#steinway hall

[thisish20]

Steinway Hall

[onceuponatown]

New York. 57th Street at 6th Avenue, 1916.

[elocutionaryarts]

People lining up at Steinway Hall in 1867 to buy tickets to hear Charles Dickens read.

[jgthirlwell]

1/16/14 The preternaturally gifted Amir Khosrowpour performed a piano recital at Steinway Hall, opposite Carnegie Hall, which amply displayed his blinding skill. He performed a great piece, "Luminosity", written for him by Manorexia NY pianist David Broome (with whom Amir has a project, Corky Has a Band) along with improvisations and a super intense reading on John Adams' beautiful "Phrygian Gates". His playing was stunningly fluid and blindingly fast, his demeanor was comedic and goofy.

[notesonnewyork]

107 West 57th Street

In the early 1900s, West 57th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues was a bustling block of businesses and townhouses. The 6th Avenue El Train hustled on by while the Plaza Hotel stood preening in the distance. Here's a "pre-1923" shot of it from the prints and photographs catalog of the Library of Congress:

The building on the far left, 115 West 57th, lost its stairway entrance over the years but gained a fifth floor and is still standing today. The next three townhouses, 109-113 West 57th, were demolished and refurbished in 1925 as Steinway Hall, the performance space, sales headquarters, and grand showroom for Steinway & Sons' assortment of pianos. You can still see it today. The building on the right, however, at 105-107 West 57th, is now an empty lot. Here's how the block appears today, courtesy of manhattanscout.com:

So how did we wind up with this empty lot at 105-107 West 57th? Let's start at the beginning. On June 18, 1914, the building that once occupied the space was officially unveiled and the New York Times saw fit to take notice:

But the ensuing years must not have been kind to the Freundschaft Society's clubhouse. When the Times next checked in on the property, it had been reduced to a single story structure. Aaron M. Kaye, a secondhand furrier who owned several shops along 57th Street, had just bought it on January 5, 1946:

Kaye, a failed violinist, opened his first fur shop in 1937 with a $1,000 loan. That shop begat five others and when the time came to consolidate his business, he chose 105-107 West 57th as the place to grow his brand. And grow it did. In fact, the Ritz Thrift Shop expanded so much that Kaye needed to add an annex to it just for minx coats in 1955. The Times ran a profile of him that year on November 10th:

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Although Kaye passed away in 1958, he was survived by three sons, four daughters, two brothers, and a sister who kept the business going. In 1967, his son Michael was interviewed for an October 17th article in the Times entitled "What Do Fashion Leaders Do With Their Superfluous Clothes?" They trade them in at the Ritz of course!

The Times asked the same question a few years later, and got the same answer. This from an article dated November 24, 1975:

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By the mid-1980s, the Ritz had become such a New York institution that even the Times suggested granting its ubiquitous television commercial "landmark status" in a write-up on January 27, 1988:

IF someone ever decides that commercials can be granted landmark status our first vote would be for that single enduring spot for the Ritz Thrift Shop.

That's the one that shows a woman getting off a bus and going into the West 57th Street used-furs shop and emerging in a lunaraine mink coat. She cutely turns up its collar as the voice-over says, ''You don't have to be a millionaire to look like a millionaire.''

She responds petitely, ''Oh, thank you.''

That spot has been running since September 1975, according to Keith Tauber, who manages the store. Can you imagine any commercial, especially one with a fashion orientation, having such longevity?

By 2005, the Ritz Thrift Shop had been in business for over 60 years at 105-107 West 57th. Here's how it appeared that year in December, courtesy of wired.com:

But if you look closely, you can see the shop is closed, maybe gone since its "Ritz Building" insignia on the facade has been removed. The New York Daily News picked up the story on June 5, 2005:

Now, after 62 years and upwards of 300,000 furs, the shop at 107 W. 57th St. is closing, the victim of the real ­estate boom more than a fur bust. Late last month, an unnamed group of real estate developers [Starwood Capital] offered $25 million for the single-story building and the air rights above it.

According to Kaye's grandchildren, who still run the company, the 15,000-square-foot shop will make way for a 35-story office-retail-residential complex. "The family was made an offer they couldn't refuse," said general manager Keith Tauber, who is married to one of Kaye's granddaughters. "The idea was, if the real estate became more valuable than the profits coming in, then that was it."

And so that was it. Here's how it appeared from above before it was leveled, thanks to skyscrapercity.com:

And today, as the empty lot:

But Starwood Capital's 35-story tower never materialized and, in May 2012, JDS Development Group and Property Markets Group acquired the site for some $40 million. They also purchased neighboring Steinway Hall for $46.3 million, its 45,000 square feet of air rights for $46 million, and its land lease for $131.5 million. All told, JDS and PMG spent $217.8 million to take control of both 105-107 and 109-113. 

So what will they do with the lots? Well, since Steinway Hall has both an interior and exterior landmark, the building will remain as they plan on refurbishing the property. However, Steinway & Sons will be forced to relocate after 88 years of business at 109-113 sometime in 2014. Other than the restoration, JSD and PMG have not announced any future plans for the site. 105-107, however, is another matter.

Earlier this week, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved plans presented by SHoP Architects for a 1,350 foot luxury residential tower to be constructed on the presently empty lot with the air rights from 109-113. The LPC had to review the design since they involve altering part of the 58th Street side of Steinway Hall to forge the tower. But, since they liked the plans, JSD and PMG can now get into the 57th Street skyscraper wars with their neighbors I've written about here

http://riffchorusriff.tumblr.com/post/47255307184/432-park-avenue

and here

http://riffchorusriff.tumblr.com/post/44693541698/moloch-of-manhattan

So let's peruse at the plans. You can find all these renderings at shoparc.com:

1. Street View:

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2. Facade Detail:

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3. SHoP's 9' Model of the Tower:

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4. View of 57th Street Looking North:

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5. View of 57th Street Looking South:

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What would Aaron Kaye think of these plans for his fur shop if he saw them today? 

[offthegridny-blog]

Architectural detail on Steinway Hall on 57th Street, the showroom of Steinway & Sons between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. The male and female figures look like they are trying to hide in the alcove. And they can use a bath.

[frankkuin]

Just another pianist at Steinway Hall

For an article about Steinway & Sons, the venerable piano maker that is being sold to a private equity firm, I made my way over to Steinway Hall, an historic venue on W 57 Street in Manhattan, diagonally across the block from Carnegie Hall. Its centerpiece is a ground floor rotunda with -- you guessed it -- a Steinway grand piano.

Built in 1925, Steinway Hall has housed performance spaces and showrooms for almost a century. But now the 16-storey building has been sold. The company has to vacate it by the end of next year -- to the dismay of many pianists, who consider the venue, where the likes of Rachmaninoff and Horowitz played, to be holy ground.

I wandered up to the second floor, where classical piano music was audible from several small practice rooms. I asked one of the pianists what he thought about the sale of the venue and the company. He thought it was a shame.

"There's concern about the direction of the company under new management", he told me. "As pianists, we love it the original way. We love the rich sound of a Steinway piano."

His name: Beny Tu. Turns out he was practicing for a solo performance at Lincoln Center on Saturday, when he will be playing works by Schuman and Chopin. And oh, the show is sold out, I found out later online when I thought it would be nice to stop by.

[randyklein-blog]

Randy Klein's Visit to Steinway Hall

Randy Klein visited the legendary Steinway Hall, located across the street from the Carnegie Hall on 57th Street, between Sixth Avenue and Seventh Avenue in New York City. Randy Klein is an exclusive Steinway artist since 1998.