Film Center Building
Film Center Building | |
New York City Landmark No. 1220
| |
Location | 630 Ninth Avenue Manhattan, New York City |
---|---|
Coordinates | 40°45′36″N 73°59′28″W / 40.76000°N 73.99111°W |
Area | 18,000 sq ft (1,700 m2) |
Built | 1928 |
Architect | Ely Jacques Kahn |
Architectural style | Art Deco |
NRHP reference No. | 84002768[1] |
NYCL No. | 1220 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | September 7, 1984 |
Designated NYCL | November 9, 1982 |
The Film Center Building, also known as 630 Ninth Avenue, is a 13-story office building on the east side of
The Film Center Building occupies a rectangular site. Its facade is largely made of brown brick, with windows on all sides, although the ground story has a marble facade and the second story has a white-stone facade. The main entrance on Ninth Avenue leads to a rectangular vestibule, which in turn leads to the main lobby, an elevator lobby, and a passageway leading to a secondary entrances. The lobby's walls and ceilings resemble tapestries, while details such as stair risers, ventilation grilles, directory signs, and elevator doors were designed in a multicolored scheme. The upper stories contain offices, which were initially used largely by major film companies such as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. There were also nearly 100 film vaults, some of which have been converted to office space over the years.
In the 1910s and 1920s, New York City's film industry was centered around
Site
The Film Center Building is on 630 Ninth Avenue, on the eastern side of
The site had historically been part of John Leake Norton's estate, which was split into multiple plots in 1825. John F. Betz of Philadelphia, whose family owned the John F. Betz & Sons Brewery, acquired part of Norton's estate in 1862, on the eastern side of Ninth Avenue from 44th to 45th Street. Five-story tenements were developed along the neighboring section of Ninth Avenue during the late 19th century.[5] During the early 20th century, the area evolved into a hub for New York City's film industry.[6][7][8] At the time of the Film Center Building's construction, it faced the Ninth Avenue elevated line of the New York City Subway.[9]
Architecture
The Film Center Building was built in 1928–29 and was designed in the Art Deco style.[2][10][11] Ely Jacques Kahn of the firm Buchman & Kahn was the architect of record.[2][11][12] Edward Raymond McMahon of Buchman & Kahn was largely responsible for the overall design, though little is known about him.[12] The Film Center's first-floor interior, highlighted by Kahn's "highly individualistic version of the Art Deco style",[13] includes pre-Columbian influences.[11] The building contains 280,000 sq ft (26,000 m2) of rentable space.[14] with 18,000 sq ft (1,700 m2) on each story.[15]
Facade
The structure was designed as a rectangular mass with minimal ornamentation.
The facade includes marble piers on the ground story, white stone on the second story, and brown brick on the other stories.[18] The main entrance is on Ninth Avenue, although there are additional entrances on the side streets,[15] On Ninth Avenue is a stepped frame with geometric designs and bands, which flanks the first-story entryway and second-story windows.[17] On the first story of the entryway are three doors; a sign with the words "Film Center" in capital letters is mounted above the entrance.[17][18] On each story of all three elevations, there is a pair of sash windows in the outer bays and groups of four sash windows in each of the inner bays. The windows on each story are separated by grooved spandrel panels.[18] In addition, a belt course runs horizontally across the facade above the 10th and 12th floors;[16][18] the belt courses were an example of the simple geometric designs that Kahn used in his designs.[16]
Interior
Lobby
The building's lobby is a New York City designated landmark.[19] According to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, the decorative scheme of the lobby is "one of Kahn's most striking interior designs".[20] Just inside the Ninth Avenue entrance is a rectangular vestibule with a white ceiling. A plaster band, which consists of inverted stepped triangles, wraps across the ceiling and down both of the side walls. There are cast-metal ventilation grilles near the bottom of both walls, with horizontal and vertical geometric motifs.[18][20] The vestibule's decorations were intended to resemble a tapestry.[17]
Additional doors from the vestibule lead to the lobby, which has a gray wall and a multicolored floor with gray, ochre, and pink. A plaster band wraps around the ceiling and side walls of the lobby, similarly to in the entrance vestibule, and the decorations of the floors direct visitors to the elevators.[18][20] The lobby may have been designed by Engelbartus van der Woord, who worked for Kahn's firm.[21] The lobby contains various three-dimensional decorations related to theater, such as camera motifs and triangular projections.[22][23] Where the main lobby intersects with a smaller elevator lobby, the wall has reliefs that resemble movie cameras,[17][18][24] which reference the edifice's original purpose as an ancillary building for Times Square's film industry.[13] There are several projecting red cylinders on the corners of the walls between the elevator lobby and main lobby.[17][18][24] In addition, the lobby contains orange, yellow, and blue mosaics.[17]
