place

Vanderbilt Triple Palace

1882 establishments in New York (state)1947 disestablishments in New York (state)Buildings and structures demolished in 1947Demolished buildings and structures in ManhattanFifth Avenue
Gilded AgeHouses completed in 1882Houses in ManhattanSource attributionUse mdy dates from September 2021Vanderbilt family residences
W H Vanderbilt House
W H Vanderbilt House

The Triple Palace, also known as the William H. Vanderbilt House, was an elaborate mansion at 640 Fifth Avenue between 51st Street and 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The urban mansion, completed in 1882 to designs by John B. Snook and Charles B. Atwood, was owned by members of the Vanderbilt family. It was composed of two portions: a single-family unit to the south and a two-family unit to the north. William Henry Vanderbilt owned and lived in the southern portion. Two of his daughters, Emily Thorn Vanderbilt and Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt Shepard, along with their respective families, occupied the two residences in the northern portion. The mansion had a brownstone facade as well as a courtyard and portico separating the two sections. William Henry Vanderbilt's portion of the house had elaborate decor, with 58 rooms designed in a different style, as well as a central three-story art gallery with a large skylight. William Henry's section also included an elaborate dining room, library, parlor, and drawing room on the first floor, as well as bedrooms on the second floor for himself, his wife, and his youngest children. Emily's and Margaret's sections of the house were designed in a less lavish style. William Henry Vanderbilt had commissioned the mansion in part to provide space for his paintings, as well as a residence for his two daughters. Upon its completion, the mansion was generally criticized. After William Henry's death in 1885, the house passed on to numerous members of his family. It became known as the home of Henry Clay Frick, who renovated and rented the house from 1905 to 1913, when he built the Henry Clay Frick House, inspired by the Triple Palace and its art collection. Cornelius Vanderbilt III hired Horace Trumbauer to design another renovation for the house in 1916. The northern section of the Vanderbilt house was demolished in 1927, while the southern section was destroyed in 1947; both sections were replaced by high-rise buildings.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Vanderbilt Triple Palace (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Vanderbilt Triple Palace
5th Avenue, New York Manhattan

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Vanderbilt Triple PalaceContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 40.759609 ° E -73.976805 °
placeShow on map

Address

650 Fifth Avenue

5th Avenue 650
10019 New York, Manhattan
New York, United States
mapOpen on Google Maps

W H Vanderbilt House
W H Vanderbilt House
Share experience

Nearby Places

647 Fifth Avenue
647 Fifth Avenue

647 Fifth Avenue, originally known as the George W. Vanderbilt Residence, is a commercial building in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It is along the east side of Fifth Avenue between 51st Street and 52nd Street. The building was designed by Hunt & Hunt as part of the "Marble Twins", a pair of houses at 645 and 647 Fifth Avenue. The houses were constructed between 1902 and 1905 as Vanderbilt family residences. Number 645 was occupied by William B. Osgood Field, while number 647 was owned by George W. Vanderbilt and rented to Robert Wilson Goelet; both were part of the Vanderbilt family by marriage. The house is a six-story stone building in the French Renaissance Revival style. The first floor has arched openings topped by a balustrade, while the second and third stories contain fluted pilasters supporting an entablature. The fourth and fifth floors were added in the late 1930s in an imitation of the original design, and a balustrade runs above the fifth story. The adjoining townhouse at 645 Fifth Avenue, demolished in 1944, had been built in a similar style. The entire building is taken up by a store for fashion company Versace, which also built a sixth-story fitting room. The southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street was planned as a hotel in the early 1900s after the Roman Catholic Asylum vacated the site. After the Vanderbilts blocked the development of the hotel, the southern portion of the site was developed as the Marble Twins, while the northern portion became the Morton F. Plant House (now the Cartier Building). Number 647 was altered for commercial use after 1916 and contained an art gallery and airline ticket agent, among other tenants. Number 645 was largely residential until it was torn down. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated 647 Fifth Avenue as a city landmark in 1977, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 along with the Cartier Building. In the late 1990s, Versace remodeled 647 Fifth Avenue.

International Building (Rockefeller Center)
International Building (Rockefeller Center)

The International Building, also known by its addresses 630 Fifth Avenue and 45 Rockefeller Plaza, is a skyscraper at Rockefeller Center in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Completed in 1935, the 41-story, 512 ft (156 m) building was designed in the Art Deco style by Raymond Hood, Rockefeller Center's lead architect. The main tower is set back from Fifth Avenue and includes two 6-story wings to the east, known as Palazzo d'Italia and International Building North. The wings flank an entrance plaza that contains Lee Lawrie's Atlas statue. The facade is made of limestone, with granite at the base. The wings, patterned around the British Empire Building and La Maison Francaise to the south, contain rooftop gardens. The building's entrances contain ornate decorations by numerous artists. The main entrance on Fifth Avenue leads to a four-story-tall lobby with large marble pillars and escalators. The office space is arranged around the elevator core, with all offices being within 27 feet (8.2 m) of a window. The entire Rockefeller Center complex is a New York City designated landmark and a National Historic Landmark, and the lobby is also a New York City landmark. The International Building was developed as part of the construction of Rockefeller Center, although plans for the building were modified multiple times. A groundbreaking ceremony was hosted in July 1933, after Italian interests leased the southern wing, but Rockefeller Center's managers could not secure a commitment for a specific country in the northern wing. The building's superstructure was constructed in 136 days from September 1934 to May 1935. The Palazzo d'Italia was modified in the 1940s after the start of World War II, and further modifications were made in the late 20th century. Over the years, the International Building has contained a variety of tenants, including numerous consulates.

