Cartier Building
The Cartier Building, also 653 Fifth Avenue, is a commercial building on the southeast corner of 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The building serves as the flagship store of Cartier in New York City. It consists of two conjoined residences completed in 1905: the Morton F. Plant residence at 651–653 Fifth Avenue, designed by Robert W. Gibson, and the Edward Holbrook residence at 4 East 52nd Street, designed by C. P. H. Gilbert.
The Plant House was designed in the Neo-Renaissance style and has facades on both 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue. The 52nd Street facade of the house contains an ornate pavilion, and both facades have an attic hidden inside a frieze. The Edward Holbrook House was also designed in a neoclassical style but has a mansard roof. Both houses are five stories tall and are connected internally. The Cartier store takes up all of the stories inside the building.
The southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street was planned as a hotel in the early 1900s after the Roman Catholic Asylum vacated the site. After the Vanderbilts blocked the development of the hotel, the northern portion became the Morton F. Plant House, while the southern portion of the site was developed as the Marble Twins at 645 and 647 Fifth Avenue. In the late 1910s, Plant sold his house to Cartier. The Holbrook House was occupied by a variety of tenants until 1927, after which it was purchased by 653 Fifth Avenue's owners and used by various organizations and firms. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Cartier Building as a city landmark in 1970, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 along with 647 Fifth Avenue.
Site
The Cartier Building is in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It is along the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue to the west and 52nd Street to the north. The land lot is L-shaped and covers, with a frontage of on Fifth Avenue and a maximum depth of. The lot includes 651–653 Fifth Avenue, measuring 50 feet along Fifth Avenue and on 52nd Street, and the adjacent 4 East 52nd Street to the east, measuring on 52nd Street and deep. The building is on the same block as 647 Fifth Avenue and the Olympic Tower to the south, as well as 11 East 51st Street and 488 Madison Avenue to the east. Other nearby buildings include 650 Fifth Avenue to the west, 660 Fifth Avenue to the northwest, Austrian Cultural Forum New York to the north, 12 East 53rd Street and Omni Berkshire Place to the northeast, St. Patrick's Cathedral to the south, and the International Building of Rockefeller Center to the southwest.Fifth Avenue between 42nd Street and Central Park South was relatively undeveloped through the late 19th century. The surrounding area was once part of the common lands of the city of New York. The Commissioners' Plan of 1811 established Manhattan's street grid with lots measuring deep and wide. Upscale residences were constructed around Fifth Avenue following the American Civil War. In 1882, three Vanderbilt family residences were completed along Fifth Avenue between 51st and 59th Streets. The surrounding section of Fifth Avenue thus became known as "Vanderbilt Row". By the early 1900s, that section of Fifth Avenue was becoming a commercial area.
The site immediately north of St. Patrick's Cathedral was owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, which used the site for the Roman Catholic Asylum. The asylum took up two blocks between 51st Street, 52nd Street, Fifth Avenue, and Park Avenue. It was once one of several public institutions on the midtown section of Fifth Avenue, but by the end of the 19th century, it was the only one remaining. The Roman Catholic Asylum site was placed for sale in 1899 after the institution had secured another site in the Bronx.
Architecture
The Cartier Building, the main New York City store of jeweler Cartier, consists of the Morton F. Plant House at 651–653 Fifth Avenue and the Edward Holbrook House at 4 East 52nd Street. The Plant House was designed by architect Robert W. Gibson in the Neo-Renaissance style for Morton Freeman Plant, a financier who was the son of railroad tycoon Henry B. Plant. The Holbrook House was designed by C. P. H. Gilbert for Edward Holbrook, who was president of the Gorham Manufacturing Company in the 1900s. The two houses comprise the Cartier Building and have been joined internally since the 1920s.Facade
Morton F. Plant House
The Morton F. Plant House at 651–653 Fifth Avenue has frontage on both 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue. The facade along Fifth Avenue is three bays wide and, at the ground floor, contains a large opening surrounded by blocks of rusticated limestone. The facade along 52nd Street also has a rusticated limestone facade and contains seven vertical bays, with an arched entrance in the center bay. The 52nd Street entrance was the original main entrance to the house, which was known initially as 2 East 52nd Street. The ground-story openings are square-headed, except for an arched opening at the center, which was the carriage entrance. The main entrance on 52nd Street was restored as part of a 2001 renovation, while the display windows on the first floor were downsized. As part of that project, a secondary doorway was built on Fifth Avenue.At the second and third stories on 52nd Street, the central three bays form a slightly projecting pavilion, with an ornate balustrade in front of the second-story windows. The center window on the second story of the pavilion has engaged columns, which support a curved pediment. The pavilion also contains four pilasters separating the windows on the second and third stories; the pilasters are fluted and contain Scamozzi capitals at their tops. The pilasters support a pediment at the fourth story.
On either side of the central pavilion, there are two windows on each of the second and third stories on 52nd Street, as well as three similarly designed windows on each story on Fifth Avenue. The second-story windows have individual balustrades at the bottom and are flanked by engaged columns that support lintels with denticulation. The center window on Fifth Avenue has a clock above it. The third-story windows are topped by denticulated lintels supported by brackets. On the fourth story, there are six windows on 52nd Street and five on Fifth Avenue. These windows are simpler in design and contain lintels above them. The fifth-story attic has a frieze within which are small window openings. A cornice with modillions, as well as a balustrade, runs above the attic. During the December holiday season, the facade of the mansion is wrapped with a large red ribbon.
Edward Holbrook House
4 East 52nd Street comprises the Edward Holbrook House, which is internally joined to the Morton F. Plant House. This house is five stories tall and has a neoclassical design. The limestone facade is divided into three bays. At the lowest two stories, there are plate glass windows and the center bay is wider than the other two bays. There is a projecting marquee and a clock above the center bay of the first story, while the outer bays have light fixtures. The original entrance at the Edward Holbrook House was removed when Cartier moved into the building in the 1920s. The current entrance was installed in a 2000 renovation.The third and fourth stories each contain three windows with molded surrounds. The third-story windows are topped by keystones, while a cornice with modillions, dentils, and brackets runs above the fourth story. The fifth story contains a mansard roof with a skylight and three stone dormers.
Features
As designed, the Plant House was supposed to have a large dining room, drawing room, and smoking annex on the ground floor, as well as a library and music room on the second floor, connected by a circular grand staircase. The east side of the second story had Plant's piano room, which contained a coffered ceiling. The west side of the second story had Pierre C. Cartier's private offices. The second floor also had a salon with wooden paneling.After Cartier moved into the Plant House, it made some changes. The Cartier store occupied the first two stories of the Plant House while offices were placed on the upper floors. A second-story mezzanine, built in 1917 and demolished in 2001, had cabinet doors containing leather bindings on the edges. Following a 2016 renovation, the Cartier store was expanded to on five floors, with an interior stairway connecting all the stories.
The modern first floor is designed as an imitation of a residential mansion. The restored interior has a lacquered panel in the foyer, with representations of panthers in gold leaf, as well as oak paneling on the walls. The second floor contains salesrooms for fine jewelry, in addition to a hospitality suite with a private dining room. The third floor contains selling space for watches and jewelry,. and there are also bridal rooms with rose quartz lights and pink velvet accents. The fourth floor is used for perfume sales, and it includes marquetry panels with various Cartier motifs. In addition, there are four salons, each of which is decorated to represent New York City during different seasons, and there is a terrace facing Fifth Avenue. The store is decorated throughout with site-specific art, such as a travertine-and-quartz wall resembling the city's skyline and a sculpture resembling necklace owned by Morton F. Plant.