Architect Breaks Down 200 Years of NYC Mansions

[gentle music]

Everybody knows about the Gilded Age Mansions

on Fifth Avenue in New York City.

[gentle music]

But what came before them?

And how have New York City mansions evolved

since they fell out of fashion?

I'm Michael Wyetzner,

I've been an architect in New York City for over 35 years,

and today we're going to be doing a walking tour

of 250 years of Manhattan mansions.

[gentle music]

So before European colonizers arrived here in the 1500s,

the Lenape tribe called this island home for 12,000 years,

and they named it Manhattan, which means hilly island.

And that's exactly what it is.

Where we're standing now is called Coogan's Bluff,

one of the highest elevations in Manhattan.

The views here were fantastic

before tall buildings were common,

and they're still pretty great.

And that's why some of the wealthiest early European

settlers chose to build their homes right here,

including some people you might have heard of,

like Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.

Not only rivals but neighbors as it turns out.

[gentle music]

This Belgian block street

we're walking on is Sylvan Terrace.

And these actually are the original wooden townhouses built

in 1882.

As we walk along this street,

we're walking back in time 260 years

to the oldest existing mansion in Manhattan.

[gentle music]

This is the Morris-Jumel Mansion.

This house was built for Roger Morris,

a colonel in the British Army in 1765.

It was built as his country estate,

and it was actually 11 miles north of New York City,

which at the time ended at Wall Street.

Stylistically, it's a Greek revival building,

and one of the most interesting things about it,

is that it appears to be made out of stone,

but it's actually made out of wood.

Some of the elements clearly mimicking stone

are the quoins at the corners, the Doric columns,

the pediment and the waterline.

Quoins are large stones used

to reinforce the corners in masonry buildings,

but these are built out of wood and are purely decorative.

What they were trying to achieve here in wood

was an imitation of the architectural expression

of wealth back in Europe, which would've been made in stone.

And those buildings

were referencing ancient Greek architecture

to project longevity

and transgenerational wealth.

But ironically, those ancient Greek buildings,

which have lasted thousands of years

because they were made of stone,

were actually imitating wood buildings in the first place.

In fact, ancient Greek architecture has been called

a carpentry in marble.

So this is a wood building imitating a stone building,

which were originally imitating wood buildings.

So above the columns on a Greek Temple,

you would typically see what's called a triglyph.

Those are actually imitations of the ends of wood rafters

and joists,

which were used in earlier wooden temples

to support the roof.

So this building is also interesting historically,

it was actually George Washington's headquarters

during the Battle of Harlem Heights

in the Revolutionary War.

Strategically, this was an ideal location,

'cause it's the second highest point in Manhattan,

and you could actually get a view from river to river.

It would be purchased years later

by a French wine merchant named Jumel in 1810.

And soon after his death,

his widow Eliza would marry Aaron Burr right

here in the parlor of this house.

And Aaron Burr coincidentally killed the owner

of the next mansion we're going to look at.

[gentle music]

Behind me is the Grange built

for Alexander Hamilton in 1802.

Sadly, he would only live here for two years

before he was tragically killed in a dual with Aaron Burr.

It was built in the Federalist style by John McComb,

who also designed the lighthouse at Montauk Point,

Gracie Mansion,

where the Mayor of New York still lives while in office

and New York City Hall.

The Federal style is interesting

because it sort of became the unofficial style

of the Early United States.

The Federalist Style is sort of a stripped down version

of the Georgian Style,

which was developed by Robert Adams in England.

Georgian buildings also imitated classical architecture.

The Georgian Style was of course named

for all the kings named George.

And so the fact that the Federalist Style diverges

from that has a nice parallel

to the history of the United States.

This is also a wood building,

but an honest expression of wood, not imitating stone.

And you can also see the form of the townhouse starting

to emerge here with the very rectal linear shape,

the appearance of a flat roof, a deep stairway or stoop,

and even these protruding octagonal bays

that are somewhat hidden under these deep porches,

like you might see on a residential Brooklyn Street.

