23 Beekman Place
23 Beekman Place, also the Paul Rudolph Apartment & Penthouse, is an apartment building between 50th and 51st streets in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Built c. 1869 as a five-story brownstone residence, it was substantially redesigned in the late 20th century by Paul Rudolph, an American architect and one-time dean of Yale University. It is one of the few known projects Rudolph designed in the city.
The house is part of a secluded residential enclave surrounding Beekman Place. It consists of the original brownstone residence, along with a four-story steel skeletal penthouse with concrete wall panels, which is cantilevered slightly over the street. The rear walls contain full-width windows with East River views, while the interiors contain high ceilings and open floor plans. Throughout his occupancy at the building, from the 1960s to 1990s, Rudolph constantly adjusted the interior layout. The penthouse originally received negative feedback from neighbors, who expressed concerns that it would draw excessive attention to the area and that it would block their own views of the river.
The building was originally a brownstone along with the other structures in the area. In the first half of the 20th century, it was occupied by actress Katharine Cornell and director and producer Guthrie McClintic, who were married. Starting in 1961, Rudolph leased a fourth-story apartment at 23 Beekman Place, and he ultimately bought the entire building outright in 1976. Following that, Rudolph redeveloped the building from 1977 to 1982, constructing the steel penthouse above the existing masonry apartments. After Rudolph died in 1997, the building was sold to the Boyd family and then to Steven Campus, who both renovated the interior. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the house as a landmark in 2010.
Site[edit]
The Paul Rudolph Apartment & Penthouse is at 23 Beekman Place in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is along the eastern sidewalk of Beekman Place, between 50th Street to the south and 51st Street to the north.[2][3] The building has an area of 2,000 square feet (190 m2), a frontage of 20 feet (6.1 m) along Beekman Place, and a depth of 100 feet (30 m). According to the New York City Department of City Planning, the building has a gross floor area of 9,296 square feet (863.6 m2).[2]
The land at 23 Beekman Place was once part of the country estate of James Beekman, a descendant of Dutch colonist Willem Beekman. Beekman Place, running two blocks from 49th to 51st Street, was laid out in the 1860s and was originally flanked by four-story brownstone residences. It had developed as a residential enclave because the topography was higher compared to the rest of the neighborhood.[4] With the surge of immigration from Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century, the area's well-off residents gave way to impoverished workers employed in the East River's coal yards, although Beekman Place's rehabilitation began in the 1920s.[5]
History[edit]
Early history[edit]
23 Beekman Place was constructed in the 1860s, like the surrounding townhouses, and originally contained a stoop in front of it.[4] According to the Department of City Planning, the building was completed c. 1869.[2] Maria L. Higgins owned the town house until 1906, when she sold it to Charles P. Schmid, secretary of the Schaefer Brewing Company. Either Schmid or Higgins eliminated the stoop from the original structure and divided the townhouse into two apartments. Schmid and his family lived in the building in the 1910s, as did Roger Howson (later chief librarian at Columbia University) and his family.[4] Schmid died at his home in 23 Beekman Place in 1911.[37] His widow mortgaged the property in 1915 to Rudolph J. Schaefer,[38] head of the Schaefer Brewing Company.[39]