Drinking With Landmarks
Thoughts on The Red Room and the Importance of Landmarking Interiors. With a Cocktail Recipe From Gage and Tollner!
One thing you realize the longer you live in New York City is that each generation to arrive here thinks that they discovered it, as if nothing had existed before they laid eyes on it. It was no different for me. This is key to becoming a New Yorker. Somehow, we each take personal ownership of a city that belongs to more than 8 million people.
Which can be very problematic now, as developers often act first when it comes to their plans, and apologize later. Even the skyline is at risk. Brooklyn is a prime example of this; for decades there was an unspoken rule that no one would build higher than the Williamsburg Savings Bank, but now there are plenty of buildings blocking Brooklynites view of their beloved Willie. It seems the Empire State Building is next in line to be crowded out. But even more common to the blighting of the New York skyline is the destruction of our the city’s best interiors.
One of the reasons that Robert and I go bananas when we see an intact interior of an original space—be it a hot dog stand, diner, restaurant, lobby or bar—is that so few survive. Every new owner has their idea of what the interior should be. And like house flippers in the Midwest, many of these folks look at old interiors and think they need to look new, and desperately need a coat of white paint and a grey linoleum floor. But we see nothing but beauty.
About 60 Wall Street
This year the Landmark’s Preservation Commission is 60 years old. That means it began in 1965, created out of a necessity to protect the buildings of New York. (Think of the image of architect Philip Johnson protesting the destruction of McKim, Mead and White’s old Pennsylvania Station in 1963). But it took until 1973 to extend the landmarking process to the interiors of buildings. And even now this doesn’t happen often. Since 1973, only 123 spaces have been designated interior landmarks. Protecting our classic interiors seems like an afterthought.
Which brings me to 60 Wall Street. Upon the building’s completion in 1989, critics used words like “obvious” and “flashy” about its exterior. Paul Goldberger compared its atrium to “the center of a shopping mall without its stores,” but thirty-five years later he fought to save that same space. Back when I was newly arrived in New York City, the first time I used that exit from the 2 train and caught site of Kevin Roche’s postmodern masterpiece, I was overwhelmed with its white marble “bricks” and octagonal columns that touched the ceiling like disco-ball Martini glasses. Its trellises, mirrors, plantings, water features and sculptures reminded me of a people’s postmodern Palm Court.
I took every opportunity to visit. This was a place to meet someone; sit and read if you had a moment; eat your lunch if you worked there; or, heaven forbid, use the restroom if you were a commuter headed to the train, or a bike messenger. It was an oasis in the base of an office building and, most importantly, it was public space. That is key. Because one of the criteria of being a landmarked interior is that it must be public space.
So, when designs were presented in 2021 for the renovation of 60 Wall Street, many, many New Yorkers were horrified at the proposed gutting of Roche’s atrium. No more oasis for the public, just an actual corridor to the subway entrance. At this time last year, I stood there crying at what was left, just days away from being a memory. This was very, very personal to me.
About The Red Room
As Robert said in his recent Vinepair article:
The entrance at 1 Wall Street leads to the legendary Red Room, a 30-plus-feet-tall mosaic masterpiece of red and gold tiles created in 1931 by the trailblazing, New York City-born muralist Hildreth Meière (1892-1961). The room originally served as the reception room of Irving Trust, which, after the financial crash of 1929, used the architecture to communicate a silent message of prosperity to the world.
Because Irving Trust was a private commercial bank, only that bank’s wealthy clients and its employees ever had the privilege of laying eyes on the room’s web-like ceramic design, grand arched windows, and dramatic pillars. In June 2024 the Red Room was designated an interior landmark. One of the stipulations of such a designation is that the space be made open to the public. Thus, the chamber is now home to Printemps’ vast women’s shoe department, which is illuminated by several towering light fixtures shaped like lily pads; the company calls it a “shoe forest.”
When I say it’s a miracle that 1 Wall Street was landmarked, I’m not being overly dramatic. Honestly, if you think about how much time had passed between the completion of 1 Wall Street in 1931 and the LPC granting landmark status to the Red Room this past summer of 2024, it IS a miracle that it still exists. The Red Room hadn’t been viewed by the public since 2001. This past summer it was granted landmark status in a unanimous vote. The Landmarks Preservation Commission chair Sarah Carroll said, “Today’s vote to designate this special interior landmark ensures it will continue to delight visitors for years to come.”
