Architectural Investigator: 101 West 31st Street

Wow, what a typical old Midtown office building this is! Some unexpected features in the exterior details, but definitely a classic type.

Well, first off to the public records: Whoops, nothing! Just a note that this is the Greeley Square Building...

So let's see what we can find there--check out this website to see the slideshow!

http://newyorkitecture.com/2012/11/08/greeley-square-building/


Greeley Square Building was designed by Gronenberg & Leuchtag, prolific architects who specialized in residential projects in New York City. The Renaissance Revival-style office building is attractive and prominent, one block south of Greeley Square, but by no means famous. But it does point to a minor mystery.

The firm of Gronenberg & Leuchtag filed 309 new building applications in New York City between 1910 and 1931, according to the Office of Metropolitan History new buildings database (based on NYC Department of Buildings records). As mentioned, the company specialized in residential buildings, but also designed hotels, commercial office buildings, lofts, houses of worship, theaters, even Turkish baths.

Yet there doesn’t seem to be a real record of the architects. No books, no Wikipedia entry, no website pages about Gronenberg & Leuchtag. Lots of complimentary references to the firm in listings and articles about G & L buildings – references to “the famed Gronenberg & Leuchtag,” and “the prolific Gronenberg & Leuchtag,” but no articles (that I could find with Google) about the Gronenberg & Leuchtag firm or its principals. The most that I could find, in several hours of online research, was this paragraph from the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission’s Grand Concourse Historic District Designation Report:

Herman Gronenberg and Albert J. H. Leuchtag formed a successful architectural partnership and were active in the first decades of the 20th century. The firm specialized in the design of apartment buildings and examples of their work can be seen in the Upper East Side and Extension, Expanded Carnegie Hill, NoHo, and Greenwich Village Historic Districts. Gronenberg died in 1931 and five years later the New York Times announced that A. J. H. Leuchtag had resumed the practice of architecture. In the Grand Concourse Historic District the firm designed five apartment buildings.

So today’s puzzle: How can architects who averaged a new building application every 25 days for 21 years remain so invisible? If you know the answer, please let me know. Thank you!

Greeley Square Building Vital Statistics

• Location: 875 Sixth Avenue / 101 W31st Street
• Year completed: 1927
• Architect: Gronenberg & Leuchtag
• Floors: 25
• Style: Renaissance Revival

Greeley Square Building Suggested Reading

• Lee & Associates (management company) website
• Skyscraper Page listing
• Emporis database
• Greeley Square Building brochure (Columbia University collection)
• Office of Metropolitan History new buildings database