Story
Palaces for the People: Guastavino Tile in New York Buildings
In the closing decades of the 19th century, New York underwent a profound physical and cultural transformation. Fueled by the wealth of the exploding financial and manufacturing sectors, the city rapidly evolved into a world-class metropolis. The bold ambitions of civic and business leaders, architects, and engineers of the era manifested in landmarks such as the vast Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the stately U.S. Custom House, the towering Municipal Building, and the original terminus of New York City’s first official subway line—the ornate City Hall stop.
The sweeping interior spaces common to all of these structures, and hundreds of others, depended upon a venerable Mediterranean building technology adapted to contemporary American construction: arched tile ceilings—or vaults—that were not only self-supporting but could also bear the weight of floors or roofs above them. These vaults were designed and built by a single New York firm, founded by Spanish immigrant Rafael Guastavino (1842-1908) and later headed by his son Rafael Jr. (1872-1950).
The Guastavinos’ patented system for building domes and vaults involved multiple layers of thin ceramic tiles bonded with quick-drying mortar. The resulting structures were not only exceptionally strong, but also lightweight, easy to build, and inherently beautiful, thanks to intricate patterns of exposed tile that formed finished, decorative surfaces. Guastavino vaults figured prominently in more than 1,000 projects across the nation, including 200 in Manhattan alone. During its 73-year history, the Guastavino Company helped build some of the most impressive interior spaces in America—veritable palaces for the people.
This list based on MCNY's exhibition Palaces for the People, contains many of Guastavino's masterpieces in the five boroughs, both those that remain and those that have been lost to the wrecking ball.
Cathedral of St. John the Divine
The Guastavino Company pushed the limits of traditional tile vaulting further than any previous builders. Guastavino Jr.’s building method for the dome of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine required no support during construction, yet created a highly stable shell only 4.5 inches thick at its crown. The 135-foot span was erected in a mere 15 weeks. Originally intended as a temporary, inexpensive cover for the crossing of the cathedral’s two main axes, the dome remains in place today—a testament to its solid construction.
1
St. Paul's Chapel, Columbia University
This chapel on the campus of Columbia University illustrates the full potential of Guastavino vaulting as both a structural and a decorative system. The chapel is capped by a double dome, consisting of two thin tile layers separated by an air space. The most dramatic architectural elements of the building, however, are the spiral staircases whose three-dimensional curvatures convey the remarkable flexibility of the Guastavino system.
2
Western Union Building (1930)
By the late 1920s, the grandeur of Beaux-Arts architecture had begun to seem old-fashioned. Meanwhile, new concrete vaulting methods started to rival the Guastavino system for spanning large spaces. Commissions like the Western Union Building reflect the company’s adaptation to these changing times. The Guastavino tiles in this magnificent Art Deco interior are primarily an ornamental finish, hanging from a superstructure of steel and concrete.
3
City Hall Subway Station
The City Hall Subway Station, one of the Guastavinos’ earliest major infrastructure projects, has been described as “an underground cathedral.” Boasting polychrome tile vaults, stained-glass skylights, and brass chandeliers, the station’s elegant design helped convince a wary public to embrace belowground travel. The station was abandoned in the 1940s following the introduction of trains that were too long for its passenger platform. The colorful tile vaults, however, remain in excellent condition, and can be glimpsed through the subway car windows by riders who stay on the downtown 6 train.
4
Immigrant Building
A 1916 explosion at a nearby munitions depot destroyed the original wood-lath-and-plaster ceiling of Ellis Island’s Registry Hall. The Guastavino Company was hired to rebuild the structure using thin tile vaults. Engineers overseeing its renovation in the 1980s deemed the building structurally sound, despite its abandonment for three decades following the 1954 closure of the immigration facility. Remarkably, only 17 of the hall’s nearly 30,000 tiles needed to be replaced.
5
Manhattan Municipal Building
The vaulting over the South Concourse of New York’s Municipal Building epitomizes the spatial genius of Guastavino Jr. This irregularly shaped area, punctuated by numerous columns supporting the 580-foot skyscraper above, presented him with particular challenges. Guastavino Jr. designed a deceptively simple and graceful array of vaults—no two of them alike—springing from asymmetrical structural bays. The open-air concourse provides access to the Chambers Street Subway Station below.
6
Pennsylvania Station (1910)
New York’s original Penn Station, whose 1963 demolition rallied the nascent preservation movement in America, contained a series of Guastavino vaults supported by curving steel trusses and columns. George Collins, the Columbia University professor and architectural historian who later single-handedly saved the Guastavino Company archives from destruction, noted that this combination of thin tile vaults and metal trusses was probably unique—not just in New York, but in the world.
