I had a request for some Bronx material, so here’s a classic example from the Borough of Apartments. There’s more from the Bronx on the way but this should tide you over for a bit.
Though the Grand Concourse is rightly acclaimed for its many Art Deco and Moderne apartment buildings, the section of Jerome Avenue between the Major Deegan Expressway and River Avenue unfettered by an el is no slouch in that department, with a variety of buildings overlooking John Mullaly Park. First and foremost is the Park Plaza Building at 1005 Jerome.
It may be the Bronx’ most famed apartment complex not located on the Grand Concourse. The massive Art Deco building was designed by architects Horace “Harry” Ginsbern (interiors) and Marvin Fine (exteriors) and constructed between 1929-1931, at about the apotheosis of Art Deco-ism, at least in the States. In the early 1930s, polychrome terra cotta was in vogue, and Park Plaza does it better than just about anywhere else. Ginsbern was known as “the genius of the Bronx” as he designed no less than 137 apartment buildings in the borough. Designer Fine’s taste in gargoyling was eclectic — besides the standard-issue pondering long-eared beast, of the type seen on Notre Dame in Paris, there are also frogs and squirrels offset by eagles and owls.
I used to think that one of the terra cotta friezes was a stylized version of High Bridge, but Constance Rosenblum explains in Boulevard of Dreams that it actually depicts an architect presenting a model of his new building to the Parthenon for approval. I’d have to think that High Bridge was not far from Marvin Fine’s consciousness when dreaming this up, though.
Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop, and as always, “comment…as you see fit.”
2/20/20