BALANCE ARM FLOOR LAMP

569-573 Lexington Avenue, Midtown Manhattan

Admired for its unusual shape, color, and stainless steel sign, the Summit Hotel is an important work by Morris Lapidus. Begun in 1959, it was the first hotel built in Manhattan in three decades and the architect’s first hotel in New York City. Lapidus was especially proud of this building and reproduced an image of the Summit on the cover of his autobiography, The Architecture of Joy, published in 1979. Trained at Columbia University, he enjoyed considerable success as a retail designer in the 1930s. After the Second World War, Lapidus began to design hotels, including the celebrated Fontainbleau and Eden Roc in Miami Beach. These accomplishments led to his association with the Tisch family, who commissioned the Americana Hotel in Bal Harbour, Florida, in 1956. After acquiring a controlling interest in Loew’s Theaters, they commissioned the Summit, which adapts many of the devices Lapidus perfected in Florida to a challenging, constricted site at the corner of Lexington Avenue and East 51st Street.

Built in reinforced concrete, a material favored for its sculptural potential, the curving north and south elevations are clad in light green glazed brick and dark green mosaic tile manufactured in Italy. The top three stories, built as penthouse suites, are faced in green structural glass. To further distinguish the building from its neighbors, the door handles were inlaid with colorful mosaics and the base along East 51st Street is illuminated by globe-shaped lighting fixtures. On Lexington Avenue, he designed a striking illuminated sign. Consisting of seven disks hung between stainless steel pins, this unique element enhanced the hotel’s street presence, making it visible from a distance. Other distinctive features include a pair of neon signs that direct drivers to the parking garage and a stainless steel ash tray that serves cigarette smokers descending into the subway. The hotel opened in August 1961, generating considerable media attention. Some writers greeted the new hotel with disappointment or amusement, while others viewed it as a disharmonious addition to the streetscape. In subsequent years, however, the hotel attracted an increasing number of admirers and aside from alterations to the Lexington Avenue entrance, this flamboyant modern structure retains much of its original character.

Morris Lapidus (1902-2000)

The Summit Hotel was designed by Morris Lapidus, one of the most influential hotel designers of the 20th century. Born in Odessa, Russia, in 1902, he and his family immigrated to the United States in 1903. They lived on the Lower East Side for several years, moving to Williamsburg, and later, to the East New York section of Brooklyn. Lapidus attended Boys High School (a designated New York City Landmark) in the Bedford section, and for a brief time trained as an actor at New York University. During the mid-1920s, he attended architecture school at Columbia University, studying with Frederic C. Hirons and Wallace K. Harrison. Lapidus worked as a draftsman for several firms, including Warren & Wetmore, Bloch & Hesse, Arthur Weiser, and for fifteen years, Evan Frankel (of Ross-Frankel). In the office of Ross-Frankel, during the 1930s, or working independently, he designed or supervised the construction of more the five hundred storefronts, shop interiors, and showrooms.

Lapidus formed his own office in 1943 and gradually began to design entire structures, including stores, synagogues, apartment buildings, and an estimated two hundred hotels. Early works by Lapidus in New York City include: L Motors (1948, demolished) in Washington Heights, Shaare Zion synagogue (1954) in Flatbush, and the America Fore Insurance Group Office Building (1960) in downtown Brooklyn. A retail designer at heart, he created extravagant works that challenged the minimalist trends of the 1950s. He often worked in broad strokes, juxtaposing modern and traditional forms, as well as color, texture, and light. Lapidus eschewed right angles, creating structures that had unusual floor plans and distinctive shapes. His best-known commissions are located in southern Florida, namely the crowd-pleasing Fontainbleau (1954) and Eden Roc (1955) hotels, on adjoining parcels in Miami Beach. Lapidus later observed that the plan of the Fontainbleau “resembles nothing from the past. There’s hardly a straight line in it – it just moves, one curve going one way, and another in the opposite direction. There’s no end.”

Lapidus designed the Summit Hotel in association with Harle & Liebman. Leo Kornblath, who is listed as a partner in filings with the Department of Buildings, is not identified on the building plans and established his own firm during the hotel’s construction.3 During these years, Lapidus operated two offices: in Manhattan, on East 56th Street; and in Miami Beach, on Lincoln Road. Harle & Liebman are identified as interior designers, with offices in

Vintage asbestos floor tile sample, dated on reverse from 1957.