Tag Archives: Henry Dreyfuss

Vanished New York City Art Deco: The Trylon and Perisphere – Part One Construction

April 30th marks the 80th anniversary of the opening of the New York World’s Fair. Driving for Deco could not let that milestone pass without a post about it. Of course the entire fair fits the category of “vanished New York City Art Deco”. But this two-part post will look at the fair’s “theme center”, the Trylon and Perisphere.

The news of a proposed New York World’s Fair hit the newspapers on September 23, 1935. The recent success of The Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago made planners in New York feel that a fair in the city would reap huge economic benefits. After a short search, the site chosen for the fair was a large ash dump in Queens near Flushing Bay. Reclaiming the over 1,000 acres and the construction of the fair took less than four years.

Mark Washington Inaugural

According to the committee’s plans, the fair would be opened on April 30, 1939, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the inauguration of George Washington as the first President of the United States in New York City on April 30, 1789. The entire exposition, which has yet to be named, would celebrate not only that single event but the establishment in that same year of the government of the United States.

New York Herald-Tribune, September 23, 1935, Pg. 1

James Earle Fraser’s enormous statue of George Washington on Constitution Mall at the 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair. Photograph by William A. Dobak from the collection of The Museum of the City of New York.

The large statue of the Washington near the center of the fair grounds would try to remind visitors of the initial reason for the exposition. But the committee’s vision of the fair changed considerably before the opening day. Instead of looking back, the theme of the fair looked forward.

October 9, 1936 New York Times Headline. Image from Proquest Historical Newspapers.

At an October 8, 1936 press conference, the board of directors of the New York World’s Fair of 1939 formally announced their plans. The New York Times reported the next day:

The exhibits and amusements covering an area of 1,216 1/2 acres, keyed to the theme of “Building the World of Tomorrow,” are being planned with a view to a total investment of $125,000,000, and are expected to attract 50,000,000 visitors in a year’s time, with a daily maximum capacity of 800,000.

New York Times, October 9, 1936, Pg. 1

At the same conference, President of the Fair, Grover Whalen told the press “The theme, is the creation of a better world and fuller life – the advancement of human welfare. This would be on display in the ‘theme building’. At 250 feet the theme building would tower over the rest of the fair, whose buildings would not be much higher than two stories. Inside the “Theme Building” a panorama visualizing the “theme” shows how tools of today’s civilization have been developed in the 150 years since the inauguration of George Washington.”

Sketch of the proposed “Theme Building” of the New York World’s Fair. Showing one of the 250 foot tall towers. Image from MCNY.org

Five months after announcing theme “the world of tomorrow”, the “theme building” underwent a radical redesign. Instead of a traditional building in a modern style, the design became futuristic and abstract.

March 16, 1937 headline from the New York Herald-Tribune, Pg. 23A. Image from Proquest Historical Newspapers

A sphere and an obelisk of fantastic proportions will compose the dominant architectural theme of the New York World’s Fair of 1939. The sphere will house the “theme exhibit” – a portrayal of “the basic structure of the world of tomorrow” – and will appear to be suspended above a circular pool. Actually the huge white globe will be supported by eight steel columns encased in glass and hidden from sight by clusters of fountains.

The sphere will be 200 feet in diameter, or about equal to an eighteen-story building. Its interior will be a single vast auditorium, more than twice the size of Radio City Music Hall. A single entrance fifty feet above the pool will be reached by glass enclosed escalators.

A bridge will link the sphere to the obelisk. The obelisk will rise 700 feet. From the connecting bridge, a wide ramp 900 feet long, will slope to the ground in a three-quarter circle around the pool. The highest vantage point on the exposition grounds will be the bridge and the top of the ramp.

Upon entering the sphere, visitors will descend a short ramp and emerge on a moving platform which will rim the circular exhibition space. An amplified voice, accompanied by soft music, will describe the floor exhibits and the planets and constellations which probably will decorate the dome.

The moving platform will be suspended far above the exhibition floor and hung twelve feet from the wall, so that a view may be had from the railing on either side. Moving at the rate of thirty feet a minute, it will take fifteen minutes to carry a visitor from the entrance to the adjacent exit.

