Carnegie Hall (New York City, New York)

 theatre, NRHP - National Register of Historic Places, interesting place, concert hall, historical building, 1891_construction, Renaissance Revival (architecture), music venue

201-foot, 16-story French- and Italian-Renaissance concert hall completed in 1891. Designed by William B. Tuthill, it was commissioned by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, and is one of the most famous concert venues in the world. A later addition was designed by Henry J. Hardenbergh. Carnegie Hall has its own artistic programming, development, and marketing departments, and presents about 250 performances each season. It is also rented out to performing groups. It has no resident company, though the New York Philharmonic officially resided at Carnegie Hall until 1962, when they moved to Lincoln Center's Philharmonic Hall (renamed Avery Fisher Hall in 1973 and David Geffen Hall in 2015).

Carnegie Hall contains three distinct, separate performance spaces. The Isaac Stern Auditorium seats 2,804 on five levels and was named after violinist Isaac Stern in 1997 to recognize his efforts to save the hall from demolition in the 1960s. The hall is enormously high, and visitors to the top balcony must climb 137 steps. Zankel Hall, which seats 599, is named after Judy and Arthur Zankel. Originally called simply Recital Hall, this was the first auditorium to open to the public in April 1891. Following renovations made in 1896, it was renamed Carnegie Lyceum. The smallest of the three spaces is Weill Recital Hall, which seats 268 and is named after Sanford I. Weill, a former chairman of the board, and his wife Joan. This auditorium, in use since the hall opened in 1891, was originally called Chamber Music Hall (later Carnegie Chamber Music Hall); the name was changed to Carnegie Recital Hall in the late 1940s, and finally became Joan and Sanford I. Weill Recital Hall in 1986. The building also contains the Carnegie Hall Archives, established in 1986, and the Rose Museum, which opened in 1991.

Carnegie Hall is one of the last large buildings in New York built entirely of masonry, without a steel frame; however, when several flights of studio spaces were added to the building near the turn of the 20th century, a steel framework was erected around segments of the building. The interior structure of the vault in the main performance hall was built with structural elements by the Guastavino Fireproof Tile Co. The exterior is rendered in narrow Roman bricks of a mellow ochre hue, with details in terracotta and brownstone.

The main entrances are on 57th Street, where the facade is almost symmetrical. The five center bays have glass double-doors with sidelights and transoms at the ground floor, recessed between wide, squat piers of brick on large granite plinths. Paired stone pilasters front the piers, with light-colored Corinthian capitals supporting a stone cornice of the same material across the top of the five bays. Lower than the cornice, but above the doors, are individual suspended metal-and-glass marquees. The section to the east of the entrances is slightly wider than that to the west, both clad in brick. The east section has two bays of smaller entrances with glass double-doors and transoms, separated by wide piers with granite plinths, and smaller paired pilasters with Corinthian capitals. Both bays are topped by round-arches with colored, leaded-glass fanlights; rope moldings line the arches with keystones at the apexes. Delicate foliate carvings fills the architraves around the arches. Flanking these bays are bronze poster boxes with broken pediments; above the western one is a stone niche topped by a small round-arch. A warm-colored stone cornice extends from the center bays over these two bays. To the west of the main entrances is a larger, double poster box below a stone-framed vent, and a freight entrance with wooden double-doors and three leaded-glass transoms, flanked by low, fat pillars with granite plinths, carved panels, and stylized capitals carrying a dentiled cornice. This is surmounted by a wide round-arch with a keystone, encircling a small oculus window. There is also intricate foliate carving present here, and a cornice matching that on the east end. The 2nd floor has five round-arches above the main entrances, each in warm-colored stone, with leaded-glass infill. Roundels adorn the spaces above and outside the arches, and the support cables for the marquees extend from the middle roundels. Each of these arches has a keystone, and a large, projecting modillioned cornice caps the middle section, with a balustraded balcony above, from which project three flagpoles. The 2nd level at the east and west end sections consists of simple tripartite stone panel outlines in the brick, and smaller cornices cap these sections.

The 3rd & 4th floors have five bays of paired windows in the center; the two windows in each bay are divided by slender Corinthian columns at the 3rd floor, and paneled Corinthian pilasters at the 4th floor. The large piers each have ornate capitals, those at the end extending as carved band courses above the east and west sections at the 4th floor. The east section has three round-arched openings at the 3rd floor, the middle one filled by brick, and windows in the other two; a wide brick panel with stone outline at the 4th floor tops the three openings below. The west section is similar, but has only two round-arched openings, both with windows. At the 5th floor, the middle bays have round-arches that match those on the 2nd floor, while the end sections have paired, intricately-carved paneled pilasters with Corinthian capitals, four at the east and three at the west. A smaller band course sets off the 6th floor, which has recessed, paired, round-arched windows in the middle bays, and winged cartouches above the piers. The east end section has four narrow round-arched windows, and the west section has three similar openings, but with brick infill in the middle one. A projecting, modillioned stone cornice crowns the 6th floor, with ornate friezes below it at the east and west sections.

