American Radiator Building

History and architecture

The American Radiator Building, a striking twenty-three story black and gold tower, is one of the finest and most significant skyscrapers in Manhattan. Designed by Raymond M. Hood and built in 1923-24, the American Radiator Building initiated a new trend in skyscraper design in New York City with its bold cubic massing of forms--often associated with the Art Deco style--and-its freedom from the Beaux-Arts classical details that had previously encumbered New York City skyscrapers.

In the period following World War I, architects continued to use classical details and principles of proportion for their skyscraper designs, although these were often ill-adapted to high buildings. Hood's design broke with tradition and utilized new forms.

Raymond Mathewson Hood (1881-1934), who had received architectural training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, worked for the firm of Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson--noted for its neo-Gothic architectural designs--in 1906. Hood's first great architectural success came in 1922 when John Mead Howells asked Hood to join him in submitting a design for the Chicago Tribune competition. Hood's winning design was a soaring tower terminating in setback peaks and flying buttresses of neo-Gothic design.

In the early 1920s Hood formed a partnership with J. Andre Fouilhoux, and the firm received the commission for the American Radiator Building. His 1928 building for the National Radiator Company in London, a subsidiary of the American company, is indicative of Hood's continuing success with the company. Among later notable skyscraper designs by Hood, which further established his reputation, were the Daily News Building, the McGraw-Hill Building, and several buildings in Rockefeller Center for which he was an associated architect.

Heywood Breaux, the well-known journalist, wrote a tribute to Hood after his death: "Even if you look down the list through the ages Raymond Hood will stand out among the architects of all time as one who had the fortune and the genius to conduct radical experimentation with mass and color." Hood was posthumously honored with a gold medal from the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1940. The great skyscraper building boom of the 1920s encouraged architects to seek a new means to best express the height of the building. The New York City Zoning Law of 1916, which dictated a series of setbacks as the buildings rose above a certain height, also had its effect on skyscraper design. Moreover, big business saw the skyscraper as a potent tool, as a symbol to express the pride and power of great corporations.

In the American Radiator Building, Hood had ample opportunity to exploit the new possibilities of skyscraper design. He stated that in its form and mass the building was 'an honest development of the zoning law.' At the same time Hood was able to create a building that would become a striking corporate symbol.

Hood used two elements to make the building a unique architectural expression. One was the unusual design of the tower itself which was a conscious attempt to use new forms and break away from the classical mold. The tower rises up fifteen stories before it begins a series of setbacks, that not only accorded with the Zoning Law, but also contributed to its striking silhouette. Above the fifteenth story the sides are indented at the corners to create small recessed bays in which windows are located. The corners at the front of the building are beveled to give a shaft-like effect to the main portion of the tower. The upper part of the building can be easily viewed from three sides.

The most striking feature of the building is its unusual black and gold color scheme. In 1926, Talbot Hamlin, the noted architectural historian, described it as "the most daring experiment in color in modern buildings yet made in America.' To prevent the many windows from looking like black holes and destroying the solid effect of the tower, Hood decided to face the walls with black brick. Gold accents at the tops of the setback pinnacles provide a handsome contrast to the black walls.

Hood's interest in color, which is not generally associated with the classical tradition, was also expressed in many of his other buildings. The building was equally dramatic at night when it was floodlighted. It became, in effect, an advertisement for the American Radiator Company. The vivid effects of coloration made it look like a giant glowing coal, even though Hood denied his intention of creating this conscious symbolic effect.