The elevator lobby contains light and dark horizontal stone bands on its walls.[23][25] The elevator doors, mailbox, and tenant directory are designed in a modern style, with a multicolored scheme, although some of the elevator doors have been repainted.[18][23] On the eastern wall of the elevator lobby is a multicolored mosaic.[11][2] This mosaic, perpendicular to the elevator doors, has red, orange, yellow, and blue geometric motifs, oriented both horizontally and vertically.[24][22] The ceiling of the elevator lobby contains a triangular decoration that blocks part of the mosaic, although it is unknown whether Kahn had intended for this to happen.[24][22] The elevator lobby was built with four elevators. Floor plans indicate that three freight elevators were installed behind the main elevator lobby.[26]
A wide hallway extends to the south of the main lobby. There is a smaller hall on the eastern side of this hallway, just south of the lobby. Next to this hall is a staircase with a green wall and red cylinders, similar to those in the main lobby; the design of the red cylinders resembles a tapestry. The hallway shifts southeast and then south, connecting to a secondary vestibule on 44th Street. This vestibule is designed in a similar manner to that on Ninth Avenue, with a similar plaster band, but is smaller than the Ninth Avenue vestibule.[24][27]
Upper stories
In addition to housing film distribution companies, the building provided storage space for films,
Over the years, some of the vaults have been converted to office space.[28][30] Some of the chimneys have been sealed up after the corresponding vaults were demolished.[28] The building also contained other facilities for film tenants, such as sound and processing laboratories; graphic art studios; and projection rooms.[14][16]
History
In the 1910s and 1920s, New York City's film industry was centered around
Development and early years
During the 1920s, Charles M. Steele negotiated with various film distributors to develop a headquarters away from the Theater District of Manhattan.[15] In March 1928, Abe N. Adelson, developer of the 2 Park Avenue office building (also designed by Ely Jacques Kahn[10]), acquired a site on the eastern side of Ninth Avenue extending from 44th to 45th Street.[4][32][33] The site, valued at $700,000 (equivalent to $12,421,000 in 2023), had been owned by the Betz family for over fifty years.[4] At the time, one floor had already been leased to the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer corporation.[4][33] S. W. Strauss financed the building's development by issuing $1.9 million in bonds, equivalent to $33,714,000 in 2023.[34] Demolition of existing buildings began on April 11, 1928,[35] and the R. H. Howes Construction Company began erecting the building on April 21.[15][36] Half of the building's office space had been leased by December 1928,[37][38] when space in the building had been leased to eight film exchanges.[39]
The building was completed in January 1929, when MGM moved into the structure.
Some time after the Film Center Building opened, its owners obtained a second mortgage of $300,000 (equivalent to $5,472,000 in 2023).
1940s to 1970s
Walter Reade Enterprises acquired the property in early 1948, purchasing a majority of the stock in Film Center Inc.
During the 1960s, the Film Center Building's owners upgraded the elevators and renovated all of the office space, and they operated a
The Film Center Building was again fully occupied by 1961.[68] The New York City Department of Welfare leased space in the building until the mid-1960s.[69] The building's tenants during that decade also included Columbia Pictures, Universal Pictures, and Seven Arts Productions.[28] By the late 1960s, these tenants began using cellulose acetate film, which was much less flammable than older types of film. As a result, the fireproof vaults became redundant, and Newmark began removing some of the vaults to create additional office space.[28] In October 1968, Video Film Center Associates sold the building to the First Republic Bank for $4 million; as part of the sale, First Republic assumed the building's $1.54 million mortgage.[70][71] Newmark acquired the building outright in 1971.[30] By the mid-1970s, New York City's film industry had become decentralized, and the surrounding neighborhood had begun to decline.[8]
1980s to present
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Film Center Building's lobby as an interior landmark in 1982,[11] and the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.[72] Jeffrey Gural of Newmark Realty said in the early 1990s that the Film Center Building was more than 90 percent rented.[73] With the revival of the area around Times Square in the 1990s, smaller companies began relocating to buildings on the outskirts of the Times Square neighborhood, including the Film Center Building and the McGraw-Hill Building.[74] Among the Film Center's tenants during the 1990s was the offices of off-Broadway theater Playwrights Horizons,[74] as well as recording studios such as Adrian Carr Music, Mirror Image, and Reel Tyme.[75]
By the 21st century, the building's tenants included Big League Productions,
See also
- Art Deco architecture of New York City
- List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan from 14th to 59th Streets
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Manhattan from 14th to 59th Streets
References
Notes
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8129-3107-5.