Cartier Building
Cartier Building

The Cartier Building, also 653 Fifth Avenue, is a commercial building on the southeast corner of 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The building serves as the flagship store of Cartier in New York City. It consists of two conjoined residences completed in 1905: the Morton F. Plant residence at 651–653 Fifth Avenue, designed by Robert W. Gibson, and the Edward Holbrook residence at 4 East 52nd Street, designed by C. P. H. Gilbert. The Plant House was designed in the Neo-Renaissance style and has facades on both 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue. The 52nd Street facade of the house contains an ornate pavilion, and both facades have an attic hidden inside a frieze. The Edward Holbrook House was also designed in a neoclassical style but has a mansard roof. Both houses are five stories tall and are connected internally. The Cartier store takes up all of the stories inside the building. The southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street was planned as a hotel in the early 1900s after the Roman Catholic Asylum vacated the site. After the Vanderbilts blocked the development of the hotel, the northern portion became the Morton F. Plant House, while the southern portion of the site was developed as the Marble Twins at 645 and 647 Fifth Avenue. In the late 1910s, Plant sold his house to Cartier. The Holbrook House was occupied by a variety of tenants until 1927, after which it was purchased by 653 Fifth Avenue's owners and used by various organizations and firms. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Cartier Building as a city landmark in 1970, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 along with 647 Fifth Avenue.

660 Fifth Avenue
660 Fifth Avenue

660 Fifth Avenue (formerly 666 Fifth Avenue and the Tishman Building) is a 41-story office building on the west side of Fifth Avenue between 52nd and 53rd Streets in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The office tower was designed by Carson & Lundin and built for its developer Tishman Realty and Construction from 1955 to 1957. The building was designed with a prominent 666 address emblazoned on the top. It had a facade of embossed aluminum panels which were originally lit by the "Tower of Light" designed by Abe Feder. The interior had a "T"-shaped atrium open to the public, with retail space, a lobby extending from Fifth Avenue, and a waterfall sculpture by Isamu Noguchi. The upper floors had a variety of office tenants, including those in the law, finance, and publishing industries. In the early 2020s, the lobby and office spaces were rebuilt and the facade was replaced with one containing glass panels. Tishman sold the building when the corporation dissolved in 1976. The building was sold to Sumitomo Realty & Development in the late 1990s, and Tishman Speyer bought it in 2000. Tishman sold the skyscraper yet again to Kushner Properties in 2007. Kushner Properties struggled with financing throughout the late 2000s and mid-2010s, even contemplating replacing it with a taller tower. Brookfield Properties leased the whole building in August 2018 and subsequently hired Kohn Pedersen Fox to extensively renovate the building through 2022. As part of the renovation, the building was renumbered to 660 Fifth Avenue.

Olympic Tower
Olympic Tower

Olympic Tower is a 51-story, 620 ft-tall (190 m) building at 641 and 645 Fifth Avenue, between 51st and 52nd Streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), the mixed-use development contains condominium apartments, office space, and retail shops. The tower is named after Olympic Airlines, whose president Aristotle Onassis jointly developed the tower with the Arlen Realty and Development Corporation between 1971 and 1974. It was the first skyscraper to be constructed within a special zoning district to encourage retail and mixed-use development along Fifth Avenue. The building's glass facade is designed to reflect St. Patrick's Cathedral immediately to the south. The superstructure is made of steel on the lower stories and cast concrete on the upper stories. The first two stories contain a public atrium, Olympic Place, which connects the 51st and 52nd Street facades. The next 19 stories contain office space while the top 30 stories contain 230 condominium apartments. Upon Olympic Tower's completion, architectural writers such as Ada Louise Huxtable and Christopher Gray criticized its design. Construction of Olympic Tower dates to the late 1960s, when Best & Co. sought to build an office tower above their store at Fifth Avenue and 51st Street. Morris Lapidus was initially hired for the project, but the plans were changed after the zoning district was created. When the building was completed, wealthy non-American buyers purchased most of its residential units. Crown Acquisitions bought Olympic Tower from its original owners in the 2010s.

St. Patrick's Cathedral (Midtown Manhattan)
St. Patrick's Cathedral (Midtown Manhattan)

St. Patrick's Cathedral is a Catholic cathedral in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It is the seat of the Archbishop of New York as well as a parish church. The cathedral occupies a city block bounded by Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue, 50th Street, and 51st Street, directly across from Rockefeller Center. Designed by James Renwick Jr., it is the largest Gothic Revival Catholic cathedral in North America. The cathedral was constructed starting in 1858 to accommodate the growing Archdiocese of New York and to replace St. Patrick's Old Cathedral. Work was halted in the early 1860s during the American Civil War; the cathedral was completed in 1878 and dedicated on May 25, 1879. The archbishop's house and rectory were added in the early 1880s, both by James Renwick Jr., and the spires were added in 1888. A Lady chapel designed by Charles T. Mathews was constructed from 1901 to 1906. The cathedral was consecrated on October 5, 1910, after all its debt had been paid off. Extensive restorations of the cathedral were conducted several times, including in the 1940s, 1970s, and 2010s. St. Patrick's Cathedral is clad in marble and has several dozen stained glass windows. It measures 332 feet (101 m) long, with a maximum width of 174 feet (53 m) at the transepts. The bronze doors that form the cathedral's main entrance on Fifth Avenue are flanked by towers with spires rising 329.5 feet (100 m). The northern tower contains nineteen bells, and the interior has two pipe organs. Inside is a nave flanked by several chapels; two transepts; a chancel and apse; and a crypt. East of the apse are the rectory, Lady chapel, and archbishop's residence facing Madison Avenue. The cathedral is a New York City designated landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.