Mr. Whalen said that the architectural motif of the “theme center” was so new that technicians had to coin several new words to describe the structures. The obelisk, he said, will be known as a “trylon” – a combination of “tri”, referring to its three sides, and “pylon.” Indicating its use as a monumental gateway to the theme building, which he called a “perisphere.”

Plans for the two structures were prepared by the architectural firm of Harrison & Fouilhoux. The structures will be built at an estimated cost of $1,200.000.

The sphere will be floodlighted at night. Batteries of projectors mounted on distant buildings will spot the globe in color, while other projectors will superimpose moving patterns of light which may take the form of clouds, geometric patterns or moving panoramas. This will create the optical illusion that the sphere itself is slowly rotating.

The obelisk will not be illuminated. “Its sloping sides will fade into the night,” according to the plans, “giving the effect of a tower reaching to infinity.”

New York Herald-Tribune, March 16, 1937, Pg. 23A

Patent drawing of the Trylon and Perisphere.

Harrison and Fouilhoux 1937 patent drawing for the Trylon and Perisphere. Image from thepatentroom.com.

Model of the proposed “Theme Center”, 1937. Image from NYPL Digital Collections.

Construction

1936 – 1937

The formal dedication of the fair occurred on June 3, 1936. At the Flushing site, Grover Whalen led the directors over a 90 foot ash mound and discarded tires to a tower erected for the ceremony. With a vantage of 150 feet above the dump, Whalen broke a bottle of 1923 champagne, christening the fair. Shortly thereafter the herculean task of grading the site began. Accompanied by the 65 piece Department of Sanitation Band, Grover Whalen, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and Park Commissioner Robert Moses broke ground on June 29th.

Grover Whalen breaks ground for the World's Fair.

New York City Mayor, Fiorello LaGuardia watches with amusement while Grover Whalen breaks ground for the 1939 New York World’ Fair, June 29, 1936. Image from

With the groundbreaking at the Corona Ash Dump, grading the site began. Full grading of the future park took about a year. The driving of wooden piles into the marshy land, to support the future fair building, began in 1937. With less than two years to go construction crews worked in three shifts around the clock.

Surveying the fair site in 1938, showing the piles driven into the marshland. Image from mcny.org.

With the pilings in place, construction of the fair buildings began in earnest during 1938. Soon the Trylon and Perisphere would rise and dominate the skyline of the borough of Queens.

Site of the future and futuristic “Theme Center”, May 28, 1937. Image from NYPL Digital Collections.

1938 – 1939

During the winter of 1938 construction begins on the “Theme Center”. There is less than 14 months until the opening day of the fair.

March 21, 1938. The first steel is laid for the Perisphere. Image from NYPL Digital Collections.

March 22, 1938, the Trylon starts rising.

March 22, 1938. The Trylon is already rising from its base as work begins on the Perisphere. Image from NYPL Digital Collections.

: The drum girder. This is the base that the Perisphere will rest on.

: The drum girder in place, soon the frame work for the cranes to construct the Perisphere will be built on it. Image fron NYPL Digital Collections.

: April 21, 1938. Little more than one year until opening day. The frame for the cranes to construct the Perisphere is in place. And the Trylon grows higher. Image from the NYPL Digital Collections.

: The Perisphere starts to take shape in the early spring of 1938. Richard Wurts photograph from MCNY.org

By late spring 1938, the Perisphere’s outer steel work neared two-thirds completion. And already finsihed was the frame-work for the bridge connecting it to the Trylon. Inside that bridge the world’s longest (at the time) escalator would carry visitors up inside the Perisphere.

June 13, 1938. Image from NYPL Digital Collections.

By July the construction of the Trylon topped off. World’s Fair publicity listed the Trylon’s height at 700 feet. The actual height came to 610 feet, even so it became the tallest structure on Long Island. The Perisphere also had the same size embellishing, claiming a diameter of 200 feet. Its size at 180 feet or eighteen stories was still impressive. As the Perisphere’s framework neared completion, the construction workers playfully dubbed it “the big apple”, due to the red rust proofing paint use on the steel.

: Looking up the frame work of the Trylon, summer, 1938. Wurts Bros. photo from the collection of mcny.org

: Summer, 1938 showing the topped off Trylon. Wurts Bros. photo from mcny.org

: The steel framework of the Perisphere nears completion, summer, 1938. Richard Wurts photo from mcny.org.