Delightful is an apt description for the resulting Red Room, although artist Hildreth Meière was merely tasked with creating “a warm and inviting reception room” for the customers visiting the Irving Trust Company. She definitely overshot it. As you enter the Red Room, your eyes are drawn upward to the towering ceiling, bathed in 13,000 square feet of abstractly arranged, glass mosaic tiles, beginning in deep tones of Madder Red, relinquishing themselves to an orange hue, and ending with the gold-leafed ceiling, which seems to have been fed its metallic sheen by the gold tesserae veins rising up through the walls. It’s an amazing Art Deco mural.
The Red Room was one of several collaborations between Hildreth Meière and Ralph Walker in New York City—including murals for the 1939 New York World’s Fair and 32 Avenue of Americas (Formerly the AT&T Long Distance Building). Not yet 40 years old, Hildreth Meière was a leader for women in the decorative arts.
About Hildreth Meière
Born in Queens in 1892, Meière graduated from a Catholic boarding school in Manhattan in 1911 and spent a year in Florence studying painting. It was there she “Fell in love, once and for all, with mural painting and great beautiful walls.” She studied at the Art Students League of New York, the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the School of Applied Design for Women. She even served in the U.S. Navy during World War I as a draftsman.
At the age of 29, architect Bertram Goodhue gave Meière the commission to decorate the Great Hall at the National Academy of Sciences in D.C. and then the interiors for the Nebraska State Capital Building, for which she was awarded a gold medal for mural decoration by the Architectural League of New York. Notably, this was six years before the League allowed females to join. Perhaps she herself best defined the reasoning behind the twenty sites where her work is part of interior landmarks. She said that a significant mural “cannot be taken away without hurting the design of the building.” Meière’s work is not merely decoration, it is an integral part of the design.
Here is a list of these twenty Meière sites. For more information on Meière, visit the International Hildreth Meiere Association.
Illinois
Maryland
10 Light Street (Part of an Urban Renewal District)
Missouri
Nebraska
New Jersey
New York
Temple Emanu-El (Part of a Landmark District)
Pennsylvania
Mary Immaculate Seminary (Future Home of the Lehigh Valley Resort and Spa)
Washington, D.C.
About Landmarking Interiors
Saying that landmarking a space helps it to survive seems an obvious point, but I want you to really contemplate this statement in the context of the Brooklyn restaurant Gage and Tollner.
Think about what Robert wrote in his New York Times article on the “Return of Gage and Tollner”:
Despite some cosmetic changes, the new interior won’t look too different. As stewards of dining history, the current owners had to approve every change and fix with the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, including repair work on the original wooden revolving door; the laying of new floors (stained red oak downstairs, white oak upstairs); the replacement of the upholstered wall panels; the repair of the crumbling portico; and the polishing of the many brass chandeliers (a three-week process), which once dispensed both gas and electrical light. All told, restoration, infrastructure and equipment costs have totaled roughly $2 million.
Let’s face it, that’s a lot of work and money. If the interior of Gage and Tollner hadn’t been landmarked all those years ago, no corporation would have done that out of the goodness of their heart, and the space never would have survived being a TGI Friday’s, an Arby’s and a jewelry store (all of which it was before the recent resurrection). Gage and Tollner simply wouldn’t exist today. Even if current owners St. John Frizell, Sohui Kim and Ben Schneider had wanted to spend years of sweat, tears and hard work reviving this gem, there wouldn’t have been anything to save.
There is a beautiful book titled Interior Landmarks: Treasures of New York by Judith Gura and Kate Wood, with photographs by Larry Lederman. It opens with this passage:
What constitutes an interior landmark? It is a space determined by the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to have “special historical or aesthetic interest or value as part of the development, heritage or cultural characteristics of the city, state or nation.” It must be “customarily open or accessible to the public, or to which the public is customarily invited”; it may, therefore, not be a private residence or, for constitutional reasons, a place of worship. And, like all landmark buildings, it must be at least thirty years old. Unfortunately, many interiors are remodeled or destroyed before they are eligible for designation.
No wonder there are only about 123 interior landmarks.
About Drinking and Dining in Interior Landmarks
When I first started working at 1 Park Avenue, Robert met me at a bar across the street one day after work. This was Wolfgang’s Steakhouse, housed in the interior-landmarked “Della Robbia Bar.” Imagine my delight as I sat with my Big Gulp Manhattan under the stunning Rafael Guastavino ceiling. The room is all that was left of the landmarked 4 Park Avenue interior after the former Vanderbilt Hotel was gutted in a 1960s conversion to a multi-use building. The Vanderbilt Hotel was originally built as a part of Terminal City—an early 20th Century plan to develop around Grand Central Station.