There are some interesting things going on with the roof

as well, which appears flat,

but it's actually a sort of shallow version

of a mansard roof.

There are four chimneys,

two of which are actually fake placed

there just for symmetry's sake.

This is not its original location.

In fact, it's its third location having moved twice.

Originally, this building was built on a 32 acre estate,

just one mile south of the Morris-Jumel Mansion,

and had to be moved when the city grid of 1811

expanded Northwood and like the Morris-Jumel Mansion,

this was built on a high bluff,

which afforded it these beautiful views

all the way out to Long Island Sound.

[gentle music]

Over my shoulder,

you can see the Bailey Mansion.

This was built for the Bailey half of the famous Barnum

and Bailey Circus, James Bailey.

It has an engraving on the side of the year, 1887,

but it was actually completed a year late in 1888.

It was designed by the architect Samuel B. Reed,

and it's considered Romanesque revival,

but really it's an amalgamation

of a number of different styles.

It has these Romanesque arches, a gothic spire,

a Flemish gable, a French chateau style turret,

a Victorian roof replete with widow's walk,

medieval cations,

and a bay window with a Renaissance style pediment.

And the end result is a magnificent mansion in limestone

that somehow really works,

inside the house is possibly even more impressive.

Remember, this is 1888,

but inside there was steam heat, electric and gas lights.

And unlike the first two homes we saw,

it was built with indoor plumbing.

Louis Comfort Tiffany's cousin,

Joseph Burr Tiffany designed the interiors,

which are incredibly ornate

with extremely intricate woodwork in the screens.

And an inglenook by the fireplace.

It has stained glass windows by Henry Belcher,

who is an inventor that actually held two patents

for different types of glass.

This house was built in the Gilded Age,

but instead of being down on Fifth Avenue,

it was built out here in the suburbs of Manhattan.

When James Bailey moved here,

he thought this would become

the next fashionable neighborhood in Manhattan,

but that never materialized.

And just over a decade later,

he moved north to Mount Vernon in Westchester County,

but the next great neighborhood wasn't further north,

it was actually further south.

So far, we've seen two Manhattan Country estates

and a Gilded Age Mansion on a suburban Manhattan block.

But now let's jump into this 20th century

and the beginnings of a whole new kind

of mansion right in the heart of the city.

[gentle music]

Over my shoulder is what's known simply as the Kramer House.

This was only the second modernist building

ever built on the entire island of Manhattan.

It was designed by William Lescaze in 1935,

and actually the first modernist building in Manhattan

was his own house,

to which this bears a striking resemblance.

So the Kramers had seen his house

and they asked him to build one just like it.

So what is a modernist building?

Well, it doesn't mean new and it doesn't mean contemporary,

it refers to a movement that began in the 1910s,

also known as the International Style.

In architecture, modernism is a rejection

of historical ornament like you would see

in a Greek revival.

At the time the Modernist Movement began,

Beaux-Arts was the prevailing aesthetic,

which you would see in banks, museums, in office buildings.

And the Beaux-Art was very classical,

very ornamented.

Modernism by contrast was about simplified forms

and abstraction.

It prioritized functionality

and hygiene, more light, more air, a rejection

of the dark spaces in slums and tenements.

And one of the giants of modernism was Le Corbusier.

He was a Swiss born French architect, painter and writer.

And he outlined five main points of modernism.

And this house really showcases all five of those points.

The first thing you can see

is that the building is built up on piloti,

which is Le Corbusier term for slender columns.

In this case, the party walls act as those piloti.

And in between those piloti, you can see an example

of the free plan with the curving entrance

where they took the main entrance

and they tucked it back in the site.

The neighbor's houses, as you could see,

have stairs leading up to the entrance.

But here the stairs were put on the inside.

With the free facade,

the windows can be placed wherever they are needed.

And in this case,

you could see he did these big horizontal ribbon windows

above on the building,

which allow a lot of natural light to come in compared

to the buildings to the side,

which have these small punched windows.

And of course, you could see it has a flat roof.

Of course, most townhouses do have a flat roof

with just a tiny slope for rain to run off.