7
St. Bartholomew's Church (1917)
Created in a Neo-Byzantine style, the church's architect Betram Goodie used Guastavino tiles prolifically in his design, from the barrel vaulting, the walls, the nave, and even the dome of the adjoining community house (though that was implemented after Goodhue's death.)
8
Vanderbilt Hotel
Named for a family of Renaissance-era Italian ceramicists, the original Della Robbia Grill and Bar in the Vanderbilt Hotel reflected Guastavino Jr.’s increasingly adventurous use of richly colored and textured tile. The shallow vaults were finished in pale tiles with raised geometrical designs, bordered by bands of vibrant blue tiles along with ceramic rosettes and ropes made by Rookwood Pottery of Cincinnati. A 1960s renovation destroyed portions of the original restaurant, but the bar remains almost entirely intact.
9
Payne Whitney House
The Guastavino construction company built the dome over the foyer of the Whitney house as well as its main staircase, using a laminated vaulting system.
10
Sailors' Snug Harbor, Music Hall
While it was long thought that a private mausoleum was the only Guastavino tiled building in Staten Island, it recently came to light that the Sailors' Snug Harbor Music Hall's cellar had a ceiling with what is thought to be Guastavino tiled vaults.
11
Grand Central Terminal
For the Oyster Bar at Grand Central Station, Guastavino Jr. devised a series of vaults of cream-colored tile to create a space that was both intimate and expansive. The vaults endured the ultimate test in 1997, when a fire ravaged the popular restaurant. Thousands of tiles delaminated from the ceiling and had to be replaced, but engineers cited the results of the Guastavino Company’s fire tests of a century earlier to prove that the basic structure was still sound. The bar reopened only 12 weeks after the fire
12
Hall of Fame for Great Americans
The ceiling of the 630 foot open air colonnade is composed of Guastavino vaults.
13
Gould Memorial Library
White’s design for the NYU library is centered around a Guastavino dome spanning 56 feet as well as two long corridors with coffered barrel vaults tiled by the Guastavino company.
14
Metropolitan Museum of Art
In 1969, several bays of Guastavino vaulting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art were removed because engineers could not independently calculate their load capacity. Columbia University professor and architectural historian George Collins (1917-93) salvaged several pieces of the structure. This fragment—its tiles and mortar bonded together to form a single mass—attests to the solidity of the Guastavino Company’s cohesive construction. Collins and demolition workers reported that they found the vaults very difficult to destroy.
15
Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House
Cass Gilbert’s design for the Rotunda of the U.S. Custom House at Bowling Green called for an elliptical, skylit dome spanning 85 by 130 feet. The size and shape of such a structure posed substantial engineering challenges. Guastavino Sr. devised a solution consisting of a pair of thin tile domes—one inside the other—supported by two elliptical steel rings: one at the top of the supporting walls and another at the skylight’s perimeter. Ornamental plaster covers the inner dome, obscuring the tiles from view.
16
Holy Trinity Church
Designed in the neo-Byzantine style popular at the time, the Holy Trinity Church exhibits the rich visual effects the Guastavinos could achieve even when using a relatively narrow color range. Panels of pale, herringbone-patterned tiles in the dome are framed by “ribs” of slightly darker tiles. As in many Guastavino projects, the company applied the exposed layer of tiles last, with protruding mortar joints that emphasize the intricate pattern when seen from a distance.
17
Queensboro Bridge
Restoration and reuse have saved many Guastavino projects. Originally an open-air market under the Queensboro Bridge, the Bridgemarket served the community from 1914 to 1930. For nearly 60 years thereafter, the space functioned as a storage garage. In 1999, extensive restoration returned the area to public use as a market and popular event space named in honor of the Guastavinos.
18
Washington Square Arch
Though normally not visible to the public, the Washington Square Arch has a Guastavino spiral staircase on its Western pier as well as the roof of its attic space.
19
Prospect Park Boathouse and Landing
Though it has had major renovations, the beautiful green glazed tiled Guastavino vaults remain on the ceiling of the Prospect Park Boathouse's nine bays.
20
Bronx Zoo
The architectural heart of the Bronx Zoo is Astor Court, a group of Beaux-Arts pavilions designed by Heins & La Farge. The principal building, originally called the Elephant House, is structured as a series of Guastavino vaults crowned by a two-tiered dome covering a central rotunda. The shallow inner dome features a distinctive herringbone tile pattern pierced by a ring of circular skylights. Polychrome tiles initially finished the tall outer dome, later re-clad in metal.
