Elizabeth Arden Building (Formerly Aeolian Building)

History and architecture

The Aeolian Building was constructed in 1925-27 to the design of architects Warren & Wetmore for the Gould Realty Co., controlled by Commodore Charles A. Gould, a wealthy iron and steel manufacturer and property owner (who died in 1926). Awarded a gold medal by the Fifth Avenue Association prior to its completion, the building was sold at public auction in 1927 and acquired as an investment by Gould's daughter, Celia Gould Milne, who retained it until 1944.

The building was leased until 1938 as the headquarters of the Aeolian Co., a leading manufacturer of roll-operated instruments. The firm of Warren & Wetmore is best known for its designs for hotels and railroad-related buildings, notably Grand Central Terminal. Designed in a restrained and graceful neo--Classical style with French Renaissance style detailing, the Aeolian Building is clad in Indiana limestone with Italian marble spandrel panels, and buff-colored terra cotta on the upper portion.

Following the requirements of the 1916 Zoning Resolution, it rises nine stories before setting back on the tenth, twelfth, and fourteenth stories. The corner of the building is rounded on the lower nine stories, while the upper portions feature angles and concave curves. Bronze and carved garlands and other decorative elements adorn the structure, and large urns surmount the ninth story. A tower with a pyramidal roof (covered in copper) with a lantern rises in front of a two-story penthouse/mechanical section.

The building was called by Paul Goldberger in the New York Times in 1984 "a lyrical gem... that may be the city's most inventive merging of modern commercial design with French and classical architectural detail... as good a reminder as New York has that architecture can be exuberant and fanciful yet discreet and well-mannered." Since 1930, this has been the location of the flagship Elizabeth Arden Red Door Salon. Florence Nightingale Graham (1878-1966) took the professional name of Elizabeth Arden in 1910 when she opened a Fifth Avenue salon.

One of the pioneers of the women's cosmetics and beauty business, she became one of the most successful American businesswomen of all time. Elizabeth Arden, Inc., owned this building from 1944 to 1969.