History and architecture
The Bryant Park Studios constructed in 1900-01, is one of the earliest buildings in New York specifically designed to house artists' studios. The building's location across from Bryant Park and its generous windows with northern exposures make it aptly suited for this purpose. Designed by the prominent architect Charles A. Rich, the elegant building displays a complex program of ornamentation in an elaborate French Beaux-Arts style. It was also known as the Beaux Arts Building and was commissioned by portraitist A.
A. Anderson, an artist with French training and experience, who sought to address the shortage of appropriate artists' working spaces in the city. Above the retail stores at the street level, prominent design features of the building include: rusticated terra cotta, terra-cotta and brick banding, dramatic, multi-story stone window enframements with pediments or delicate metal-railed balconies highlighting the studio windows which themselves are elegantly proportioned and divided, and prominent cornices.
In addition to Anderson who had a triplex apartment-studio at the top of the building, numerous artists of note worked here, including Edward Steichen and Fernand Leger.
Sources and further reading
This history comes from the Landmarks app’s historical catalog. Names and building uses may reflect the period described.