AND   BUILDERS'   GUIDE.





VoL.yL                      NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1870.                    No. 138.





- ■      PublWied Weekly by

THE REAL ESTATE RECORD ASSOCIATION.

___           TERMS.

Ono year, in advance......................§6 00

All communications should be addressed to

C.   -V^.   SVC^KTGT,

.106 Broadway, con. of Pine Street.





TIFFANY & CO.'S NEW BTJILDING.

The large and conspicuous ncAV iron building
now in. course of completion for Messrs. Tiffany
& Co. at 550 and552 Broadway, on the western
side of TJnion Square, forms anoth.er of those
dominant landmarks which call for especial at¬
tention. It is a five-story and basement build¬
ing, with a frontage of 77i feet on BroadAvay,
and 142 fefet on Fifteenth street. It is built en¬
tirely, externally and internally, of iron, from
the weil-knoAvn establishment of Cornell &
Co., and is a fine specimen of Avorkmanship
throughout. The first story is composed of the
ordinary Corinthian columns, with large sheets
of plate glass between; the other story fronts
being of segmental and eUiptical-headed -win¬
dows, di-vided by squatty little detached Co¬
rinthian columns, reheved here and there by
massive rusticated shafts running up the entire
height of building, and crowned by that greatest
of aU architectural novelties—a balustrade. We
believe this.to .be an exhaustive pen-and-ink
sketch of the exterior.

Were this building actually erected of stone,
; we should stall—as a work of art—^have to criti¬
cise it adversely ; but the fact of its being bmlt
entirely of iron, of the forms, devices, and mas-
siveness of construction belonging to stone, and
painted, moreover,, to imitate that material,
i only tends to make more manifest its utter pov¬
erty of design. Monotony and insipidity are
stamped upon every squareinch of the surface,
from the side-walk level to the insignificant and
common balustrade which surmounts-the buUd.
1 ing. It is; like A. T. Stewart' s upper store, just
! one huge mass of architectural nothingness; -wi-th-
out one single original thought to greet the be¬
holder, one.single feature, however significant,
to show-that atrchitecture has advanced a step
from-what it was among us twenty or thirty
years agO; • There are the same caps, the same
brackets, the same rusticatio^ns, cornices, and
. mouldings.which we have seen repeated over
P and over again, ad natiseam, and much better
even in buildings of far less pretension and ex¬
pense than the one in question. The piers are
all so massive, the ornaments so exceedingly
simple and commonplace, the whole treatment
so utterlyunlike that of iron, and so completely
what could have been so much better executed
in solid stone, .that the most un-tutored mind
naturally inquires, why, in.a work of such con¬
sequence, go the round-about way of producing
in iron, and then painting to imitate stone, "what





could have been so much better done in the
natural material at once ? Such devices can de¬
ceive nobody, even if the paint be laid on half
an inch thick, for, even to the most unpractised
eye, the plain surface of cast metal, however
well executed^—especially when seen in sunlight
and in a slanting direction—^wiU always present
that metallic, wavy, and rmpleasant appearance
that is never discernible in. the rubbed surface
of stone or other sohd building material.

The only feature we have been able to dis¬
cover in the whole exterior of this building, at
all out of the most ordinary routine, is the fact
that the stone fronts to the upper surface of the
cornice are painted a deep black, -with certain
ornaments and surfaces picked out and chased
in gold; Avhile all the rest of the building is
painted the color of Amherst Ohio stone. This
painting of the first story is a somewhat pleas¬
ing innovation, as far as the attempt goes, al¬
though the deep black, even relieved as it is by
golden lines, is somewhat too dreary and fune¬
real, and seems more suited to the hulk of an
Enghsh merchantman than to the decoration of
a first-class store in one of the most prominent
spots of our gay metropolis. It is, however, a
step in the right direction. But the questions
naturally arise: Why paint only the first floor
with these distinguishing colors ? Since the re¬
maining parts of the structure are.equally of
iron, why paint them to look like stone ?

This question of coloring is one not only ap¬
plicable to this building, but to aL. iron structures
hitherto erected in our city, and is, we think,
deserving of great consideration among our
architects. Since we are bold enough innovat¬
ors to erect buildings -with fronts of iron (a
material which imperatively requires the aid of
paint to preserve it), why not go a step further,
discard all imitations whatsoever of stone, not
only in form but in color, and boldly polychro-
mize our iron structures ? The eye is delighted
-with a judicious diversity of colors in our in¬
teriors, why (siace we must paint) could we not
also have that diversity externally, if done in
subdued and weU-chosen colors under the hand
of a master ? Greece, in her palmiest days, did
not disdain the artistic aid of polychromy, even
to her chaste marble creations, which really
neededno pigments ; why, then, should we refrain
from applying the same to our cast-iron fronts,
of which paint is an indispensable adjunct ? In
a recent issue Ave commended Lord & Taylor's
new iron building as coming nearer than any¬
thing else we had yet seen here, in its richness
of decoration and general treatment, to an honest
expression of the material of which it is buHt.
But that building, even in this respect, is very
far from what the laws of truth and taste re¬
quire, and tlie model iron front for our stores
has yet to be dedgned". ' Lord &-Taylob' s
building, in,'contradiction oif the very featute





which gave it its chief recommendation, has
also been painted aU over in imitation'of .(we
suppose) Cleveland Ohio stOne. Why not, in
this case, have ventured upon the novel display
of varied external colors, keeping all the large
surfaces very subdued, and picking out the
minuter surfaces and ornaments here and there,
Avith brighter and pleasingly blending colors ?
We are confident that an original and beautiful
effect could be thus produced Avithout in the
minutest degree bordering upon the gaudy or
meretricious in art. But, to carry out such an
experiment successfully, the building itself, con-
stinictively, should be so completely icon in. ap¬
pearance as not to have the remotest affinity
Avith stone or wooden construction ; and such a
building, we repeat, does not yet exist among
us. If our architects of taste would only give
themselves to such a study, it is impossible to
say to what an extent iron might yet (Avith the
inexorable demand of commercial buildings for
the largest amount of light and least of solid
obstructions) be found available, even as an ar¬
tistic material, in the fronts of our stores and
other commercial structures. But we may rest
assured that so long as our architects content
themselves with slavishly imitating stone models
out of painted cast-iron plates, the result can
only be ridiculous and offensive ; and that all
such future buildings, if folloAving the prevail¬
ing fashion, -wiU only—^like the ones we have
herein condemned—^prove eyesores and blem¬
ishes instead of ornaments to our city.





THE NEW UNION DEPOT.

The enormous btdlding now being constructed
for a Union Depot of the Hudson, New Haven,
and Harlem Bailroads, is one of those wonders
of mechanical design and ingenuity well worthy
of attention to all those interested in such mat¬
ters. The work is proceeding Avith such extra¬
ordinary speed that, to any one who allows the
interval of only a week to elapse between his
visits, the progress appears almost like the
work of enchantment. Covering a spiace of
ground aU the way from Forty-second to Forty-
fifth street, making a total length of 694 feet
on Fourth Avenue by a Avidth of 240 feet on
Forty-second and Forty-fifth streets, the build¬
ing—even as far as it has gone—already looms
up in gigantic proportions. The front on
Forty-second street is of neatly executed
pressed brickwork, with iron finishings to the
openings ; and although the design is of no very
novel character in its details, it is massive and
commanding in effect, and very appropriately
treated. Over each Aving is posted up, in solid
prominent characters, the name of the railroad
to which each, portion is dedicated; and in the
centre of the building is a large ornamental
niche, no doubt reserved for the effigy of the