central Building, was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1987.