- ^ a b c "630 9 Avenue, 10036". New York City Department of City Planning. Archived from the original on December 26, 2022. Retrieved November 17, 2021.
- ^ from the original on May 3, 2022. Retrieved December 23, 2022.
- ^ a b Landmarks Preservation Commission 1982, p. 2.
- ^ a b c d Landmarks Preservation Commission 1982, p. 3.
- ^ a b c National Park Service 1984, p. 4.
- ^ ProQuest 963121186.
- ^ Robins 2017, p. 92.
- ^ a b c d Robins 2017, pp. 92–93.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-470-28963-1., p.91
- ^ a b Stern & Stuart 2006, pp. 133–134.
- ^ a b Landmarks Preservation Commission 1982, p. 1.
- ^ ProQuest 1325201110.
- ^ from the original on December 25, 2022. Retrieved December 23, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e Stern & Stuart 2006, p. 133.
- ^ a b c d e f g Robins 2017, p. 93.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j National Park Service 1984, p. 2.
- from the original on December 26, 2022. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
- ^ a b c Landmarks Preservation Commission 1982, p. 4.
- ^ Stern & Stuart 2006, p. 134.
- ^ a b c National Park Service 1984, pp. 2–3.
- ^ a b c Landmarks Preservation Commission 1982, pp. 4–5.
- ^ a b c d e Landmarks Preservation Commission 1982, p. 5.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-58093-422-0.
- ^ Records & Briefs New York State Appellate Division. p. 407. Archived from the original on December 26, 2022. Retrieved January 21, 2023.
- ^ National Park Service 1984, p. 3.
- ^ from the original on December 26, 2022. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
- ^ from the original on December 25, 2022. Retrieved December 24, 2022.
- ^ a b c d "Film Vaults Set for Remake Into Offices". GFP Real Estate, New York (Press release). May 4, 2016. Archived from the original on December 26, 2022. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
- ^ "The Rise of Hollywood and the Arrival of Sound". Digital History. University of Houston. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
- ^ ProQuest 1031860119.
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- ^ "Federal Register: 50 Fed. Reg. 8703 (Mar 5, 1985)" (PDF). Library of Congress. March 5, 1985. p. 8881. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 21, 2020. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
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- ^ Baird-Remba, Rebecca (October 13, 2022). "Broadway Production Company Stays Put at 630 Ninth Avenue". Commercial Observer. Archived from the original on December 24, 2022. Retrieved December 24, 2022.
- ^ a b "GFP Real Estate closes $75 million refinancing for Film Center Building". NYREJ. November 7, 2017. Archived from the original on December 26, 2022. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
- ^ "GFP refinances Film Center Building with $75M loan". rew-online.com. October 25, 2017. Archived from the original on December 24, 2022. Retrieved December 24, 2022.
- ^ a b Brenzel, Kathryn (October 17, 2017). "GFP lands $75M to refi Far West Side building". The Real Deal New York. Archived from the original on December 24, 2022. Retrieved December 24, 2022.
Sources
- Film Center Building (PDF) (Report). National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service. September 7, 1984.
- Film Center Building Interior (PDF) (Report). New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. November 9, 1982.
- Robins, Anthony W. (2017). New York Art Deco: A Guide to Gotham's Jazz Age Architecture. Excelsior Editions. State University of New York Press. OCLC 953576510.
- Stern, Robert A. M.; Gilmartin, Patrick; Mellins, Thomas (1987). New York 1930: Architecture and Urbanism Between the Two World Wars. New York: Rizzoli. OCLC 13860977.
- Stern, Jewel; Stuart, John A. (2006). Ely Jacques Kahn, Architect: Beaux-arts to Modernism in New York. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-73114-9.
External links
- Media related to Film Center Building at Wikimedia Commons
- Official website