Emery Roth

Emery Roth
Born 1871
Sečovce, Austria-Hungary
Died August 20, 1948
New York City, New York, U.S.
Residence Austria-Hungary, United States
Citizenship
Occupation Architect
Notable work Hotel Belleclaire (1903)
Ritz Hotel Tower (1925)
The Eldorado (1929–31)
The San Remo (1930)
The Ardsley (1931)
2 Sutton Place South (1938)
300 East 57th Street (1947)
Spouse(s) Ella Grosman
Children Julian, Richard, Elizabeth, Kathrin

Emery Roth (Hungarian: Róth Imre, 1871 – August 20, 1948) was an American architect of Jewish descent who designed many of the definitive New York City hotels and apartment buildings of the 1920s and 1930s, incorporating Beaux-Arts and Art Deco details. His sons continued in the family enterprise, largely expanding the firm under the name Emery Roth & Sons.

Biography

This World Columbian Exposition pavilion was designed by the young Roth alone. It housed a temporary shop for the Menier Chocolate Company. Its design is a direct quotation of the ancient Roman Temple of Vesta, a visual trope that would return later in his life to cap some of his most famous skyscrapers.[1]

Born in Sečovce (Hungarian: Gálszécs), Austria-Hungary (now Slovakia) to a Jewish family, he emigrated to the United States at the age of 13 after his family fell into poverty upon his father's death. He began his architectural apprenticeship as a draftsman in the Chicago offices of Burnham & Root, working on the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. At the Exposition Roth also designed one of his first solo projects; a pavilion that housed a chocolatier.[1] There he met Richard Morris Hunt, who was impressed with his skills and invited Roth to work in his office in New York. Following Hunt's premature death in 1895, Roth moved to the office of Ogden Codman, Jr., a designer and decorator with a Newport clientele. In the interwar years, the firm of Emery Roth delivered some of the most influential examples of architecture for apartment houses in the at-the-time fashionable beaux art-style, especially in Manhattan. In 1938, Roth included his sons Julian and Richard as partners.

Buildings designed

The Beresford
The Eldorado
Building Year Location Notes
The Saxony 1899-1900 250 West 82nd Street
Hotel Belleclaire 1903 Broadway
The Adath Jeshurun of Jassy synagogue 1903 58 Rivington Street
601 West End Avenue 1915 601 West End Avenue
The First Hungarian Reformed Church 1915 East 69th Street
1000 Park Avenue[2] 1916 Park Avenue and East 84th Street
151 East 80th Street 1922 151 East 80th Street
The Whitby 1924 325 West 45th Street
110 West 86th Street 1924 110 West 86th Street
Chester Court[3][4] 1924 201 West 89th Street
243 West End Avenue 1925 West End Avenue (Manhattan)
Mayflower Hotel 1925 15 Central Park West demolished in 2004
221 West 82nd Street 1925 221 West 82nd Street
930 Fifth Avenue 1925 930 Fifth Avenue
Ritz Hotel Tower 1925 109 East 57th Street With Carrère and Hastings. New York's first residential skyscraper introduced terraces at the setback levels.
41 West 96th Street 1926 41 West 96th Street
65 Central Park West 1926 65 Central Park West; Lincoln Square
The Alden 1927 225 Central Park West; Upper West Side
The Oliver Cromwell 1927 12 West 72nd Street
Warwick Hotel 1927 65 West 54th Street
Hotel Benjamin 1927 125 East 50th Street
Manchester House 1928 145 West 79th Street
The Eldorado 1929–1931 Central Park West Historic District
The Beresford 1929 211 Central Park West
15 West 81st Street 1929 15 West 81st Street
300 West 23rd Street 1929 300 West 23rd Street
35 Prospect Park West 1929 Prospect Park; Brooklyn
Hotel St. George 1930 Brooklyn Heights
Hotel St. Moritz 1930 50 Central Park South
993 Fifth Avenue 1930 993 Fifth Avenue
784 Park Avenue 1930 784 Park Avenue
The San Remo 1930 145 and 146 Central Park West The first of the twin-towered residential skyscrapers.
The Ardsley 1931 320 Central Park West Roth's outstanding Art Deco residential skyscraper.
275 Central Park West 1930–1931 275 Central Park West
299 West 12th Street 1931 299 West 12th Street
140 East 28th Street 1932 140 East 28th Street
888 Grand Concourse 1937 888 Grand Concourse
880 Fifth Avenue 1948 880 Fifth Avenue 1938

