The officialese of these LPC Designation Reports takes all the fun out of Bronx Art Deco but they are essential documents. Comprehensive historical background is given for the Landmarked buildings together with biographical information about the architects.
May 12, 1981, Designation List 142
LP-1077
PARK PLAZA APARTMENTS,
1005 Jerome Avenue, Bronx.
Built 1929-31; architects Horace Ginsberg & Marvin Fine.
June 2, 1992; Designation List 245
LP-1795
UNITED WORKERS’ COOPERATIVE,
2700-2774 Bronx Park East, Bronx. Designed 1925,
Built 1926-27; Springsteen & Goldhammer, architects.
Phase 2 – 2850 Bronx Park East;
Built 1927-29, architect Herman Jessor.
June 22, 2010, Designation List 430
LP-2400
NOONAN PLAZA APARTMENTS,
105-149 West 168th Street/1231-1245 Nelson Avenue/1232-1244 Ogden Avenue, Bronx.
Built 1931, architects Horace Ginsberg & Marvin Fine.
For the buildings whose architects and dates are known, the Archive is almost entirely indebted to the remarkable list compiled in 1976 by Sullivan & Danforth and their team for the Exposition, Bronx Art Deco Architecture. The excellent Exposition Catalog gives valuable insight into the deteriorating social conditions in the notorious period of housing abandonment in the Bronx during the 1960s and 70s. The architects’ bios are also included
AN EXPOSITION BRONX ART DECO ARCHITECTURE
WEST BRONX RESTORATION COMMITTEE
Graduate Program in Urban Planning
Hunter College CUNY 1976
CARL ROSENSTEIN – BRONX ART DECO
https://www.carlrosenstein.com/the-bronx-art-deco
An important exhibition first held in 1998 at the Puffin Room Gallery, Soho and again the next year at Fordham University’s William D. Walsh Family Library. Supported by Fernando Ferrer, then the Bronx Borough President, ADSNY and The Historic Districts Council its impact led ultimately to the creation of the LPC Grand Concourse Historic District.
The NORTHERN MANHATTAN ART DECO PROJECT. A comprehensive illustrated survey from 2005 of Art Deco Apartment Houses in Washington Heights & Inwood with aims very similar to BADAHA. This overlooked report deserves greater recognition. Included are buildings by most of the same architects active in the Bronx. It warrants revisiting to determine how well the buildings have fared in the interim.
In 2018 the NYC MUNICIPAL ARCHIVES website https://a860-collectionguides.nyc.gov/repositories/2/resources/64 posted over 700,000 recently digitized photographs taken between 1939 & 1941 on behalf of the NYC Tax Department to realize a plan for a photographic record of every building on every lot in every borough. The work was financed and staffed by the WPA. BADAHA has used these remarkable images extensively as they remain the only record for many of the buildings whose Parapets have been lost to the ravages of time and neglect.
The NYCMA website is informative but impenetrable so a couple of talented techies, (Stephen P. Morse https://stevemorse.org/vital/nyctaxphotos.html & Julien Boilen https//1940s.nyc/map#13.69/40.7093/-73.99397 ) separately and by different methods, have devised easy ways to find & view the WPA photos. BADAHA is grateful to both for their efforts.
The AVERY LIBRARY REAL ESTATE BROCHURE COLLECTION is the source for all of the Floor Plans and Renderings in BADAHA. It has also yielded the Architect information for several buildings.
The MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK COLLECTIONS have photos from the 1930s of many Bronx Art Deco apartment houses. BADAHA features them to show how buildings looked originally. The Wurts Bros Collection is the principal source for these photos.
The MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK COLLECTIONS PORTAL
Search by Bronx & Art Deco Apartments.
https://collections.mcny.org/?
Constance Rosenblum – “Boulevard of Dreams” NYU Press 2009.
Important social history of the rise, fall & rise again of the Grand Concourse, the thoroughfare most associated with Bronx Art Deco apartment houses. An excellent chapter is devoted to the architects of the Art Deco apartments.
Art Deco Society of New York
ADSNY is the principal resource for all things Art Deco in New York City. It advocates and educates in the important cause of protecting New York’s fabulous legacy of Art Deco buildings and other Art Deco artifacts. ADSNY is also compiling a Registry of Art Deco buildings in all 5 Boroughs, most of them identified by the membership.
In acknowledgement of the important work done by ADSNY, BADAHA notes the buildings already included in the ADSNY Registry. It is not the intention of BADAHA to supplant the ADSNY Registry. Our aim is focussed on one type of building in the Bronx and supplements the ADSNY Registry. Several Bronx related items are included in the many activities promoted by ADSNY at https://www.artdeco.org/. Become a member. Get involved.
NEW YORK ART DECO. A guide to Gotham’s Jazz Age Architecture.
Anthony W. Robins
Excelsior Editions State University of New York Press 2017.
The indispensable guide by New York’s foremost expert on Art Deco architecture. It covers all the most prominent Art Deco buildings in all 5 Boroughs of all types, styles and uses, commercial, municipal, educational, entertainment, medical and residential. Others not so well known but just as important are included. In Manhattan there are walkable itineraries. The lively descriptions attest to the author’s affection for and deep knowledge of the genre.
Mr. Robins’ website https://anthonywrobins.com/ has a great page “The Architects Speak” that features fascinating interviews with Israel Crausman and Marvin Fine. It also has much useful information about other important New York buildings of all different styles although he seems to have suspended his Lecture Series and Guided Tours.