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60 East 42nd Street Celebrates Abraham Lincoln's Legacy
For almost 50 years. an original Daniel Chester French sculpture of Lincoln has been showcased in the lobby. When the building was purchased in 1954, ownership approached Mr. French's widow about acquiring a sculpture of President Lincoln.
Daniel Chester French. 1850 - 1931, American sculptor, b. Exeter, N.H., studied in Florence and in Boston with William Rimmer. After executing his first large work, The Minute Man (1875), he received many important commissions, including his most famous achievement, the heroic Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.
The statue that was purchased for the building is actually the model on which the Lincoln Memorial in Washington is based.
His style varies from a detailed realistic rendering, especially in portraiture, to a grand ideal in his allegorical works.
Some of the best of his statues and memorials are John Harvard and the bust of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Harvard); Death and the Young Sculptor, Milmore Memorial (Boston); Mourning Victory, Melvin Memorial (Concord, Mass.); Lewis Cass (Capitol, Washington, D.C.); and Alma Mater (Columbia Univ.). In collaboration with Edward C. Potter he executed equestrian statues of General Grant (Philadelphia), General Washington (Paris), and General Joseph Hooker (Boston).
60 East 42nd Street's Aesthetics
60 East 42nd Street's majestic landmark lobby, recently hand-restored by Italian artisans, distinguishes the site as one of New York City's most important business addresses. Considered by many as the most prestigious building in the Grand Central area, 60 East 42nd Street is a seamless blend of state of the art amenities with traditional elegance and responsive management.
The tradition of elegance continues in 60 East 42nd Street's many fine architectural details with curved archways, exquisite moldings and bronze lighting fixtures.
Architectural Historical Reference for 60 East 42nd Street
The skyscraper was beginning to create a style of its own from a combination of European styles like Expressionism. Although still tied to the old visual forms with masonry walls, some works displayed a great deal of originality in their aesthetics.
60 East 42nd Street. [Architect: J.E R. Carpenter] (60 E 42nd St.) was completed in 1930 as a neo-Gothic tower at the south end of Vanderbilt Avenue, near Grand Central Terminal.
The most notable feature of the 55-storey, 205.5 m tall brown stone exterior are the gothic windows near the top. At the time of its completion, the developers claimed that never before had an office building benefited from "so much fresh air, or so much bright light." The entrance lobby contains Daniel Chester French's bronze model of the statue for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and quotations from Lincoln's speeches adorn the lobby walls.
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