SUNY College of Optometry

 university, interesting place

262-foot, 17-story Neo-Classical office/education building completed in 1912. Designed by Warren & Wetmore, it is clad in limestone with a 3-story base on both the north and south facades, with differing designs. In the 1890s Aeolian introduced automatic pianos, which proved extremely successful, and in 1912 the company had the architects Warren & Wetmore design the Aeolian Hall, with an 1,100-seat auditorium, a sales floor and other rooms on the 3rd floor of the building.

The south facade on 42nd Street has a wide and deeply-recessed central entrance, covered by a broad metal canopy extending out over the sidewalk. To the right is a small plate-glass storefront, and to the left the stone wall has a seal of the State University of New York. The 2nd-3rd floors have broad bands of windows in the middle (nine total panes, with the center pane being wider; those on the 2nd floor have transoms), and double-windows in the end bays, topped by metal louvers on both floors. The base is capped by a stone cornice above a band course with a fluted pattern interrupted by small squares with elaborate carvings at the piers.

The upper floors, five bays across, have double-windows. The middle three bays on at the 4th floor have stone surrounds, and thus slightly smaller panes, with transoms; they are topped by bracketed cornices serving as sills for the 5th floor windows, each above a stone wreath flanked by garlands. The four middle piers at the 4th floor are adorned with large carved ornament including torches above angel heads and garlands flanked by acanthus leaves. The spandrels between the floors in each bay are brown marble edges in iron. The piers run uninterrupted to the the 12th floor, which is topped by a small dentiled cornice. The 13th-15th floors have round Corinthian columns separating the recessed bays, and stylized metal spandrels. A modillioned cornice sets off the top floors, with simple, short double-windows on the 16th floor, and larger triple-windows at the 17th floor, where the flat piers widen slightly at the tops, just below a roof cornice with finials extending above the piers. Part of the west facade is exposed by the set-back curve of the adjoining W.R. Grace Building. The lower part is plain, beige, stuccoed brick with no openings; the upper half, above the 8th floor, has single-windows - beginning with four bays at the lower part and increasing the five as the W.R. Grace Building's facade continues to curve back.

The ground floor on the north facade on 43rd Street has entrances in the three slightly-recessed middle bays: a revolving door on the right, sliding glass door in the middle, and a black metal service entrance on the left. The eastern bay has another SUNY seal on the wall, and the west bay has a small, recessed metal service door. Another metal canopy covers the three middle bays, and four flagpoles project from around the end bays. At the 2nd floor, the middle bays are wider, with tripartite windows and transoms. The end bays are filled with metal louvers, and the facade is bracketed by wide, paneled piers at the ends. A projecting, modillioned cornice runs below the 3rd floor, which has recessed paired windows in the three middle bays and single-windows in the end bays, with paneled piers between each. A smaller stone cornice runs below the 4th floor, where the brick cladding begins.

The middle bays of the 4th floor have wider brick pilasters between the paired windows, with cornices above each group; there are no openings in the end bays. Beginning at the 5th floor, the three middle bays have paired windows divided by grey metal pilasters, with paneled grey metal spandrels between floors in each bay. The end bays have recessed single-windows; those on the 5th floor are fronted by projecting, balustraded stone balconies on pairs of brackets that frame panels with circles flanked by foliate carving. A cornice tops the 14th floor, above which the end bays have projecting stone surrounds. Another cornice tops the 17th floor.

George Gershwin introduced Rhapsody in Blue in Aeolian Hall with Paul Whiteman's Orchestra in 1924. The same year, Aeolian sold the building to the Schulte Cigar Stores Company, and hired Warren & Wetmore to design a new headquarters at 689 Fifth Avenue, which was completed in 1927. The concert hall closed in May 1926, with a performance by violinist Leon Goldman. From 1961 to 1999, the building housed the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and is now home to the State University of New York College of Optometry.

www.nytimes.com/2003/03/23/realestate/streetscapes-aeol...
www.beyondthegildedage.com/2013/02/aeolian-hall.html?m=...
archive.org/details/gri_33125005937038/page/531/mode/1u...
hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015007001301?urlappend=%3Bseq...