Wolfgang’s was a surprise addition to one of our favorite pastimes: Drinking and Dining in Interior Landmarks in New York City. I’ll bet that this is something you might enjoy as well. So, I’ve made a list of some of our favorite places which may have one you don’t know. Please add your favorites too.
One Wall Street - The Red Room Bar
Now that you can enter Printemps through the 1 Wall Street entrance, you can sit yourself in the Red Room Bar and the view of the Red Room can be had for the price of a cocktail (like a salted peanut, to quote Bette Davis.)
4 Park Avenue - Wolfgang’s Steakhouse
My favorite after-work stop—attached to a very good steak house, no less—this bar provides a delightful view of Park Avenue promenaders heading home from work, and good-sized Manhattans and Martinis.
5 Beekman Street - The Bar Room
My favorite atrium in New York City, this part of the Beekman Hotel was accidentally preserved due to 1940s fire laws, having been boarded up and left alone for more than seven decades. It was one of the first skyscrapers in New York City. Go to the Bar Room for good drinks and to visit this time-traveler space.
30 Rockefeller Plaza - Events at the Rainbow Room
All I can say is that if you hear of an event at the Rainbow Room, go. There was a time when you could have been served a drink by Dale DeGroff in this historic landmarked space. Now it is home to private events only. So I guess it’s a public space, but only as long as you have the money to rent it.
70 Pine Street - Overstory, Saga and Crown Shy
Built during the Depression, this Art Deco skyscraper offers three amazing choices to experience it first-hand. I think I would start at the top at the Overstory Bar, which, before the World Trade Center came along, was the highest observation deck in New York City. Although it isn’t the highest anymore, I think we can safely say it has the best cocktails of any observation deck in the city.
Gage and Tollner
There are no shortage of articles and stories about the restoration and reinvigoration of Gage and Tollner, but it cannot be understated what a jewel this New York City landmark is. They are one of the few landmarked restaurants where you can get a meal and cocktails that match the quality of this exquisite space.
Grand Central Terminal - Cipriani Dolci, The Campbell and the Grand Central Oyster Bar
If you’d like to witness first-hand the hustle and bustle of New York’s finest terminal, then I suggest grabbing a bar stool at the bar at Cipriani Dolci, the best option since Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse closed there.
Personally, I would prefer to visit the Campbell (nee Apartment), especially if Paris DuRante is bartending; or dine at one of the spaces (depending on the time of day) inside the Grand Central Oyster Bar. Besides containing an array of beautiful spaces—and a ladies lounge photo op that rivals Bar Snack—it was where I had my first oyster, my first pan roast and many late nights.
The Millennium Hilton New York One UN Plaza - The Ambassador Grill and Bar
This youngest space in New York City to receive interior landmark status was designed by Kevin Roche (60 Wall Street) and thankfully landmarked in his lifetime. Go for a drink at the bar before someone thinks up a way to screw the space up more.
The Plaza Hotel - the Palm Court and events in the Oak Room
I used to work across the street from the Plaza. You can tell me all day long how a previous owner ruined the Plaza, and that this is just a tourist trap, and there is a silly “style guide” to follow for dress. But reservations are not required at the bar, so I suggest you drop by for a cocktail and enjoy what’s left of this landmark until you’re complaining that it is all gone.
The Seagram Building - The Grill Room and the Pool Room
Read up on the history of The Seagram building, mostly designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Philip Johnson, with the famed Four Seasons Restaurant inside, mostly designed by Philip Johnson. Then, let’s talk about the Grill Room, still a marvelous place to sit at the bar and have a Martini or two.
The TWA Flight Center - Sunken Lounge
Eero Saarinen designed, but I should mention that Kevin Roche was a key team member from the Saarinen office on this job. This space is just as much fun when the lounge is empty as when it is full. Buy your cocktail and take a lot of selfies as you drink in the Platonic ideal of mid-century air travel.
Here’s to saving the New York we love for future intrepid explorers to “discover.”
—Mary Kate and Robert
If you’d like to support groups who work to ensure New York City continues to landmark its spaces, please look into the following:
The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
New York Landmarks Conservancy
To keep up on what the city is doing, or not doing to preserve and landmark the spaces you love:
Landmarks Preservation Commission
To help to preserve buildings and spaces of the modern movement:
Docomomo, New York/Tri-State area
And for the State of New York:
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Epilogue: Meière and The SS United States
Just about a month prior to the opening of the Printemps department store in New York City, The SS United States left its dock in Philadelphia, where it had spent nearly three decades waiting for someone to save it. That didn’t happen. So it was towed to Mobile, Alabama, where it will be stripped and readied for its final journey to Florida. There it will be sunk and used as a reef.