But in this case, it also satisfies the intention

of modernism to create a livable space

on top of the building.

And the other really modernist thing

about this building is its materials.

You could see the steel framed windows, glass block,

curved enamel, metal panels, and stucco.

So before where we looked at these freestanding houses,

now we're looking at a house

that's part of the fabric of the city.

It's part of the Street Wall,

and its shares walls with its neighbors.

While it's rejecting the historicism of the past,

it still embraces the city around it.

It's not a radical departure in terms

of the way people lived,

because wealthy people had been living

in townhouses for years.

But it was a radical departure

in the way wealth was expressed.

It embraced new ideas, new materials, and new technology.

So rather than trying to blend in with old money,

this house chose to stand out.

[gentle music]

Behind me you could see 23 Beekman Place,

designed by Paul Rudolph.

Paul Rudolph was one of the great practitioners

of Brutalist Architecture.

He did the Tracy Towers in the Bronx,

the Endo Laboratories in Garden City on Long Island,

and the Yale Art and Architecture Building.

This building takes standing out to a whole other level.

It was described as one of the most amazing pieces of urban,

modern domestic architecture in the entire country.

According to Michael Sorkin, the great architect

and critic in house

and garden in 1981.

Paul Rudolph himself said it was worth taking risks

to create architecture that provoked strong reactions.

In a way, he was trying to redefine space

by maximizing natural light and openness.

He made this penthouse extension on the roof made

of precast concrete panels, steal and glass,

and he created wonderful outdoor spaces and rooftop gardens.

As part of that, it takes free plan to a whole other level.

There are very few interior walls.

Instead, it's a series of balconies,

one looking over the other.

There are actually 27 different floor levels

in the Penthouse Triplex.

And he also used mirror finishes

and transparent materials

throughout to break down how the space is defined

and further enhance the visual aesthetic of openness

and natural light.

So it makes it harder to discern the limits of the space

where one room begins and the other one ends.

Almost giving it a feeling of endless,

he created this amazing mansion in the sky,

but he actually had renters

on the lower floors of the building.

And this really is a unique

and beautiful expression

of penthouse living in New York City,

which is maybe why Sorkin called

him the best designer of his generation.

[gentle music]

Behind me is the Speyer Mansion at 176 East 72nd Street.

And this was a mansion that was built at the end

of the 20th century.

From what I understand, the site was chosen

because two brownstones became available,

and now they had a double wide lot to build on.

Typically in a row house light is an issue

because you have buildings on either side.

You can only get light in the front or the back.

But in this case, because they have a double wide lot,

there's opportunities for a lot more glass

to bring in a lot more natural light.

But it appears the architects decided

it might be too much light

and added this expansive limestone for privacy.

And actually, what I find most interesting

about this building is its use of materials,

in that it references the modernist movement with this metal

and glass, but also hearkens back

to more classical architecture in its use of limestone.

So the metal and glass facade

is very reminiscent of a Mies van der Rohe design.

But on closer inspection,

you see that it's not a regular grid like Mies favorite,

but in fact, more closely resembles the composition

of a Mondrian painting,

which is fitting because the owners of this home

are actually known art enthusiasts.

And the limestone hearkens back

to both classical architecture

and the city itself.

Along with brick,

limestone was really the traditional building material

of New York.

So by adding this limestone piece,

it gives it a sense of history

and also a sense of warmth that feels more domestic,

but in an elevated way

that lets you know a rich person lives here.

And even though it is this traditional material,

the combination of this punched window in this slot shape

is very referential to let Le Corbusier.

One last note about this building

that I really like is this north facing skylight at the top,

which was typically used

for artist brownstones throughout the city.

And I feel like it's a signal that lets you know

that an art enthusiast lives here.

So at the end of the 20th century,

with the buildings we've just looked at,

you can see an evolution.

So we started out with country houses north of the city,

and then they became more woven into the fabric of the city

and the Street Wall.

These are just a small sample of the homes

of wealthy New Yorkers.

Past and present.

If you'd like to see more New York City mansions,

let us know in the comments below.

[gentle music]