21
Church of the Blessed Sacrament
While the Church of the Blessed Sacrament's French Gothic Design has a steel frame, its roof is supported through Guastavino Domes and tile arches.
22
Riverside Church
Collaborating with Harvard University physics professor Wallace Clement Sabine, Guastavino Jr. pioneered the use of acoustical tile in large public spaces. The neo-Gothic Riverside Church exemplifies the successful application of a proprietary Guastavino Company product called Akoustolith. Resembling blocks of heavy stone, the Akoustolith tiles form vaults that combine with a steel frame to create a hybrid load-bearing system with excellent acoustical properties.
23
Prison Ship Martyrs Monument
The use of Guastavino tile in the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument is not readily accessible to passersby. The iconic tile vaults secure the roof of the crypt underneath the monument that holds the remains of many of the prison ship martyrs.
24
Peristyle
The Prospect Park Peristyle's 28 Corinthian columns are spanned by very shallow Guastavino herringboned vaults that highlight its elegant neoclassical style.
25
11 Madison Avenue
The Madison Square Presbyterian Church (demolished in 1919) sported a 46 foot Guastavino dome clad in yellow and green glazed tile. It was beloved enough to be featured in much of the company's promotional material.
26
Temple Emanu-El (1929)
Hildreth Meiere's striking mosaics Art Deco in Temple Emanu-El were finished with Guastavino tiles.
27
Madison Square Garden (Madison Square)
Long since demolished, Stanford White's masterpiece was surrounded by a Guastavino arcade that extended over the sidewalk to the curb.
28
Church of the Heavenly Rest
When construction began on the Church of Heavenly Rest in 1926, the net-gothic design relied on heavy use of Guastavino vaulting tiles and Akoustolith walls. They were eventually covered in sealant to improve the acoustics.
29
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall used Guastavino tiles for its main lobby vaulting as well as the Guastavino process for its interior where thick masonry and concrete that helped improve its acoustics.
30
St. Patrick's Cathedral
31
University Club of New York
32
Union Theological Seminary
33
Union League Club (1931)
34
27 West 67th Street
35
Church of St. Vincent Ferrer
36
St. Thomas Protestant Episcopal Church
37
Church of St. Teresa
38
West Side Y.M.C.A.
39
St. Regis Hotel
40
St. Luke's Hospital
41
Church of St. John of Nepomuk
42
St. Jean Baptiste Church
43
Saint Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church
44
St. Gregory's the Great Roman Catholic Church
45
St. George's Episcopal Church (Flushing)
46
Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument
47
11 West 42nd Street
48
Racquet and Tennis Club
49
2050 Lexington Avenue
50
736 Seventh Avenue
51
2365 Frederick Douglass Boulevard
52
Police Headquarters Building (1909)
53
Pershing Square Building
54
Percy R. Pyne House
55
1 Park Avenue
56
Otto H. Kahn House
57
New York Cotton Exchange Building
58
125th Street Branch, NYPL
59
New-York Historical Society
60
Morgan Library & Museum
61
Metropolitan Club
62
Lenox Hill Hospital
63
Langham Apartments
64
107 East 70th Street
65
Hotel Knickerbocker
66
23 Wall Street
67
The Hispanic Society of America
68
156 East 78th Street
69
807 Manhattan Avenue
70
Graham Court
71
Grace Church
72
Gorham Building
73
The Cloisters
74
General Grant National Memorial (Grant's Tomb)
75
Fordham University
76
12 West 108th Street
77
First Church of Christ Scientist
78
Fifth Avenue Theatre
79
Fifth Avenue Hospital
80
Federal Reserve Bank of New York
81
23 East 83rd Street
82
Erasmus Hall High School
83
Church of the Intercession
84
Church of the Holy Trinity
85
330 Hudson Street
86
2100 Broadway
87
Brooklyn Museum
88
Brooklyn College
89
Brooklyn Central Court
90
Bronx County Courthouse
91
Bowery Savings Bank (42nd Street)
92
Hotel Bossert
93
Biltmore Hotel
94
Barnard College Milbank Hall
95
Barnard College, Brooks Hall
96
140 West Street
97
Astor Apartments
98
Ansonia Hotel
99
Ansche Chesed Synagogue
100
Hotel Henry Hudson
101
Lefcourt-Colonial Building
102
500 Fifth Avenue
103
Lord & Taylor, Midtown
104
New York Telephone Company
105
54th Street Baths
106
William W. Cook House
107
Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower
108