: Richard Wurts photo looking down from the top of the Trylon on the nearly complete framework of the Perisphere. Construction of the Helicline is underway. Summer of 1938. Image from mcny.org

By August and the “Theme Center’s” steel work complete, it was time to dedicate the Trylon and Perisphere. Grover Whalen and Mayor LaGuardia hosted the ceremony with Ferde Grofé and his orchestra providing the music. After the first musical number, Mayor LaGuardia drove the last rivet into the Perisphere.

Dedication day of the Trylon and Perisphere.

Friday August 12, 1938, grounds set up for the dedication of the Trylon and Perisphere. Image from NYPL Digital Collections.

Now the time had come to encase the Trylon and Perisphere in scaffolding and to cover them in plywood and gypsum . The entire structure then received coatings of pure white paint. The only pure white buildings at the World’s Fair were the Trylon and Perisphere.

Scaffolding covering the "Theme Center", September, 1938.

Scaffolding starts to cover the “Theme Center”, September 23, 1938. Image from NYPL Digital Collections.

Autumn, 1938 and scaffolding almost completely encases the Trylon and Perisphere. Wurts Bros. photograph from mcny.org.

Workmen applying the outer covering to the Trylon.

Workmen nailing the plywood covering of the Trylon. Winter, 1939. Image from NYPL Digital Collections.

: The gypsum covered top of the Perisphere in the winter of 1939. Image from NYPL Digital Collections.

: Early winter of 1939 and the Trylon and Perisphere is still shrouded in scaffolding. Image from NYPL Digital Collections.

Industrial designer, Henry Dreyfuss, won the commission for creating the “Theme Center” exhibit. Entitled Democracity it provided visitors a look at a utopian city in the year 2039. While on the inside of the dome visions of workers and the constellations would be projected. CBS newscaster H. V. Kaltenborn provided narration explaining to the visitors what they were seeing. Two platforms, moving in opposite directions, transported people around the inside of the Perisphere in six minutes. One revolution equaled a twenty-four hour period.

: Workers prepare the interior of the Perisphere, winter of 1939. Image from NYPL Digital Collections.

: Detail of the of the platforms during the construction of the Perisphere. Image from NYPL Digital Collections.

The scaffolding is being removed. Winter of 1939.

Winter 1939 and the scaffolding is coming down to reveal the gigantic pure white sphere and obelisk. Photo by Gottscho & Schleisner from the collection of mcny.org

: Almost finished. Late winter, 1939. Image from NYPL Digital Collections.

: A dramatic view of the Helicline, Perisphere and Trylon. Less than two months until opening day. Image from NYPL Digital Collections.

April, 1939 and ready for the public. Construction of the massive “Theme Center” took just over a year. It dominated the fair grounds and instantly captured the world’s attention.

April, 1939. Ready to open. (Photo by George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images)

Part Two will look at the Trylon and Perisphere during the run of the World’s Fair and its fate after the closing in 1940.

Anthony & Chris

If you enjoyed this post check out these earlier World’s Fair related posts:

New York World’s Fair Souvenirs 1939 – 1940

Reference Library Update – Heinz Exhibit Brochure, 1939 New York World’s Fair

Reference Library Update: The Great Lakes Exposition, 1936

Vanished New York City Art Deco – The Persian Room

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The Persian Room of the Plaza Hotel, 1934. Image from cooperhewitt.org

At 5:32 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, December 5, 1933, Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st amendment to the Constitution. With the requisite three-fourth states majority, prohibition came to an end after 13 years, 10 months and 19 days. The era of the speakeasy was over, the era of swank nightclubs was about to begin and “café society” born.

The Plaza Hotel looking southwest from 5th Avenue and 60th Street, 1907. Image from mcny.org

The Plaza Hotel opening in 1907 typified the Beaux-Arts style so popular in the first decade of the 20th Century. For the next two and half decades the Plaza represented Edwardian respectability.

Small dining room in the Plaza Hotel, 1907. Very typical of the Edwardian Era. Image from mcny.org.

1934

Now that prohibition was a thing of the past, the management of the Plaza wanted a new space to attract the night life crowd; a space to compete against nightclubs, like The Stork Club, El Morocco and The Central Park Casino. The New York Times announced the plan for the nightclub on January 31, 1934:

Hotel Plaza Plans New Cocktail Room

Corner at 5th Av. and 58th St. Will be Fitted Up at Cost of $50,000.

