Columbus Circle (Historical)

[chris]

Thanks Stern.
I will do so.

[NoyokA]

Hey Chris.

Im hoping you've had a chance to do so, wondering what your thoughts on the entire process were?

I find it interesing that Childs actually puched the envelope here, 750 feet being the maximum height allowed by the city zoning.

[ablarc]

They need to leave Stone's curved facade alone. Do what they want with the inside and the other three sides, but leave that curved marble facade as an icon. He knew there was a circle there, and he respected it when no one else did. It is still a startling white apparition that gives me a jolt every time I catch a glimpse of it from the north. Columbus Circle will never be the same without it.

It is New York's Taj Mahal.

[Ernest Burden III]

They need to leave Stone's curved facade alone... Columbus Circle will never be the same without it.

Don't expect anyone to agree with you until the building is gone, or worse:

http://www.acmedigital.com/columbuscircle.html

one of the 'concepts' the city sought for re-using the building. *This is an old rendering, but every few years I come back to Columbus Circle for some reason--meaning renderings. *When I was in Jr. HS I went to school near CS, so I was part of the rif-raf that used to hang out around there. *Its a lot different now.

[chris]

Thanks again Stern.

I just picked up that issue yesterday. I've not had a chance to read it yet, but it looks to be a good read.

[lofter1]

Some old shots of Columbus Circle area, from the Coliseum Park Apartments website ...

The Majestic Theater, on the west side of Eighth Avenue between 58th and the SW arc of the Circle, circa 1905:



Reisenweber's Circle Hotel and Cafe (where jazz was king and Sophie Tucker headlined), on the SW corner of 58th and Eighth, just south of Columbus Circle, circa 1910:



Central Park South / West 59th Street looking west to Columbus Circle, circa 1915 (with the Majestic Theater just to the left of the Columbus Monument) ...



Ad for the Coliseum Park Apartments (the red brick complex on Ninth Avenue just west of the Time Warner Center) showing the complex and the Coliseum (bottom), circa 1956:

[lofter1]

Interesting stuff on Durland's Riding Academy, which used to sit on the north side of Columbus Circle where the Trump International now stands, at this POST.

[lofter1]

More on Durland's Riding Academy, and the building they built and moved to after they vacated the Columbus Circle site (back in the day I worked on this block and watched as this one came down) ...

7 West 66th Street; From a Ring for Horses to a Studio for Anchors

NY TIMES
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY
Sunday, March 28, 1999

Streetscapes

[lofter1]

In 1905, across town at 7 East 58th Street, the New York Riding Club built a new club house -- with a huge 18,000 sf riding ring, 406 horse stalls, sumptuous interiors by Louis Tiffany, plus ...

... lounging rooms, dining rooms, a commodious billiards room, dressing rooms, a palm court and, in fact, aside from the riding ring and the stalls and the hospital, every luxury for the convenience for members that a wealthy and popular club suggests.

New York Riding Club Will Have Ideal Home; When the Improvements Begun Have Been Completed It Will Have No Equal in the World -- Ring Will Be Largest in America -- Problems the Architect Has Successfully Met.

NY TIMES
May 7, 1905, Sunday

EARLY one morning last week a group of gentlemen stood in a corner of the tan-bark ring at the Riding Club at 7 East Fifty-eighth Street and watched James T. Woodward, the President, break ground for the extensive alterations and additions to the club building. [ END OF FIRST PARAGRAPH ]

Full Article [pdf] HERE with drawings of the new club building (Architect: Bradford L. Gilbert)

***

Gilbert was also the architect for, among many other NYC buildings, the Dakota Stables which used to stand on Amsterdam / West 77th (now The Harrison, from the Related Companies / Robert AM Stern).

The Architect Who Turned a Railroad Bridge on Its Head

NY TIMES
July 1, 2007

HIS name is hardly known today, but Bradford Lee Gilbert designed scores of railroad buildings — among them an earlier iteration of Grand Central Terminal — as well as New York’s first skyscraper. His practice was national, but he lived and worked in New York, and the handful of buildings he left here have gradually succumbed — including, earlier this year, the poetic Dakota Stables at 77th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.

... The Dakota Stables, too, disappeared — but only a few months ago. In the spring of 2006, preservation groups began lobbying the Landmarks Preservation Commission to begin the process of designating the building a landmark. But by the time the commission got around to holding a hearing last October, the stables’ owner, the Related Companies, had stripped the building of its ornamentation.

The owner plans to build a 16-story, 160-unit condominium, designed by Robert A. M. Stern, on the site of the stables, a younger sibling of the Tower Building, Mr. Gilbert’s landmark in architectural history.

[NoyokA]

Ad for the Coliseum Park Apartments (the red brick complex on Ninth Avenue just west of the Time Warner Center) showing the complex and the Coliseum (bottom), circa 1956:

I've always wished they'd redevelop this site.

[Merry]

The Circle Building was stunning (although not Art Deco as the slideshow states) and a sad loss.



The Castles and Clashes of Columbus Circle

By Matt Chaban






Circle Building
http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showth...ll=1#post59561

The battle between Steve Ross and Joe Moinian over the fate of 3 Columbus Circle is only the latest in a long line of controversial developments to consume the century-old redoubt. From Robert Moses to Jackie O., from Art Deco to High Modern, Columbus Circle has been one of the great stages for New York City's building history. See how it all played out since Columbus first arrived in on the corner in 1892.

SLIDESHOW: The Castles of Columbus Circle

http://www.observer.com/2010/real-estate/kingdoms-and-clashes-columbus-circle

[mariab]

Postcard courtesy of http://www.usgwarchives.org/special/ppcs/ppcs.html


1915