New York Transformed: The Architecture of Cross & Cross

About this book

This is the first book to present the work of Cross & Cross one of the New York "starchitects" of the vibrant era of the 1910s and 1920s. Best known for gracious and elegant townhouses and apartment buildings throughout Manhattan the firm made its mark on the city with the RCA Victor headquarters and Tiffanys flagship store on 57th Street. The architects Cross & Cross shaped the streetscape and skyline of New York City in the 1920s and 1930s with Upper East Side townhouses and apartment buildings the RCA Victor Building and Tiffanys flagship store on 57th Street. Working through a period of American history that saw dramatic change from luxurious apartment buildings during the economic boom of the 1920s to federal commissions during the Depression the brothers John and Eliot Cross were masters of their craft. Well-connected society men who also showed remarkable foresight in business Cross & Cross supported their practice with a partnered real estate firm and played a vital role in residential developments like Sutton Place along the East River. Cross & Cross oversaw the development of handsome clubs and houses throughout New York City including the Links Club and the Upper East Side houses of Lewis Spencer Morris and George Whitney. They designed country houses in exclusive residential pockets outside New York - the Southampton estate of Winterthur founder Henry Francis du Pont; houses on the North Shore of Long Island and in Greenwich Connecticut; the childhood home of Sister Parish in Far Hills New Jersey; and the Shelburne Vermont home of J. Watson and Electra Webb. In this first book to collect the achievements of Cross & Cross Peter Pennoyer and Anne Walker present a comprehensive monograph of the firms work with more than 300 illustrations both historic and new and a catalogue raisonn of their projects.