Hotel Edison (New York City, New York)

 hotel, high-rise, Art Deco (architecture), 1931_construction

249-foot, 25-story Art-Deco hotel completed in 1931. Designed by Herbert J. Krapp with elements by the Federal Seaboard Terra Cotta Co., it is named for famed inventor Thomas Alva Edison, who was actually on hand to turn on the lights at the hotel's grand opening. The main bulk of the building is on 47th Street, but there are two narrow 3-story wings extending down to 46th Street.

The building is clad in white brick above a limestone ground floor with a grey granite water table. The main entrance is to the east of center, with doors framed in stainless-steel, and covered by a black-and-gold metal canopy with the hotel's name on all three sides. To the east are five bays, one with a door to Friedman's restaurant. To the west are four bays, three with plate-glass windows and one with wooden doors to The Rum House bar. Further to the west is the entrance to the Edison Ballroom, with its own black-and-gold marquee, this one lined with lights and stepped up in the middle of each side. The ballroom was used as the Arena Theatre in 1950 and as the Edison Theatre from 1972 until 1991, when it was converted back into a ballroom. The doors are flanked by two poster boxes and a bay of narrow windows on each side. At the far west end are five more window bays (the last one narrow), and a service entrance in the end bay, topped by a brass Art-Deco panel. The bays to the east of the ballroom entrance are also topped by similar panels. The entire ground floor is capped by a band course with a sawtooth pattern.

The upper floors are symmetrical, with brick piers running uninterrupted to the setbacks at the top floors. The end bays have paired windows; moving toward the middle, there is a bay of double-windows, four bays of single-windows, another bay of double-windows, four bays of single-windows, another bay of double-windows, and eight bays of single-windows in the center. The spandrels between floors within each bay have angular, geometric patterns in colored tiles at the tops and bottoms. Four projecting flagpoles are mounted at the base of the 4th floor on four of the main piers, and there is a vertical sign (with five brown metal square spelling out "H-O-T-E-L", topped by a square with the word "EDISON") attached to the east end of the facade from the 5th-7th floors.

The end bays have shallow setbacks above the 12th floor, as does most of the center section, with another above the 13th floor. The two remaining sections set back above the 14th floor. Above the facade is split into three main sections (middle, east, and west), with a setback above a 18th floor in the middle and above the 15th floor at the ends, with a small intermediate setback joining the sections at the 16th floor. At the next level, the intermediate section is eliminated with setbacks above the 19th floor in the middle, and above the 17th floor at the ends. The last setbacks before the main roof line occur at the extreme end bays, above the 19th floor. At all of the setbacks, the piers have caps extending just past the setback, and some of the piers have Art-Deco ornament at the tops.

The middle section of eight single-windows and the flanking double-window bays extend up above the main roof line for another floor, the 22nd, topped by a 3-story penthouse with three bays of paired, vertical window bands.

The west elevation is also clad in white brick, with five bays of single-windows, the northern one dropping off as it meets the setbacks. The upper floors of the east elevation are also brick, with four bays of single-windows. On the south-facing facade, light wells break the form into four wings, narrower at the two end wings. The west wing extends farther south than the others, without setbacks; it has two bays of double-windows. The three other wings have tiered setbacks every three floors; the two middle wings have four bays of single-windows flanked by double-windows, and the east wing has just the four bays of single-windows. There are also windows on the inner-facing walls of the light wells.

On 46th Street, the eastern of the two small 3-story wings has a secondary entrance to the hotel and a storefront occupied by BOND 45 restaurant. The upper floors, with two wide bays of double-height, multi-paned windows flanking two narrower bays, are clad in red brick, topped by a grey metal roof cornice with brackets and dentils. The western wing is clad in white brick with a service entrance and a storefront on the ground floor, occupied by Patzeria Perfect Pizza Pasta & Grill. The upper floors have bands of windows, and the facade is capped by a simple metal coping. The hotel contains 790 guest rooms.

www.edisonhotelnyc.com
usmodernist.org/PA/PP-1931-06.pdf