Books

New York Transformed

A recent book co-written by architect Peter Pennoyer (pictured) looks at brothers Eliot Cross and John W. Cross, whose firm designed some of New York’s most beloved landmarks, including the 1939 Tiffany & Co. headquarters.

A recent book co-written by architect Peter Pennoyer (pictured) looks at brothers Eliot Cross and John W. Cross, whose firm designed some of New York’s most beloved landmarks, including the 1939 Tiffany & Co. headquarters.

Although relatively unknown today, the patrician brothers behind the New York architecture firm Cross & Cross helped reshape the city from the 1910s through the ‘30s, acting as both high-profile designers and real-estate developers rolled into one — as if, in today’s times, Richard Meier ran the Related Companies.

Born into wealth, Eliot Cross (1883–1949) and John W. Cross (1878–1951) used their elite connections to go big almost from the start: They went from designing park drinking fountains to creating a 17-story building in just three years. John, Beaux-Arts trained in Paris, handled design, while the more extroverted Eliot acted as salesman.

When they weren’t producing large, tasteful country homes for the likes of banker Clarence Dillon and Winterthur founder Henry Francis du Pont, they were conceiving defining examples of New York apartment towers (405 Park Avenue; One Sutton Place South) and skyscrapers (City Bank Farmers Trust; the RCA Victor building, later known as the GE Building). And anyone who has ever had breakfast at Tiffany’s — or just wandered through the jeweler’s flagship store on 57th Street and Fifth Avenue — has been inside one of their buildings.

Cross & Cross was prolific, but the firm didn’t design buildings for the ages each time. Occasionally, the brothers veered into staid Colonial Revival territory, leading some to overlook their achievements.

But, now, architect Peter Pennoyer, founder of the eponymous Manhattan architecture firm, and Anne Walker, an architectural historian, have added the Crosses to their series of thoughtful monographs about bygone days of design with New York Transformed: The Architecture of Cross & Cross, published by Monacelli. (Subjects of their previous books include Warren & Wetmore, Grosvenor Atterbury and Delano & Aldrich).

“It was amazing to see how rapidly they had to adapt from Paris, where John studied design, to New York, where there was this rapid expansion in real estate, and make buildings with programs that no one had ever seen before,” says Pennoyer, a talented and subtle re-shaper of architectural tradition himself, and a board member of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art. “They knew they couldn’t ignore change.”

Pennoyer recently sat down with 1stdibs to talk about the Brothers Cross, their best-known buildings and the legacy they left behind.

Eliot Cross and John W. Cross

For their friend Charles H. Sabin, Cross & Cross built Bayberry Land, a grand English country house-style estate In Southampton, New York, whose entryway featured a moumental double staircase. Inset: Floor plans for the estate, which was carefully situated to maximize the beauty of the eastern Long Island landscape.

The early 20th-century art critic Royal Cortissoz praised Bayberry Land, with its lowslung dimensions, rambling footprint and stucco and slate, as romantic and “extrodinarily beguiling.”

Left: The crown of the RCA Victor Building on Lexington Avenue, in Manhattan, is one of the firm’s masterpiece skyscrapers. The sculptural adornment is meant to evoke radio waves, electricity and, perhaps, says Pennoyer, the “gods of radio.” Right: Perched above the entrance of Cross & Cross’s best-known landmark — Tiffany & Co., 1939–40, on Fifth Avenue — Henry Frederick Metzler’s nine-foot bronze-painted figure of Atlas shoulders a clock made by the iconic company.


The 1939 Tiffany & Co. headquarters

The 1939 Tiffany & Co. headquarters

Why should we know about these architects, particularly since the architect Robert A.M. Stern, a mentor of yours, says in his introduction to the book that they’re not first-tier talents?

They did some of the first buildings that established the template for the neighborhoods that I happen to love — the area around Grand Central, for instance. You don’t stop at each one and say, “That’s an amazing building,” but they created a context, this kind of E.B. White, New Yorker magazine of the 1950s atmosphere. They made this background architecture, and they did it really well. It’s an important part of the history of the city.

Bob [Stern] and I agree that we have to talk about architects who are less famous but still did beautiful buildings and made a meaningful contribution to the evolution of the city.

They did design a few that really stand out, even today, correct?

First and foremost is the book’s cover shot: the RCA/Victor Building, which was really a collision of architecture and sculpture. It’s a baffling profusion of radio waves and electric bolts and these anthropomorphic figures that may represent the gods of radio. It’s this overwrought, crazy thing, but it’s a beautiful piece of sculpture. They were given carte blanche on the project.

I also think that, as with many architecture firms that are really great, there were many big talents in the office. You instinctively know that not all these designs came from the hands of the brothers Cross, but it’s sad because we don’t know who the designers were.

With One Sutton Place South, 1925, Cross & Cross transformed the derelict block on York Avenue (then called Avenue A) between 57th and 58th streets into a prestigious address.

Both Cross brothers belonged to the Links Club, a private golf-related social club that they built in 1916 on Manhattan’s East 62nd Street; shown here are the club’s Stair Hall and front facade.

For Mayfields, the childhood home of decorator Sister Parish in Far Hills, New Jersey, Cross & Cross created a large house that looked relatively small and achieved a patina of age with whitewashed brick facades .

Cross & Cross altered and expanded the arcaded gallery balcony of the Guaranty Trust Fifth Avenue branch in 1920. The Crosses brought more light into the structure, which had been originally designed by McKim, Mead & White.

Cross & Cross altered and expanded the arcaded gallery balcony of the Guaranty Trust Fifth Avenue branch in 1920. The Crosses brought more light into the structure, which had been originally designed by McKim, Mead & White.

Which other buildings by them should we know?

One Sutton Place South is fantastic, with that colossal three-arch porte cochere. You always think of three arches being, in New York at least, the symbol of a monumental building — Grand Central, the Public Library — and here it is for the motorcars of the wealthy. And it’s still a great address now; the apartments are amazing.

There’s the Tiffany & Co. building too, even though we don’t tend to look at it much these days. But I’m amazed they were able to make a salesroom that size column-free; there are huge trusses in the ceiling. It’s a very modern building.

What’s their lasting legacy?

Their light-handed approach to classicism, which created this distinctly American style — some Georgian, some Federal and some Greek revival. They put it together in a way that was clear they weren’t trying to make it look like London.

There’s a very sparing use of detail. It has that look of not enough butter for the whole slice of bread, which I personally think is much more compelling and a very American thing of that era. Compared to 1890, when there was too much butter — and honey and jam — for the bread.

It’s a noble crusade to make them better known. Why do you think fame has mostly eluded them?

Ironically, if they had just done those three best buildings and then died tragically, it would have been better for their reputation. Architects don’t get a lot of respect if they are that prolific. It’s just phenomenal how talented the Crosses were, how many different styles they worked in, and how energetic they were.


PURCHASE THIS BOOK
or support your local bookstore

NY Transformed_cover

Loading next story…

No more stories to load. Check out The Study

No more stories to load. Check out The Study