Early 1900's: NYC's Grand Central & Terminal City

[stjr]

This is an interesting article on the history of Terminal City, built over the rail yard of Grand Central Terminal in NYC.  Click on the article's picture show for historic photos from the early 1900's forward.

Maybe Jax should consider building a "city" over its hoped for, but currently ill conceived, intermodal transit center.   

Looking south from 50th Street during the construction of Grand Central and the railroad yard in August 1909.


There are still remnants of what was conceived as Terminal City, a unified matrix of development on the new real estate created when the tracks surrounding Grand Central Station were covered. The view north on Park Avenue in 1930.

August 19, 2010

Streetscapes - Grand Central
Covering Its Tracks Paid Off Handsomely
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY

IT’S a common hobby, searching for surviving pieces of the 1910 Pennsylvania Station, like ironwork, brass handrails and other fragments, amidst its vulgar replacement of the 1960s.

With Grand Central Terminal, opened in 1913, no such quest is necessary, but there is a network of fragments of what was conceived as Terminal City, a unified matrix of development atop the new real estate created when the tracks and railroad yards were covered. Much of Terminal City has fallen, although there is still enough left for the dedicated urban archaeologist.

In 1902, William J. Wilgus, an engineer for the New York Central Railroad, came up with the concept of roofing over the yards around Grand Central and building hotels, offices and apartment houses. Among the earliest concepts were a 20-story tower over the terminal itself, and an adjacent hotel, later erected as the Biltmore, from Vanderbilt to Madison Avenue, between 43rd and 44th Streets. In 1910, The New York Times published a design for a ceremonial Park Avenue showing tall, income-producing office buildings, but also new structures for the National Academy of Design and the Metropolitan Opera, their cultured imprimatur blunting the nakedness of the railroad’s commercial quest.

In the next 20 years, Mr. Wilgus’s plan remade the dozen or so blocks north of the terminal. The Biltmore was the best known, 26 stories high but set back along Vanderbilt Avenue to give the terminal breathing room. With no stores on Madison Avenue, a main dining room 120 feet long and a terrace on Vanderbilt, it was a particularly debonair work. Inside, the Palm Court had a timepiece on a wooden screen; “under the clock at the Biltmore” became a legendary meeting place.

Vanderbilt filled up with structures like the high-rise Yale Club, at 44th and Vanderbilt, and the Roosevelt Hotel, from 45th to 46th. Along Lexington, buildings included the giant Commodore Hotel at 42nd and the streamlined Graybar Building at 44th.

But it was the width of Park Avenue that offered the canvas for a much grander design, something really worthy of the name Terminal City. There were a few commercial buildings, like the New York Central Building, with its signature tower, spanning Park at 46th; and the crisp, cool Postum Building at 250 Park from 46th to 47th.

Office construction here was premature, though â€" the newly developed apartment house was in demand, as the well-to-do began to abandon town houses and pare their servant rosters.

Just north of the Postum Building rose 270 Park Avenue, with 3,000 rooms and, according to the magazine Buildings and Building Management in 1920, 100 millionaires. Its arcaded central courtyard, with triumphal arches, struck a particularly civilized note.

Directly opposite rose 277 Park Avenue, a colossal 12-section apartment house organized around a central court and 432 apartments.

The Hotel Chatham went up at 280 Park, from 48th to 49th, with a delicious terra cotta frosting along the top stories. Opposite, at 299 Park, the discreet Park Lane opened in the mid-1920s, an apartment hotel whose central dining room had tapestries and a coffered ceiling. In 1924 Arts & Decoration magazine referred to these as “the new apartment buildings which now constitute the social background of New York.”

They were, it is true, enclaves of the rich and well born, with names like Aldrich, Betts, Dodge and Rutherfurd. But there were also those whose families and fortunes were newer, like the developer Charles Paterno, the actor Rudolph Valentino and Frederick T. Ley, who started work in construction at age 15 but later was the contractor for the Chrysler Building.. The development of the residential section of Terminal City continued up to 50th Street, and was matched by construction farther north.

Terminal City began to dissolve after World War II, when commerce swept the avenue almost clean of residential buildings. The construction along Lexington has survived, except for the old Commodore at 42nd Street, refaced around 1980 for a new Hyatt. But its original gritty black smokestack still juts up from its back corner.

On Vanderbilt Avenue, the Biltmore was gutted and refaced with red granite in the 1980s to create the present, hulking office tower at 335 Madison. Here the legacy of Terminal City strikes a few poignant notes. Along 44th, the sleek, modern facade is interrupted by a taxicab ramp, descending to the concourse level of the station. The connection is now walled up, and the area is only a garage, but it is still roofed with the Guastavino tile seen elsewhere in the station.

The Biltmore’s sleek interior carries only one trace of the grand design of Terminal City. Above the security desk is a vintage timepiece â€" the fabled clock. On a recent weekday there were two guards on duty. Asked if anyone still came to meet there, one first said no, but then thought and said, “Well, two people meet here every morning,” pointing to the other guard on duty and saying, “She and I do.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/realestate/22scapes.html?hpw

[ZacharyMease]

That's very efficient way to do things!
I've always wondered why cities with such high water tables weren't constructed like Disney World...

[stjr]

That's very efficient way to do things!
I've always wondered why cities with such high water tables weren't constructed like Disney World...

Zach, NYC did this in 1909, over 100 years ago.  And, here we are with JTA's half baked intermodal center, well over 100 years behind in what NY has done.  JTA'ers have probably never been to a major city like NY to even learn their well tested lessons on how to make intermodal work best.  We have the "Amateur Hour Gong Show" for transit with JTA.  And, it's holding back the success of Downtown and all of Jacksonville.  When will we address this disaster for our community?

[Ocklawaha]

That's very efficient way to do things!
I've always wondered why cities with such high water tables weren't constructed like Disney World...

Zach, NYC did this in 1909, over 100 years ago.  And, here we are with JTA's half baked intermodal center, well over 100 years behind in what NY has done.  JTA'ers have probably never been to a major city like NY to even learn their well tested lessons on how to make intermodal work best.  We have the "Amateur Hour Gong Show" for transit with JTA.  And, it's holding back the success of Downtown and all of Jacksonville.  When will we address this disaster for our community?

TOMORROW STJR! TOMORROW!
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OCKLAWAHA