Engineers' Club Building
The Engineers' Club Building is at 32 West 40th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City.[8] The Engineers' Club Building faces the southern border of Bryant Park between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.Other nearby places include the New York Public Library Main Branch across 40th Street to the north, as well as the Lord & Taylor Building to the southeast.[10][11] The Engineers' Club Building had directly replaced two brownstone row houses at 32 and 34 West 40th Street.[25][28] It uses a combination of white marble and red brick..[29][30] The New York Times wrote the building design "strikes even the layman as sumptuous in the extreme.[6] The ground story is designed with rusticated blocks and contains a central entrance flanked by round-arched windows.[28] On 40th Street, the fourth through tenth stories are clad in brick, and the outer edges of the facade have stone quoins.To the east, the Engineers' Club Building adjoins a brick-and-brownstone structure at 28 West 40th Street, containing four stories and an attic.The first basement had a restroom and some storage and staff rooms, while the sub-basement had the building's mechanical plant with heat, light, power, and refrigeration.[6][7] An oil painting of the businessman Andrew Carnegie, who financed part of the building's construction, was hung on the stairway.[51][52] The Engineers' Club moved to its own space on 29th Street the following April; its goal was to "embrace all the States of the Union, as well as Canada and Mexico".[51][53] The New York Times wrote in 1891 that "no end of prominent men have secured admission" to the club,[53][55] which had grown to 650 members by 1896.[51] As a result of its rapid membership growth, the Engineers' Club moved to the Drayton mansion on Fifth Avenue and 35th Street that year.[59] The Engineers' Realty Company bought a pair of dwellings at 32 and 34 West 40th Street from William M. Martin in February 1903.[73] After Carnegie's gift, the ASME, AIME, AIEE, and Engineers' Club formed a Conference Committee to plan the new buildings.[68] Because of Carnegie's international fame and his large gift, the design process was to be "a semi-public matter of more than ordinary importance".[62][75][d] Whitfield & King, a relatively obscure firm that had nonetheless been formally invited,[69] won the commission for the Engineers' Club Building.[24][77] Hale & Rogers and Henry G. Morse, who had not been formally invited, were hired to design the Engineering Societies' Building.[75][76] By September 1904, the Engineers' Club site was being demolished by the F. M. Hausling Company, and Whitfield & King were preparing the plans.[82] During an informal ceremony on December 24, 1905, Louise Carnegie laid the building's cornerstone, which contained a capsule filled with various contemporary artifacts.[91] In its early years, the building held events such as an exhibition of impressionist art,[92] a dinner discussing the City Beautiful movement,[93] and a meeting in which Edison refused the 1911 Nobel Prize for physics as an "award for poor inventors".[24] In 1913, plans were filed for a six-story addition at 23 West 39th Street, above the carriage entrance of the Engineering Societies' Building.[17][98] In 1920, the Engineers' Club purchased a house at 36 West 40th Street in 1920 from the Janeway family,[102][103] intending to use the site as offices.[19][17] Clubhouse activities included a 1924 speech where Charles Algernon Parsons suggested digging a 12-mile shaft for scientific research,[106] as well as a 1925 viewing of a lunar eclipse.[107][108] The Engineers' Club proposed yet again to expand its facilities in 1936, this time erecting a 16-story office building on the adjacent site at 28 West 40th Street.[19] In 1946, the company of the late architect Thomas W. Lamb was hired to design a renovation for the Engineers' Club Building.This prompted the New York state government to accuse Lamb's company of practicing architecture illegally;[111][112] these charges were ultimately dropped.[117] The clubhouse continued to host events in the 1960s and 1970s, such as a speech on donating engineering books to developing countries[118] and a discussion on electric traffic signals.[91] The Engineers' Club finally declared bankruptcy in June 1977,[120] and was forced to liquidate many of its furnishings and decorations over the next year.[91] In 1979, developer David Eshagin bought the Engineers' Club Building, who converted it to residential use under plans by architect Seymour Churgin.
ManhattanCoordinatesU.S. National Register of Historic PlacesNew York State Register of Historic PlacesNew York City LandmarkMidtown ManhattanNew York CityBryant ParkEngineering Societies' BuildingHenry D. WhitfieldBeverly S. KingWhitfield & Kingneo-RenaissancecolonnadeCorinthiancapitalsquoinsloggiacornicemodillionsAndrew Carnegiearchitectural design competitioncooperative apartmentNational Register of Historic PlacesNew York City Landmarks Preservation Commission40th Streetland lotfrontageSixth AvenuesThe Bryant452 Fifth AvenueAmerican Radiator BuildingBryant Park StudiosNew York Public Library Main BranchLord & Taylor Buildingrow housesEnglish basementNikola Teslalight courtsfacaderusticatedconsole bracketsentablatureIEEE Edison MedalpilastersAIA Guide to New York CityfriezedentilskeystonedumbwaiternewelsbanisterskylightJohn Fritzen suiteCurbed New YorkVersaillesduplexAmerican Society of Civil Engineers23rd StreetFifth AvenueTheater Districtpar valuematurityAmerican Society of Mechanical EngineersAmerican Institute of Mining EngineersAmerican Institute of Electrical EngineersWilliam Robert WareLouiseHenry G. MorseNew York City Department of BuildingscornerstoneMark TwainThomas EdisonHenry Clay FrickHerbert HooverCharles LindberghCornelius VanderbiltCity Beautiful movementNobel Prize for physicsload-bearing wallCharles Algernon ParsonsThomas W. LambPittsburghhousing cooperativeNational Register of Historic Places listings in Manhattan from 14th to 59th StreetsList of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan from 14th to 59th Streets220 West 57th StreetCarrère and HastingsClinton and RussellLord and HewlettPalmer & HornbostelNational Park ServiceNew York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic PreservationNew York City Department of City PlanningWhite, NorvalProQuestcolumbia.edupublic domainMidtown (30th–42nd Sts)Midtown SouthOne Penn Plaza5 Times Sq11 Times Sq15 Penn Plaza130 W 30th St350 5th Av452 5th Av (HSBC Tower)1065 6th Av1095 6th AvBush TowerCandler BuildingThe Continental NYCEmpire State BuildingThe EpicGreenwich Savings Bank BuildingJames A. Farley BuildingMacy's Herald SquareManhattan MallMarbridge BuildingMillion Dollar CornerMusic BldgNelson TowerNew York Times BldgPennsylvania PlazaSprings Mills Building