{"id":2889,"date":"2021-02-24T21:30:57","date_gmt":"2021-02-25T01:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mindfulwalker.com\/?p=2889"},"modified":"2021-02-26T13:21:14","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T17:21:14","slug":"at-risk-the-mcgraw-hill-buildings-lobby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mindfulwalker.com\/wordpress\/mindful-activist\/at-risk-the-mcgraw-hill-buildings-lobby","title":{"rendered":"At Risk: The McGraw-Hill Building\u2019s Lobby"},"content":{"rendered":"

A gleaming Streamline Moderne lobby of New York City\u2019s original McGraw-Hill Building is under threat of a renovation that could obliterate its historic character. Architect Raymond Hood, who designed some of the very finest, awe-inspiring Art Deco skyscrapers of the era, created the lobby as a perfect entrance statement that fit with the McGraw-Hill\u2019s bold, blue-green exterior.<\/p>\n

The exterior of the 1931 building at 330 West 42nd Street is a designated New York City landmark. However, the interior is not protected. Now the Art Deco Society of New York, preservationists, and city residents who cherish this one-of-a-kind lobby are advocating for its preservation. One has filed a request for evaluation of the building lobby to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), urging the commission to designate the interior lobby as a landmark. This would prevent the building\u2019s owners from gutting or irreparably altering it as part of a current renovation. The building will remain a combination commercial office and retail space. The Art Deco Society of New York<\/a> has also spearheaded an online petition drive<\/a> calling upon the LPC to legally protect the lobby, which the Society terms \u201can architectural masterpiece,\u201d before it is lost forever.<\/p>\n

The McGraw-Hill publishing company broke ground for a new headquarters in 1930, completing it in 1931 at the height of the Great Depression. It was a time of audacious design and construction in New York, and the 35-story skyscraper that Hood designed for McGraw-Hill was one of the boldest and best of the lot. It evoked strong responses as many embraced it while others saw it as over-the-top. The exterior features horizontal bands of more than 4,000 metal-framed, double-hung windows. This horizontal window arrangement alternates with bands of glazed blue-green terra-cotta brick. Hood opted to crown the top with the company name, McGraw-Hill, in distinctive, boxy letters, 11 feet high, specially crafted of handmade hollow terra-cotta bricks.<\/p>\n

The lobby is a seamless continuation of the vibrant exterior entranceway on West 42nd Street: It has wide bands of blue and green, separated by gold and silver metal tubes. The main and elevator corridors are finished off with striking green enameled-steel walls.<\/p>\n

Singular Genius<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

When he reflected on his work, Hood kept a focus on his attunement to his client\u2019s needs and to utility. Ultimately, however, he was also an unmistakable artistic genius whose impact was unparalleled. As Paul Goldberger wrote in a 1984 article in the New York Times<\/em>, \u201cIf there is any architect whose career proved that idealism need not be at the expense of pragmatism, it was Raymond Hood, perhaps the 20th century\u2019s greatest molder of skyscraper form.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"McGraw-Hill<\/a>