Painting the Town -- Museum of the City of New York

As a consequence of the consolidation of Greater New York in 1898, space was needed to house additional administrative offices and services for the expanded city. The architectural firm McKim, Mead and White won the 1908 Municipal Building competition with their design for the forty-story building that opened in 1914. I. N. Phelps Stokes, the respected New York City iconographer who was also an architect, said of the resulting building: "If not actually the prototype of the . . . upward tapering type of skyscraper with highly accentuated vertical lines, [it] at least marked an important step in that direction and had a far-reaching effect upon the design of the modern skyscraper."¹ Furthermore, the Municipal Building exemplified the large new "purpose-built" structures developed to accommodate the newly enlarged city's increasingly complex needs, both civic and commercial.²

The building's open U-shape encompasses the two triangular blocks bounded by Park Row, Centre, and Duane Streets and straddles Chambers Street, thus forming what has been called the "gate of the city."³ This view looks west toward the early modern emblem of the "progressive city," which towers over the lower profile of Peck Slip, a vestigeof nineteenth-century New York's former maritime dominance.

Among the first agencies housed in New York's Municipal Building were the city-owned and -operated radio station WNYC, a new reference branch of the New York Public Library, and the city's marriage license bureau. A sunny wedding chapel decorated with potted palms and flowered wallpaper was also incorporated into the building plan. The area around Foley Square, which quickly developed into a modern center of governmental activities, formed a marked contrast to the timeworn neighborhoods that

bordered the area.

The tower visible in Warner's painting is surmounted by Manhattan's largest statue, Civic Fame, commissioned by the architects from Adolph Alexander Weinman (1870 - 1952). Weinman, a pupil of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, executed other commissions for McKim, Mead and White, most notably the clock and figures over the entrance to the old Pennsylvania Railroad Station.⁴ The sheet-copper figure on the Municipal Building measures twenty-five feet in height and forms part of a sculptural program conceived by Weinman for the entire building. The classicism of the sculpture complements the building's references to Roman triumphal arches and to Bernini's colonnade in St. Peter's Square.⁵

At various times, Everett Warner lived and worked in New York City; Old Lyme, Connecticut; and Pittsburgh, where he taught at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. The elements of the New York cityscape he once cited as the most inspirational were "the daily commercial activity, the smoke and steam, the softly colored eighteenth [sic] century buildings . . . and the modern buildings that thrust up behind the old streets."⁶ In this view, Warner captured the essence of New York City as one century yielded to another and the modern urban scene developed. Here, using a palette and style strongly influenced by the Impressionists of Old Lyme, he contrasts nostalgia for the old with admiration for the new, avoiding any sense of endorsement of one over the other.

Notes:

1 Quoted in John Tauranac, Elegant New York: The Builders and the Buildings, 1885 -1915 (New York: Abbeville Press, 1985), p. 37.

2 William R. Taylor, In Pursuit of Gotham: Culture and Commerce in New York (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 39.

3 The WPA Guide to New York City (1939; reprint, New York: Pantheon, 1982), p. 101.

4 Reynolds, Donald Martin, Monuments and Masterpieces: Histories and Views of Public Sculpture in New York City (New York: Macmillan, 1988), pp. 294, 295.

5 Margot Gayle and Michele Cohen, Guide to Manhattan's Outdoor Sculpture (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1988), p. 58.

6 Helen K. Fusscas, A World Observed: The Art of Everett Longley Warner, 1877 -1963 (Old Lyme, Conn.: Lyme Historical Society, 1992), p. 24. The older buildings were from the nineteenth century, not the eighteenth.


The Municipal Building c. 1915 Everett Warner (1877 -1963) Oil on canvas, 50 X 40 Signed lower left: Everett Warner Gift of the artist, 41.182.1
As a consequence of the consolidation of Greater New York in 1898, space was needed to house additional administrative offices and services for the expanded city. The architectural firm McKim, Mead and White won the 1908 Municipal Building competition with their design for the forty-story building that opened in 1914. I. N. Phelps Stokes, the respected New York City iconographer who was also an architect, said of the resulting building: "If not actually the prototype of the . . . upward tapering type of skyscraper with highly accentuated vertical lines, [it] at least marked an important step in that direction and had a far-reaching effect upon the design of the modern skyscraper."¹ Furthermore, the Municipal Building exemplified the large new "purpose-built" structures developed to accommodate the newly enlarged city's increasingly complex needs, both civic and commercial.² The building's open U-shape encompasses the two triangular blocks bounded by Park Row, Centre, and Duane Streets and straddles Chambers Street, thus forming what has been called the "gate of the city."³ This view looks west toward the early modern emblem of the "progressive city," which towers over the lower profile of Peck Slip, a vestigeof nineteenth-century New York's former maritime dominance. Among the first agencies housed in New York's Municipal Building were the city-owned and -operated radio station WNYC, a new reference branch of the New York Public Library, and the city's marriage license bureau. A sunny wedding chapel decorated with potted palms and flowered wallpaper was also incorporated into the building plan. The area around Foley Square, which quickly developed into a modern center of governmental activities, formed a marked contrast to the timeworn neighborhoods that bordered the area. The tower visible in Warner's painting is surmounted by Manhattan's largest statue, Civic Fame, commissioned by the architects from Adolph Alexander Weinman (1870 - 1952). Weinman, a pupil of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, executed other commissions for McKim, Mead and White, most notably the clock and figures over the entrance to the old Pennsylvania Railroad Station.⁴ The sheet-copper figure on the Municipal Building measures twenty-five feet in height and forms part of a sculptural program conceived by Weinman for the entire building. The classicism of the sculpture complements the building's references to Roman triumphal arches and to Bernini's colonnade in St. Peter's Square.⁵ At various times, Everett Warner lived and worked in New York City; Old Lyme, Connecticut; and Pittsburgh, where he taught at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. The elements of the New York cityscape he once cited as the most inspirational were "the daily commercial activity, the smoke and steam, the softly colored eighteenth [sic] century buildings . . . and the modern buildings that thrust up behind the old streets."⁶ In this view, Warner captured the essence of New York City as one century yielded to another and the modern urban scene developed. Here, using a palette and style strongly influenced by the Impressionists of Old Lyme, he contrasts nostalgia for the old with admiration for the new, avoiding any sense of endorsement of one over the other. Notes: 1 Quoted in John Tauranac, Elegant New York: The Builders and the Buildings, 1885 -1915 (New York: Abbeville Press, 1985), p. 37. 2 William R. Taylor, In Pursuit of Gotham: Culture and Commerce in New York (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 39. 3 The WPA Guide to New York City (1939; reprint, New York: Pantheon, 1982), p. 101. 4 Reynolds, Donald Martin, Monuments and Masterpieces: Histories and Views of Public Sculpture in New York City (New York: Macmillan, 1988), pp. 294, 295. 5 Margot Gayle and Michele Cohen, Guide to Manhattan's Outdoor Sculpture (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1988), p. 58. 6 Helen K. Fusscas, A World Observed: The Art of Everett Longley Warner, 1877 -1963 (Old Lyme, Conn.: Lyme Historical Society, 1992), p. 24. The older buildings were from the nineteenth century, not the eighteenth.