Fred F. French Building

History and architecture

Located on the northeast corner of 45th Street and Fifth Avenue, the Fred F. French Building was constructed in 1926-27 as corporate headquarters for the prominent real estate firm of the same name. A proto - Art Deco design, with strong Near Eastern influences, it represents the stylistic compromise between lingering historicism and the modernistic trends that typified the architecture of the late 1920s. The Near Eastern allusion is enhanced by a dramatic series of setbacks.

Although mandated by the Building Code of 1916, these wedding cake-like tiers found a romantic corollary in Assyrian ziggurats. The setbacks taper off to a lofty terraced tower which enriches the midtown skyline with iconographic bas-reliefs, Mesopotamian in both their imagery and execution in richly colored faience. Together with ornamental friezes and other polychromatic details, the reliefs contrast to splendid effect with the building's limestone trim and russet-colored brick walls.

The exotic character of the 38-story structure is especially notable at ground level where two bronze entrances and fifteen commercial bays are embellished with mythological figures and a wealth of Near Eastern flora.

The Fred F. French Building is a significant example of distinctive corporate imagery dating from the era of New York's greatest building boom. Financed by the first commercial application of Fred French's cooperative investment plan, the building was broadly applauded for its ornament, technological advances and unusually accomplished planning. Among its other amenities were close proximity to Grand Central Terminal and a prime location in the rapidly developing business district at midtown Fifth Avenue.

Upon its completion in 1927, the French Building was also renowned as one of the two tallest structures in the vicinity. And while that claim was subsequently relinquished, it remains a strikingly individual monument, conspicuous on its corner site against the backdrop of more conservative, frequently classicizing, limestone masses. Aside from various ground floor alterations, the French Building survives substantially intact as a compelling response to the zoning ordinance and a distinguished example of architectural eclecticism in the late 1920s.

In contrast with the sculptural terminations of most contemporaneous tall buildings and especially with the spiky peaks of slightly later skyscrapers, the French Building is set apart by its flat utilitarian roof. Glazed symbolic panels mask its water tower and glisten brilliantly in the sun, making the French Building immediately recognizable among neighboring towers. The panels were a unique contribution to the midtown skyline in 1927, and remain so to this day.