Hampshire House Cooperative (New York City, New York)

 skyscraper, Art Deco (architecture), apartment building

469-foot, 37-story Art-Deco cooperative-apartment completed in 1938. Designed by Caughey & Evans, the Hampshire House is noted for its spectacular, steeply-pitched copper roof with two tall chimneys. The building was started in January, 1931, but abandoned six months later by its developer, the H. K. Ferguson Company of Cleveland, and stood derelict until 1938, after it was finally completed by Caughey & Evans. Initially a residential hotel, it was converted to a co-op in 1949, with 220 apartments.

Clad in white brick above a 3-story rusticated white marble base, Hampshire House has a cascade of setbacks attached to a rectangular tower that rose from the back of the lot. The front facade is seven bays wide, grouped into a middle section of three, and two at each end. At the ground floor, above a black granite water table, there are three square windows in the middle, with planter boxes at their bases. To the right is the main building entrance, with a revolving door and Art-Deco sidelights below a metal canopy with a canvas extension hanging down. A metal service door is tucked into the west end bay. To the left is a matching entrance and canopy, accessing a retail ground space occupied by Exhale Barre-Yoga-Spa, and another square window in the east end bay. A cornerstone dated 1937 marks a "Dedicat[ion] to yesterday's charms and tomorrow's convenience." An Art-Deco aluminum gate fronts the narrow alleyway just to the east of the building.

At the 2nd floor the three center bays have large openings with four narrow panes each, fronted at the bases by aluminum railings that project out, and topped by polished black granite spandrel panels. The four outer bays have windows with a large main pane next to a narrower pane on the outside edge, set in stone surrounds with ribbed panels below and triangular pediments above. Two pairs of projecting flagpoles flank the second-from-end bays. The 3rd floor has paired windows in all seven bays; square panels on the piers between the center bays and between the outer bays are decorated with carved borders enframing capital "H"s inscribed in circles and surrounded by plant life, highlighted by a rosette above the H. A simple band course caps the base.

The brick upper floors have tripartite windows. The end piers and wider piers separating the middle section from the ends are banded. Black metal air-conditioning vents are cut below most of the window bays, as well as on the 3rd floor. The outer bays set back above the 19th floor, which has more-recessed windows, piers with carved cartouches between the bays, and scalloped band courses across the setback, accented by urns at the corners. The center section at the 19th floor has the same windows and carved panels at the piers, and there are projecting, rounded, scallop-shaped balconies at the three middle bays of the 20th floor. Black granite spandrels separate the 20th & 21st floors at the center bays, which have segmental-arched windows at the 21st floor, which has another setback with urns at the corners. At the 22nd-23rd floor the center bay is narrower than the two that flank it, and there is a very shallow setback above the 22nd, with another setback above the 23rd, where it meets the 2nd setback of the outer bays. The terraces created by the setbacks are enclosed by glass railings.

The piers are no longer banded above the lower setbacks, and above the first setback the outer bays have narrower tripartite windows. The middle three bays have a shallow setback above the 25th floor, and double-height, round-arched windows with keystones at the 26th-27th, where the outer bays set back again. Beginning at the 28th floor, the center section has only two bays of wide tripartite windows; a shallow setback above this floor in the middle is accented by a cornice with urns at the corners. The 29th & 30th floors also have shallow setbacks, merging with the next outer-bay setback above the 31st floor. The bays next to the end bays have single-windows instead of tripartite windows on the 28th-31st floors. The 32nd floor has larger picture windows at the two center bays (especially at the west where it projects out as well), and a projecting, glass-enclosed solarium on the west, next to the center section.

At the 33rd floor there is a central bay with paired windows, extending to a segmental-arch at the 34th floors. There are two small single-windows on either side, separated by a banded pier. At the outer bays next to the end bays there are large round-arched windows at the 33rd floor. There is a final setback above the 34th floor, which has wide studio windows at the ends, and two 2-story Spanish-Baroque rounded dormers flanking the center section that extends higher up into the copper mansard roof. There are two small porthole windows at the 36th floor of this section.

The rear, south-facing facade also has seven bays, up to the 14th floor, where a central light well begins. On either side of the light well there is a bay of single-windows, and then two bays of tripartite-windows, the inner of these bays becoming narrower above the 18th floor. There are mostly double-windows at the south-facing wall at the back of the light well. Starting at the 31st floor, there are a variety of different window types in the various bays. Above the 34th floor roof line, the 35th floor has brick cladding extending into the tall mansard, with three single-windows at the east wing, and two tripartite windows and a single-window at the west wing. The central section continues the brick up to the 36th & 37th floors, with a very large, square window at the center of the 36th floor flanked by single-windows, and the 37th floor having a small porthole window flanked by single-windows.

The west elevation primarily has two bays of smaller double-windows at the south end, followed by two bays of tripartite windows, and a bay of small bathroom windows and a bay of small double-windows at the north end. The northern window bays alter and vary at the different setback levels, and there is also variation in the other bays at the 26th floor and the top floors. At the 35th floor, a wide, flat-topped dormer breaks the base of the mansard, with a large tripartite window. The west elevation is similar.

www.150cps.com/
archive.org/details/isbn_9780810944411/page/199/mode/1u...
usmodernist.org/PA/PP-1931-03.pdf