‘Don’t Forget to Look Up!’: The Broadway You Haven’t Seen…Part 3 Union Square to Times Square

I spent a lot of the walk under the shadow of the Empire State Building, but had it not been there I may have had trouble remembering I was in New York City…

Picking up from where I left off in Union Square last week on Don’t Forget to Look Up, I walked up to Times Square past the Flatiron District, Madison Square Gardens and Macy’s leaving behind the Classical inspired buildings (save for a few!) and discovering new architectural treasures as I continue to climb up Manhattan:

My route this week from Union Square to Times Square

The first building to catch my eye this week was in Union Square itself. The Decker Building completed in Moorish Revival by John H. Edelmann brings an Arabian flavor to the city with its intricate stonework and balconies.

The Decker Building, Union Square,  John H. Edelmann

Getting back on track up Broadway, Robert H. Robertson’s McIntyr building, a mix of architectural styles (featuring Byzantine, Romanesque AND Gothic features!) stands in all  its eclectic glory overlooking Union Square and Broadway. The perfect send off for the rest of the walk…

The McIntyr Building by Robert H. Robertson at 874 Broadway

Avoiding the few Classical inspired buildings on this leg of the journey (mostly because of the abundance of it lower down Broadway), I once again came across one of my small pitch roofed houses…they just stand out so much! Especially this one with the pedimented windows in the attic:

924 Broadway

Daniel Burnham’s Flatiron Building (apparently so named because of it’s resemblance to a clothes iron!), although a famous New York landmark, definitely deserved a photo purely for its bizarre shape and ornamentation:

The Flatiron Building, David Burnham

Although not on Broadway the Met Life Tower (resembling the Campanile in Venice and once the tallest building in the world) and the Metropolitan Life North Building (in its massive Art Deco glory) are viewable across Madison Square Park from Broadway:

The Met Life Tower and Metropolitan Life North Building, now both occupied by Credit Suisse

Although not ornate, I loved the simplicity of the brickwork of this façade looming over Madison Square Park:

The St James’ building at 1133 Broadway caught my eye for the heavily ornamented masonry on its top floor drawing one’s eye up from the street:

St James’ Building, 1133 Broadway by Bruce Price

Next to the St James’ Building is the Art Deco 1143 sporting more simple, yet just as effective decorations:

1143 Broadway

The St James’ Building and 1143 in their contrasting architectural styles

Although I cannot tell you what the Walla CE & Co building was, I loved the rustication of the building and the very obvious name carved in stone onto the façade:

Walla CE & Co, 1149 Broadway

The only full-on Classical inspired building I decided to include on this leg was the Baudouine Building at 1181 Broadway, which stands tall and thin against the skyline…if it weren’t for the wall with the advertisement you may believe you were in some sci-fi skyscrapered ancient Greece:

The Baudouine Building at 1181 Broadway

A few buildings up the art deco reliefs of 1193 caught my eye:

1193 Broadway

Paris? Nope! This very Parisian looking building occupies 1202 Broadway on the corner of W29th and Broadway…

And here is the proof it is definitely in New York:

1202 Broadway, Broadway and W29th

Getting closer and closer to the Empire State Building, the Art Deco architecture appears to have replaced the Classical architecture of Part 2 of this series…

1220 Broadway, Levy & Berger

Again 1230 Broadway adds yet another Beaux Arts French inspired building to this stretch of Broadway. During my shoot I was approached by a man and asked ‘what are you photographing?’ Pointing upwards at this anomaly amidst the skyscrapers in the city he replied, ‘Wow, I’ve lived here for 25 years and never looked up and seen that building!’…point proven! Don’t Forget to Look Up! Look what he’s been missing for the past 25 years:

1230 Broadway, I promise it’s New York-note the Empire State Building stating its presence in the background!

Looking more like the Galeries Lafayette than a New York hotel, Henry Hardenbergh’s (of Waldorf Astoria and Plaza Hotel fame) Hotel Martinique (now part of the Radisson Group) remains in its Beaux Arts style harkening back to another time :

The Radisson, 49 W32nd, Henry Hardenbergh

And next door was to the Radisson is the Herald Towers Building, formerly also a hotel known as the ‘Hotel McAlpin’ sporting just as spectacular arcitecture:

Herald Towers, 50 W34th, Frank Mills Andrews on the Left with the Radisson dwarfed in the foreground

The two hotels (Herald Towers on the Left, Radisson on the Right) standing competitively next to each other, sandwiching the Empire State Building  

The Herald Square Building (named after the newspaper ‘The New York Herald’ which used to occupy the site) has a nice clean simple façade:

The Herald Square Building at 1350 Broadway, Clinton & Russell

Formerly a garment manufacturing building, 1359 Broadway’s shape and again simplicity were what was so visually attractive:

1359 Broadway, George & Edward Blum

The interesting top of the Bricken Broadway Building with setbacks to form the roof and the protruding four pillars there is something reminiscent of a lost civilization atop this skyscraper:

Bricken Broadway Building, 1385 Broadway, Schwartz & Gross

The final stop before being engulfed by the tourists flocking to Times Square was the Beaux Arts 1466 Broadway, known as the Knickerbocker Hotel from 1906 and later the Newsweek Building:

1466 Broadway, or 6 Times Square, Marvin & Davis

Stay tuned for the next article in the series  “Don’t Forget to Look Up”  starting back here in Times Square…