York and Sawyer

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The architectural firm of York and Sawyer produced many outstanding structures, exemplary of Beaux-Arts architecture as it was practiced in the United States. The partners Edward York (1863–1928) and Philip Sawyer (1868–1949) had both trained in the office of McKim, Mead, and White. In 1898, they established their independent firm, based in New York City.

Their structure for the New-York Historical Society (1908) was extended by Cass Gilbert. Their ability to organize, separate and coordinate mixed uses in a building is exemplified by their massive New York Athletic Club.

York and Sawyer became known as specialists in the design of banks and hospitals. Their palatial Renaissance and classical bank buildings express the reassuring stability and awe-inspring splendor of the institutions. In each case a spectacular banking hall was the public space, often integrated within an office building:

1 Projects
2 Architects
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Projects

The former headquarters of the Brooklyn Trust Company (now a branch of Chase) in Brooklyn Heights, modeled after the Palazzo della Gran Guardia in Verona.

Brooklyn Trust Company (1913-1916) on the corner of Montague and Clinton Streets, Brooklyn Heights
Federal Reserve (1919-1924) on Maiden Lane in the Financial District: a suavely rusticated Florentine palazzo with a machiolated cornice
Central Savings Bank (1926–28) on Broadway and 73rd Street, in Manhattan's Upper West Side; a coffered barrel-vault spns the banking hall; ironwork by Samuel Yellin
Greenwich Savings Bank (1922–24) on Broadway and 36th Street
Bowery Savings Bank (1921-1923) on East 42d Street, running the full depth of the block; Modern Romanesque with vaults of Guastavino tile

Their New York banks won them the commission for 15 Westminster Street, Providence, Rhode Island (1920), which incorporated a monumental banking hall into an office block, and the 22-storey Royal Bank building (1926–1928) in Montreal, the tallest building in the British Empire when it was completed.

A partial list of other York and Sawyer commissions, all in New York unless noted otherwise:

The Chemist's Club, East 41st Street (1903; adapted as the Dylan Hotel in 2000)
U.S. Assay Office Building, Financial District (1919); a Roman Renaissance palazzo, complementing the former Customs House adjacent to it, topped with a severe limestone-faced office block
Pershing Square Building (1923)
860 Park Avenue (1925)
The Martha Cook Building (1915); a Collegiate Gothic women's dormitory at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
The Law Quadrangle at the University of Michigan.