The Plaza Operating Company filed plans with the Building Department yesterday for a new cocktail room in the south corner of the Hotel Plaza, at Fifth Avenue and Fifty-eighth Street. The new room will contain a service bar and dance floor and will cost $50,000.

Four windows will face on the east overlooking the Plaza, from which side there will be a special entrance. Other approaches will be from the lobby of the hotel and from the Palm Court.. The new room will be known as the Persian Room and will be designed and decorated by the Joseph Urban Associates.

Five murals reminiscent of old Persians miniatures are being designed by Lillian Gaertner Palmedo for this room, which will seat from 250 to 300 persons. A twenty-seven-foot bar will adorn the west wall and on the south side of the room there will be raised orchestra platform for about fifteen musicians.

Lillian Gaertner Palmedo with one of the five murals to adorn the Persian Room.

Lillian Gaertner Palmedo putting the finishing touches on one of the five murals that gave the Persian Room its name. Image from Getty Images.

As the article in the Times reported, Joseph Urban Associates undertook the job of designing the new nightclub. Joseph Urban one of the most famous designers in the United States in the 1920’s and 1930’s had designed the Ziegfeld Theatre and The Central Park Casino among many other famous buildings in New York had died the previous May. His company certainly kept his aesthetic alive in the Persian Room. The oval shape of the ceiling as well as the use of black carrara glass and gold panels is more than just a little reminiscent of Urban’s design of the Urban Room in Pittsburgh. Less than four months from the announcement of the new club the room opened to the public.

Herald-Tribune photo of Persian Room mural.

Detail of one of the Persian Room’s murals. Photo from The New York Herald-Tribune, March 18, 1934.

Scheduled for an early April opening, Vogue Magazine of April 1, 1934 described the new night spot this way:

Consider, for instance, the Plaza, which for years has been as nobly aloof from the jazz age as the professionally quaint cab drivers outside its door. Well, the Plaza is stepping out to meet a new life. On the second of April, it is opening a brand-new room, called the Persian Room because of the subtly intricate Persian murals designed by the Joseph Urban Associates. The proceeds of the grand gala will go to the New York Infirmary. In the Persian Room, you will see a New York that is not (thank God!) Lillian-Russell-Bustanoby’s-Diamond-Jim-Brady any more than it is the New York of the speakeasy era.

You can’t describe the atmosphere, because there is nothing with which to compare it. Certainly, the room has nothing to do with the marbled, potted-palm lobby which lies outside its door. The Persian Room is a sport, a freak, an anachronism. Only a very great lady could afford to be so whimsical and so disdainful of tradition. The room is, in short, New York in the spring of 1934. A bar and café and (when the occasion demands) a supper room with space for orchestra and dancing. It overlooks the Plaza and is as modern – with concealed flood-lighting (each table top is specially illuminated), a white-and-red colour scheme, and a metal-and-ebony bar – as you could ask. The lighting alone is worth going a considerable distance to see, and, if the ghost of Mr. Urban ever walks, it might well drop in at the Persian Room and look things over: the chances are it would approve.

The Persian Room’s interior entrance way from the lobby, 1934. Image from cooperhewitt.org

After it’s April 2nd gala opening night, the Persian Room became one of the most successful New York City Night clubs. Many top performers appeared there in the forty-one years it was open. But the original decor would not last even a decade.

Seagram Whiskey ad, 1935 featuring the Persian Room.

Seagram’s Whiskey advertisement showing a color rendition of the original Persian Room. From the January 1, 1935 edition of Vogue.

Persian Room entrance way, 1934. Image from nypl.org.

Bergdoff Goodman ad using the Persian Room as a backdrop. Vogue Magazine.

Bergdoff Goodman advertisement using the Persian Room as a backdrop. Vogue Magazine, October 15, 1934.

