La Maison Française (New York City, New York)

 office building, Art Deco (architecture), 1933_construction

7-story Art-Deco office building completed in 1933. Designed by The Associated Architects, it is a twin of The British Empire Building to the north, separated from each other by the Channel Gardens. The facade is clad in limestone, rising five floors before narrowing with lateral setbacks. A garden occupies the eastern half of the 6th-floor roof. At the west, the building rises one and a half additional floors.

On all four faces of La Maison Francaise (The French House in English) the ground floor is devoted to storefronts and display windows. A slightly cusped ground-floor cornice (with an incised bead-and-reel molding) separates the retail spaces from offices on the 2nd-7th floors. The walls of the upper floors are articulated with flat limestone piers of uniform width which terminate in a faceted ribbon molding. The same molding appears along the building's lateral setbacks and at the roof line, creating a slightly ridged profile against the sky. Over each window is a limestone spandrel whose vertical ridges relate the low-rise building to the taller towers of the complex.

The Fifth Avenue facade is symmetrically arranged around a double-height portal, crowned by a limestone cartouche. As in the British Building, the triple doors and decorative jambs of the main entrance are recessed behind a broad limestone enframement that projects in four shallow steps. The building's granite base is higher in the northeast corner where the cornerstone is inscribed "LA MAISON//FRANCAISE//MCMXXXIII". On either side of the main entrance is a bronze-framed storefront. Above the 6th floor are four limestone bas-reliefs, and the facade has three projecting flagpoles - two at the 3rd floor, and the center one at the 5th.

The northern and southern facades are nearly identical, with four broad ground-level retail bays on either side of a narrower building entrance, deep set under a decorative lintel and sculptural relief by Lee Lawrie. The entrances themselves consist of a central revolving door and two single doors set within decorative jambs, with a metal grille above.

The rear (sunken plaza) facade rises sheer from the pavement, but narrow with lateral setbacks above the 5th and 7th floors. Divided into three ground-level bays, it has no entrance but rather, two large display windows at center and left, and a smaller display window at right. The reduced size of the latter results from the staircase that leads up to 49th Street. Each of the facade's four piers holds a bronze light hood.

Above the main entrance is Alfred Janniot's 10-ton gilded bronze relief panel. It depicts France and New York joining hands across the sea. Janniot also designed the polychrome cartouche above the panel. Nearly 10 feet high, it features yellow robed "La France". She is a modern Statue of Liberty holding high the torch of freedom. Amid swirling grey-and-green drapery, shoe holds with her powerful right hand what appears to be a red maple branch with gilded acorns. She is flanked on either side by other gilded plants. Affixed below in gilded bronze letters is the motto of the French Republic: Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite.

As in the British Building, the 6th-floor sculptural reliefs were dedicated to historical themes. Installed in 1934, they are one of Rene Chambellan's many works at Rockefeller Center. Reading from left to right, they depict the rise of Charlemagne's Empire. Early influences on France are represented by the Roman insignia, the Celtic bard's harp and Gallic cock. The 2nd spandrel symbolizes the nation's formative period. Clustered spears in the fleur de lys banner of New France signify unity. A chalice denotes the spirit of chivalry and self-sacrifice; a halo, the spiritual state of mind. The 3rd spandrel shows Absolute Monarchy under Louis XIV with a crowned sceptre, two fleur-de-lys shields and a banner inscribed with the Sun King's motto "L'etat c'est moi". In the final spandrel the French Republic is represented by the letters "R.F." on either side of a Phrygian cap atop bundled fasces (for unity) and the laurel crown (success and reward).

The ground floor is occupied by, Michael Kors, Anne Fontaine boutique, Tous jewelry, L'Occitane cosmetics, Longchamp boutique, and Rico Stefano America boutique. The building's lobby also contains a model airplane created by Cartier which signifies the transatlantic flight that Dieudonné Costes and Maurice Bellonte made from France to New York in 1930.