2 Sutton Place South

41 West 96th Street 41 West 96th Street
310 West End Avenue 310 West End Avenue
The Normandy 1938 140 Riverside Drive Last of the twin-towered residences, and Roth's choice for his retirement apartment.
Shenandoah Apartments 10 Sheridan Square

Emery Roth & Sons

Despite the fact that Roth's sons, Julian and Richard, had joined the firm many years earlier, it was not until 1947 that the firm's name was changed to Emery Roth & Sons, approximately one year before Roth's death.[5] Julian (1901–1992) specialized in construction costs and building materials and technology, while Richard (1904–1987) was named the firm's principal architect. In the 1950s and 1960s Emery Roth & Sons became the most influential architectural firm in New York and contributed substantially in changing the appearance of Midtown and Lower Manhattan. In that particular period of time Emery Roth & Sons designed dozens of speculative office buildings, mostly with curtain wall facades, which soon became a ubiquitous feature of the city.[6] Beginning in the mid-1960s, the firm was also hired as associate architects in large-scale projects like the Pan Am Building (1963), the World Trade Center (1966–1973) and the Citicorp Center (1977). In the early 1960s, Richard Roth's son, Richard Roth, Jr. (b. 1933) became the third generation to join the firm, eventually rising to chief architect CEO and shareholder. As the firm expanded and diversified over six decades, it remained a family business through the 1990s. In 1988 Richard Roth Jr's daughter Robyn Roth-Moise joined the firm as comptroller. Richard Roth Jr's son Richard Lee Roth joined the firm in 1982 and became the chief specification writer for Emery Roth & Sons. Both retired from the firm when Richard Roth Jr retired and was replaced as the company's CEO in 1993 by Robert Sobel, Roth's cousin.[7] But only three years later, in 1996, the firm ceased to operate, apparently because of financial distress.[8] Emery's great-grandson Richard Lee Roth currently works in the architectural profession and resides in South Florida.

The extensive architectural records and papers of both Emery Roth and Emery Roth & Sons are now held in the Department of Drawings & Archives at the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University.

Work by Emery Roth & Sons

The Look Building (1949).
The Bronx High School of Science (1959).
The MetLife Building (1963).
The General Motors Building (1968).
The Uris Building (1970), now known as Paramount Plaza.
Citigroup Center (1977)
7 World Trade Center (1987 - 2001)

References

  1. 1 2 Ruttenbaum, Steven (1986). Mansions in the Clouds: The Skyscraper Palazzi of Emery Roth. Balsam Press. ISBN 978-0917439094.
  2. ↑ Gray, Christopher (March 9, 2008). "STREETSCAPES: Park Avenue Between 83rd and 84th Street. Seven Apartment Houses in a Piazza-Like Setting". http://www.nytimes.com. New York Times. Retrieved August 2, 2013. External link in |website= (help)
  3. ↑ 201 W. 89 St. - Chester Court, Columbia University Libraries. Retrieved June 16, 2011
  4. ↑ About us, Chester Court official website. Retrieved June 16, 2011
  5. ↑ Robert A. M. Stern and others: New York 1960, p. 50
  6. ↑ Robert A. M. Stern and others: "New York 1960", p. 51
  7. ↑ Richard Roth retires; Robert Sobel succeeds. Real Estate Weekly, September 22, 1993. Retrieved June 16, 2011.
  8. ↑ Emery Roth & Sons architectural records and papers, 1906-1996 (bulk 1951-1994) at Columbia University Libraries: Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library. Retrieved June 16, 2011
  9. ↑ "675 Third Avenue". durst.org. Retrieved 3 December 2015.

Further reading

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