When the Persian Room closed for the summer in 1942, its decor so chic and modern in 1934, seemed very dated. The Art Deco gave way to what we now call “Hollywood Regency”. Gone were four of five murals and black carrara glass. Legendary café society performer Hildegarde reopened the re-modeled Persian Room in late September, 1942. L. L. Stevenson in his syndicated column Lights of New York reported on October 31, 1942 wrote the following about the new decor:

In honor of the advent of Hildegarde, the Persian Room, for the second time since it opened in 1934, has undergone a complete change in decor and minor change in arrangement. The noted Lillian Gaertner Palmedo Persian murals are still over the bandstand, but little else remains of the past. A terrace, with a balustrade and a full-length banquette, has been built along the Fifth Avenue side, reducing the capacity of the room from 300 to 275, and thus making it that much more intimate.

The 1942 Re-Model

: Hildegarde performing in the re-modeled Persian Room in 1946. Image from Getty Images.

: The re-modeled Persian Room in 1946 with Hildegarde performing. The one remaining mural is partially visible in the background. image from Getty Images.

: The eggshell white chandelier installed in the 1942 make over of the Persian Room is seen over Hildegarde in a 1946 performance. Image from Getty Images.

Malcolm Johnson’s, September 29, 1942 “Cafe Life in New York” column in The New York Sun had this to say about the new Persian Room:

It is enough to say that its new dress, with egg shell white as the dominant motif, is bright and cheerful and quite unlike any thing the Persian Room has worn before. Only one of the famous murals remains – the one over the bandstand – and the room has been terraced to command a better view of the floor than in the past.

1950

Even this “new” Persian Room would not last a decade. Conrad Hilton purchased the Plaza Hotel in 1943. In 1950 Hilton contacted famed industrial and interior designer Henry Dreyfuss to discuss plans about a complete renovation of the space. Dreyfuss, writing in his 1955 book, Designing for People, said this about his redesign of the Persian Room:

More than appearance is involved in remodeling and redecorating a night club. The industrial designer must think also in terms of air conditioning, lighting, easy access for the waiters through the crowded tables, acoustics, fire exits – but always glamour. The most popular night spots are those in which lighting magically erases wrinkles and double chins, making dowagers look like debutantes and tired merchants feel like Olympic champions.

Our examination of the room recalled the excavations of the site of ancient Troy. Four successive designers over a period of forty years had imposed their ideas on the room, but, unfortunately, the last three had not bothered to remove the previous interiors, which nested one inside the other. In order to enlarge the capacity and satisfy a critical municipal building code and fire department, the four interiors were removed, and we got a fresh start from the brick walls. We settled on a diagonal plan that would give every seat a good view. The bandstand, therefore, was placed in one corner and everything fanned out from it.

Our design was contemporary, but with a Persian motif chosen because of the famous name of the room, and for this we visited museums and haunted the Iranian Institute, reading the lore of Iran and studying Persian temples and miniatures. The Persian Room has eight enormous windows twenty feet high on two of its walls. For these we had curtains woven of deep blue and green with metallic strands.

Alice Hughes in her September 29, 1950 Buffalo Courier Express column wrote:

New York, Sept. 28 – Tonight’s the night when the jogalong horse-and-buggy pace of the Hotel Plaza is jet-propelled into this new electronic world. It’s the night of the opening of the fabulous new Persian Room, the Plaza’s cafe, rebuilt and recreated this past Summer by Henry Dreyfuss. He is the industrial architect whose designs went into the American Export luxury liners Constitution and Independence, also the new 20th Century Limited, also the erstwhile New York World’s Fair exhibits. What he has created for the Persian Room is a secret until tonight. That it will surpass most going night clubs is without doubt for Dreyfuss is a superb designer.

The 1950 remodeled Persian Room by Henry Dreyfuss.

Henry Dreyfuss’ remodel of the Persian Room, 1950. image from theplazany.com

“Mid-Century Modern” is the best way to describe the new decor. And in this design the Persian Room would thrive for the next decade-and-half. But in the late 1960’s the era of the super club came to an end. The Persian Room closed for good in 1975. A dress shop went into the space that formerly hosted some of the top entertainers in American show business. Today the Rose Club occupies the space and it fits in nicely with the rest of the Plaza Hotel stylistically.

The Rose Club at the Plaza Hotel and a return to Edwardian elegance, now occupies the space of the Persian Room. Image from Google.

But lets end with one last look at the original Persian Room. The very short-lived elegant club that ushered in a new era just after the end of Prohibition.

The western end of the original Persian Room.

The western side of the original Persian Room showing the 27 foot-long bar and three of the Palmedo murals, 1934. Photo from nypl.org