It was once the fastest ship on record. On its July 3, 1952, maiden voyage, The SS United States broke the eastbound speed record that had belonged to the RMS Queen Mary for fourteen years prior. Then it broke the westbound record on its way home.
This was a fast ship and oddly enough, Hildreth Meière and her daughter Louise were on it. She took Louise on a Grand Tour to celebrate her college graduation. They were gone fifteen months. Along with Austin Purves, Hildreth consulted on the art program for the ship, which included her own mural, “The Mississippi, the Father of Waters.” After the ship was decommissioned and the contents were removed, Hildreth’s mural was stored at the Nation Museum of American History. Louise expressed the hope that one day the ship and the mural would be reunited. That is not to be.
Recipe: Planter’s Punch
Gage and Tollner, Brooklyn, NY
The reborn Gage & Tollner specializes in classic cocktails—just as the original version of the restaurant did for many decades. This is their contemporary version of a Planter’s Punch.
2 ounces Denizen Merchant’s Reserve
3/4 ounce lime juice
1/2 ounce rich demerara syrup
1/2 tsp. house spiced Angostura bitters (or regular Angostura bitters)
3/4 ounce pineapple juice
3 drops saline (or a pinch of salt)
Whip shake ingredients in a cocktail shaker (that is, shake hard with a handful of pebble ice). Strain into a collins glass over pebble ice. Garnish with pineapple fronds, lime wheel, and an orange slice.
Odds and Ends…
Patrick Ford, known as Paddy, longtime bartender at Smith & Wollensky steakhouse in Manhattan, died over the weekend. He was 71. Ford was a fixture behind the bar at Wollensky’s Grill, the narrow bar and eatery on East 49th Street, just around the corner from the Manhattan steakhouse, ever joshing with regulars and frequently reaching for the unconnected red rotary telephone next to him to play out various comedy bits. Born in Buffalo, he was a lifelong bartender, first tending bar at Mulligan’s Brick Bar in Buffalo at the age of 18. Armed with a gravelly voice, salty personality, a thick head of hair and Buddy Holly glasses, he became a legend in old-school New York bartending circles. I met and interviewed him for Punch in 2018. He insisted on meeting in his apartment, which was in a handsome old pre-War building a few blocks from Wollensky. He roved around the place for 45 minutes, spinning stories, showing me pictures of his beautiful, younger girlfriend and occasionally answering one of my questions. “It’s about looking someone in the eye,” he said about bartending. “It’s about one word. In every article you read about me, there’s one word: acknowledgment. If you don’t know the customer’s name and what he drinks, what the fuck are you doing? Are you being all you can be, or did you come here to watch cartoons on TV and the baseball game? What’s the guy’s name who’s in front of you?”… News broke recently that Donohue’s Steak House, the beloved Upper East Side eatery, would open a second location in Westhampton, NY. Maureen Donohue-Peters recently told me she plans to open two additional locations over time—”one for each niece.”… The new cocktail menu at Milady’s, the popular SoHo cocktail bar, will be co-authored by none other than the bar’s renowned co-owner, Julie Reiner. This is a rarity, as Reiner typically curates and edits the cocktail creations of her bartending staff. “This will be the first menu I have taken the lead on in more than a decade,” she wrote on Instagram. She will collaborate on the menu with Milady’s general manager Brooke Toscano… 50 Best announced the 50 runners-up (that is, places 100 to 51) to their 2025 tally of North America’s Best Bars. Fresh New York bars that made the cut include Bar Contra (No. 98), Paradise Lost (95), The Portrait Bar (93), Shinji’s (90), and Bar Snack (85). Also ranking were such Friends of The Mix as Equal Measure in Boston (81), Latitude 29 in New Orleans (80), Long Island Bar in Brooklyn (64), and Dante West Village (60)… Golden Age Hospitality's Jon Neidich and Craig Atlas, in partnership with Darin Rubell of Paradise Projects, announced the opening of Bar Bianchi—a bar inspired by the vibrant piazzas of Northern Italy. Opening this May, the “interior captures the charm of 1920s–1930s Italian design layered with the optimism of 1960s modernism… At the center, a striking zinc and Formica bar—topped with a green art deco canopy.
Remarkable use of space. An important nod to Hildreth Meiere. Her contributions to Radio City Music Hall are also noteworthy. It's time she's received her recognition.
A captivating read with perfect images, plus I now have destinations for upcoming visits (maybe one or two with you)! Thanks for the detail on both the landmark process and each of the featured interiors. I savored it all.