From Architectural Links to Common Ownership
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(Jtttteg Ai,by,lTetu ruEsDAyAucusr25 Streetscapes/The Bergdorf GoodmanBuilding on Fifth AvenueSorK ee. From Architectural Links to Common Ownership Built in 1928, it replaced the Vhnderbilt mansion. By CHRISTOPHER GRAY THE 70-year-oldwhite marble, just I cleaned last month, is soft and worn I like an ancient monument, and anyone who.stops in front of the Bergdorf Goodman Edward KeatlnS/The Ncw york Tlmes Building on Fifth Avenue from 57th to 58th The Bergdorf Goodman Building Streets will notice it. But a building is like a on Fifth Avenue in 1953, right, small ecosystem, and restoring a single element alters the balance, not always with and recent photo, above. positive results. 'This summer, Bellet Construction of Man- original bronze windows and trim at 58th hattan cleaned the South Dover marble on Street are intact but neglected, covered with the_ facade, revealing the complex veining layers of peeling black silicone. Restored, of stonc, which and'age the is tinted with they would be a handsome counterpoint to yellow and green black, orange, and has the marble. Likewise, a delicate light fixture in varying patterns. beCn.weathered Like in an elegant service vestibule on 58th Street rnost cleanings, this one gives the pedestri- hangs ignored, smashed and useless. an -'pause to examine the building with a But the architectural pilgrim in New York fre3h eye, one that reveals a complicated is grateful for improvements, whether they past. occur block by block, building by building What is now the Bergdorf Goodman or, as in this case, material by material. Building was originally built as a group of though architecturally inalvidual, linked, luxury-goods store that came to stores, in 1928. On the inside, the original ?HE occupy the west side of the block from construction as separate stores is evident I I 57th to 58th Streets was founded when mostly through the feet: Because Fifth Ave- Edwin Goodman, a tailor, teamed up with nqo plopes downward from 57th to 58th, Herman Bergdorf in l90l and then took over ramps now dot the interior where the origi- Olllcc tor Mctropolits Hlstory their women's clothing business in 1903.In nal walls have been cut through. 1927,Mr. Goodman had plans to lease space The shops had separate staircases, store- dealers in New York real estate - through Dwight D. Eisenhower's wartime aide, or. ,gq the outside, the 1928conceit of seven at the rlortheast corner of 52d and Fifth, but Early tenantsincluded his hands passedthe sites of not only Berg- the Crand Duchess Marie of Russia.Time different store facades is rendered slightly fronts and elevators. a better site became available: the old the linen store Grande but also the Majestic, Beres- peculiar by Bergdorf Goodman's control of Van Cleef & Arpels, dorf Goodman recounted a story about the industrialist Cornelius Vanderbilt mansion, on Fifth the entire frontage. The store addressed this Maison de Blanc and, at the 57th Street ford, El Dorado Sherry-Netherland,Squibb Henry Kaiser, who, protesting a three-week from 57th to 58th. issue in the 1980's when it retained the corner, Dobbs the hatter. and Park Row buildings. But Mr. Brown wait for his wife's mink coat, exclaimed, "l Alice G. Vanderbilt, widow of Cornelius Mr. Goodman had chosenthe 58th Street declared bankruptcy in 1932and the Fifth neoclassical architect Allan Greenberg to can build an oceangoingship in a week." paying desidn a unifying Fifth Avenue front. Vanderbilt 2d, was tired of $130,000a corner during the early stagesof construc- Avenue block went into foreclosure in 1934. "Mr. Kaiser," Mr. Coodman replied,"you palace, Although handsome and convincing in an year in taxes on the 45-yearold and tion and had arranged with Mr. Brown to Mr. Goodmanbought his own sectionin 1935 are a great man. I am only.afurrier." Time, a plan to redevelop the site with a 52-story convert the entire ninth floor of the Berg- and the rest of the structure gradually, Erclitect's drawing, after execution several sard Bergdorf Goodmangrossed $ll million, p&Iems became evident with the design. apartment hotel had fallen through in 1926. dorf Goodman corner into an apartment. owning it all by 1948. a year. First, the coursing, or horizdntal elements, Frederick Brown, a real estate agent, When the store opened in 1928,he sold his Mr. Goodman died rn hrs penthouse in N 1944,Mary Lewis,a dressshop, had the ip the original stonework at the 57th and made a deal with Mrs. Vanderbilt and in brownstone at 320 West Tlst Street and I 1953,and was succeededby his son Andrew. 1928erected not a skyscraper but a set of architectsSkidmore, Owings & Merrill 58th Street ends - retained as bookends for moved in. I Andrew Goodman died in 1993and Berg- shops -- a mansion- - I design a bright yellow f ront door rn a Mrl'Greenberg's design - did not line up seven- and nine-story A 1928ad rn the magazineCountry Life in dorf's is now a part of the Neiman Marcus style commercial building. laid out Mr. Goodman's ideals for modernisticwaffle pattern "smack between evenly, creating an awkward juncture near America Group. Mr. Brown's architects, Kahn & Jacobs. his store: "Here women of critical taste satiny Bergdorf Goodman and the tweedy 57th'Street. The cleaning of the marble Mallory Andrews, a spokeswoman,says emfi$asizes the original design and so plays faced the buildings with white marble, echo- may observe clothes of the highest fashion Tailored Woman," as the magazine Archi- 'this the store's gross is now more than $250 discrepancy. Second, much of the ing the Metropolitan Club, the lower floors . One may judge, before purchasing, how tectural Forum put it. Other stores de- up million a year. It occupies the entire west material around the new entrance appears of the Plaza Hotel and especially Marble such clothes will look when worn in one's nounced the door and the shop was gone side of the block,except for the jeweler Van to.P.ecast stone. When fresh, it gleamed in Row, a group of 60-yearold houses then own drawing room," withrn a few years. Cleef & Arpels at the 57thStreet corner. Van cbnlparison to the dirty marble; now that directly across Fifth Avenue. The facades The French Renaissanceinteriors were In 1952,Time magazine called Bergdorf Cleef was one of the building's first tenants the original stone has been renewed, the were decorated with slightly different ele- almost bare of dlsplay cases and racks. Goodman "Fifth Avenue'sfinest" store and over the later rnaterial looks pasty and wan. ments of low-relief sculpture, but it is the Instead, customers were met by saleswom- noted that customers did not pick through and has leased different spaces Third, the restoration of the stone high- low mass of the complex, with its green-tiled en who brought out individual pieces for racks but were accompanied by a "ven- years. lights minor details of the facade that have mansard roofs, that is its distinguishing inspection, like high-end art dealers. deuse." The apartment is now retail spaceoccu- not,yet received comparable attention. The characteristic. Mr. Brown was one of the most active The vendeusesincluded Kay Summersby, pied by the John Barrett Beauty Salon. t.