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They don’t all hate us

THE JEWISH MUSEUM sits at the corner of 91st Street and Fifth Avenue in the old Warburg mansion. It was expanded in 1993, nearly doubling its frontage on the avenue. See the modern addition? No? That’s the point.

In the photograph above, the section to the right of the red line is the original Warburg house, built in 1909 and designed by C.P.H. Gilbert. The section to the left of the red line is the 1993 addition. If only the directors of the Morgan Library and the Brooklyn Museum had been similarly inspired.

Published at 8:42 pm on Friday 21 September 2007. Categories: Architecture New York.
Comments

Bravo! And kudos to the craftsmen who seem to have pulled it off.

Always the skeptic, I wonder: is the recent addition authentic in all the details?

— kd 21 Sep 2007 11:50 pm

I don’t think that it’s important that the addition be authentic in its details, only that it be harmonious with the original building. Now if one were to attempt to restore or renovate the original, then authenticity would be more important.

— Robert Thornton 22 Sep 2007 12:48 am

In many cases, I would agree. But here, where the addition is actually an extension of the original, authenticity of details is important.

— kd 22 Sep 2007 11:47 am

I’m curious, are the original architects who designed the Warburg Mansion, the same architects who designed the now Polish Consulate on 33rd and Madison Ave ; I believe that building was originally a home built for Vanderbilt family.

— PLK 23 Sep 2007 12:58 pm

The architects did a fantastic job of adding to – I think enhancing is a better word for it – the original mansion. The vertical thrust of the mansion was tamed by the horizontalness the addition brought to it.

In answer to the last post’s question – C.P.H. Gilbert designed both The Warburg Mansion and the Polish Consulate. Richard Morris Hunt may have brought the chateau style to Fifth Avenue with the W.K. Vanderbilt, Astor, Gerry, Lawrence and Schmidt mansions, but Gilbert seems to kept up with him in using this style for some of his Fifth Avenue commissions. Aside from the Warburg residence, he designed chateaus for F.W.Woolworth and Isaac Fletcher.

— Ed Hachey 30 Sep 2007 7:04 pm
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