A tower rises above the east section, while the rest of the north facade at the 7th floor consists of a bay of paired, large round-arched windows next to it, followed by three bays each with three such windows. Between the east three of these bays are smaller, recessed windows with elaborate stone surrounds. Each bay is also flanked by thin, paneled pilasters with stylized capitals, and a dentiled cornice caps the lower section of the facade. On top there is a roof deck, surrounded by the higher floors at the east and south. The tower section at the east end rises to the 11th floor; each has a centered bay of four narrow window panes fronted by shallow balconettes. One either side is a small single-window. A projecting band course sets off the 11th floor, which is heavily adorned with carved pilasters and window surrounds, and crowned by a projecting modillioned cornice.

The west facade along the avenue follows many of the design features established on the north facade, but with blind window instead of actual openings, except for at the south end, until the 7th floor. The ground floor has an entrance at the north end with paneled wood doors under a round-arch and small oculus window. To the south are three slighly-wider such entrances flanked by poster boxes. Following a long row of poster boxes, there is a group of secondary entrances near the south end. It has two bays each with three glass doors below metal marquees like those on the north facade. Above each is a pair of round-arches at the 2nd floor, topped by carved stone panels both featuring a trio of large roundels at the 2nd floor. A flagpole projects from between the two windows at both of these bays. At the far south end is the administrative offices entrance, with glass double-doors flanked by paneled stone pillars with ornate carvings, supporting a stone round-arch with a central shield surrounded by intricate foliate carving. A pair of poster boxes flanks this bay. At the 2nd floor here there is an oculus window with an elaborate stone surround.

The 3rd-6th floors at the south bay have very narrow paired windows; they are actually French doors at the 4th floor, fronted by a metal balcony with stairs ascending up to the left and continuing across the 5th floor as a metal balcony, with metal railings, supported by metal brackets. The 7th floor is like that on the north facade, with large round-arched windows (four bays of three windows in the middle, and two bays of paired windows at the ends), with an extra bay at the south having a large window flanked by paired columns and topped by a stone round-arch. The cornice here projects out farther, and above is the south tower section, framing the roof deck to its north. The tower section has three round-arched windows on the 8th-10th floors, flanked by stone columns, and with ornately carved stone spandrels between floors, featuring a large roundel above each window. The 11th floor has five smaller round-arched windows, and is crowned by a projecting modillioned cornice on all three sides.

The south facade on 56th Street is organized into three main sections. The west section has four poster boxes at the ground floor; at the 2nd there are three round-arches with windows in the outer two (the middle one has brick infill), joined by a unified sill with four brackets, and common architraves above the arches with intricate carvings. Pilasters with carved panels and stylized capitals flank the arches. A small dentiled stone cornice caps the group of arches, and is topped by a round stone frame with foliate carvings for an oculus window like that just around the corner on the south end of the west facade, but this one has brick infill instead of a window. The modillioned cornice from the west facade also carries around onto the elevation, capping the 2nd floor. The lower, non-modillioned part of the cornice continues across the wider middle section of the facade as well. The 3rd-6th floors as the west section have small, paired windows, and the boldly projecting cornice continues from the west facade above the 6th floor. All of the upper floors also match the west face of the tower at the southwest corner.

The ground floor at the middle section's has a set of stage doors at the west, with four paneled wooden doors below leaded-glass transoms and a splayed brick lintel. To the right are two large round-arched windows (with poster boxes flanking them), and then slightly narrower, paired round-arched windows. A dentiled cornice caps the ground floor at this section, continuing onto the east section as well. There are four bays of paired windows at the 2nd-5th floors of the middle section, round-arched at the 5th floor. Stone band courses of cornices underline the 3rd and 5th floors, and there are brick surrounds around the windows of the 5th floor. The rest of the upper floors have triple-windows, except for the top floors, which has double-windows. There are paneled stone spandrels between the 6th & 7th floors, and wide arches encompassing the triple-windows at the 9th floor.

The east end section of the south facade has another small entrance with glass double-doors below a transom and fanlight in a round-arch. At the far east end is a pair of windows above a stone-outlined panel. The 2nd floor is set somewhat lower than the rest of the facade, with two shorter windows, and there are paneled spandrels between the windows of the 3rd & 4th floors, the latter having round-arched windows, as well as the 5th floor. The 6th-9th floors match the bays of the middle section, and the top floors mirror those on the tower at the west end.

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