Between 1823 (with the formation of the New York Gas Light Company), and 1877, there were six competing gas companies in NYC – at times employees literally battling for customers in the streets, leading to the term “gas house gangs.” Add to this brew Edison’s invention of the electric light bulb in 1879 and the creation of Equitable Gas, backed by Rockefeller. The competing gas companies were forced to remarket and promote gas for other purposes. In 1884 came the inevitable merger of the six companies, forming the Consolidated Gas Company of New York. Offices were established at 4 Irving Place (where the current offices and tower are located) at the home of the Manhattan Gas Light Company in an Italianate brownstone. Acquisitions of various electric companies were made, including the New York Edison Company. In 1936, the name was changed to the Consolidated Edison Company.

ConEd is the product of acquisitions and mergers of more than 170 companies. The office buildings of ConEd are a assemblage of structures built at different times, starting with a 12-story building designed by Henry Hardenbergh in 1910 at 15th and Irving, culminating in the 26-story building (seen in the photo) designed by Warren and Wetmore, known for their Beaux-Arts work such as Grand Central. The limestone clad building is quite prominent in the night skyline of NYC with its numerous illuminated features: a 3-story tower with Doric colonnade, four clock faces, and a 38-foot bronze lantern. This is one of a handful of iconic Manhattan buildings which can be seen from many vantage points, along with the Met Life Tower, the New York Life Tower, the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, and the Zeckendorf Towers. Please learn your illuminated buildings – there will be a quiz 🙂

This is the Sherry Netherland (as seen from Central Park), an absolutely exquisite and remarkable building in the finest location in NYC, at 59th Street and Fifth Avenue with immediate neighbors such as the Metropolitan Club and the Pierre and Plaza Hotels. If you are not familiar with it, this is maybe due to its somewhat understated elegance and small lobby, unlike that of the Waldorf Astoria, e.g. The Sherry does not even have a Wikipedia entry, yet many architects consider it one of the finest skyscrapers in NYC. Built in 1927, it stands at 570 feet/38 stories. The Sherry Netherland is an apartment hotel – there are 53 guest hotel rooms and 97 cooperative apartments ($1.3 – $13.5 million; cash only). Above the 24th floor, there is only one apartment per floor.

The Sherry was designed by renowned architect Leonard Schultze, along with his partner, S. Fullerton Weaver. Their firm also designed the Pierre, the Waldorf, the Breakers (Palm Beach), and the Biltmore hotels in Atlanta, Coral Gables, and Los Angeles. The Sherry features travertine marble facing on the base and an elaborate Gothic-inspired minaret. Unique touches include the whimsical griffins with hanging lanterns that guard the exterior. Some of the finest retailers grace the street level, such as A La Vieille Russie and Domenico Vacca. The lobby was modeled after the Vatican Library. There are classical friezes rescued from the Cornelius Vanderbilt mansion one block south where Bergdorf Goodman now stands, vaulted ceilings, ornate mirrors, crystal chandeliers, hand-loomed French carpets (removed in the summer, allowing the beautiful marble floors to show), and antique furnishings. Corridors feature vaulted ceilings, as well as faux columns hand-detailed in gold leaf.

They employ a full-time person to do nothing but reapply gold leaf to the hotel’s many architectural details and hand-paint the exquisite detail on the room numbers and elevators. Attendants are on duty 24 hours a day in the Sherry’s original wood-paneled elevators, embellished with hand-painted Renaissance scenes. Attendants wear full livery and use approximately 140 pairs of white gloves each week. Some of the bathrooms have crystal chandeliers. And then there are the rooms that face Central Park…

One of the unique features about St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church at 50th Street and Park Avenue, with its signature dome and cross, is the contrast with the surrounding architecture. Click here for more photos. Although this could be said of many churches, urban and rural, the dramatic difference in scale between this landmark limestone and brick structure and the surrounding monolithic buildings on Park Avenue (such as the 570 foot GE/RCA building behind it and the Waldorf Astoria Hotel to its right) draws attention immediately.

This is actually the third location for the congregation. It started in 1835 in a plain church in the then-fashionable Bowery area; in 1872, their growth and funds permitted them to build a new church at Madison and 44th. Designed by James Renwick, the architect of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the building was later embellished with a triple portal by Stanford White. In 1918, they moved to their current location at 50th Street and Park Avenue. A new structure was designed by Bertram Goodhue to harmonize with the Romanesque Revival triple portal entrance, which was relocated from the Madison Avenue church. Over time, the interior was decorated in the Byzantine style, with major mosaics in the narthex and over the high altar. In 1981, a real estate developer offered a plan to build an office tower on the site of the adjacent community house, ensuring a financial endowment for the church. Conflict developed within the parish and between the church and the city over air rights and the landmark status of the building; the case went to the Supreme Court. In 1991, the landmark law was upheld.

The church is renowned for its pipe organ, one of the largest in the world and played by the famous conductor Leopold Stokowski. The popular and successful Café St. Bart’s with its outdoor terrace can be seen here. The church provides many community services, including a public music series and summer festival, a homeless shelter, and a soup kitchen…