Well-known Architects Get dressed as Their Well-known New York Town Constructions (1931)

On Jan­u­ary 13, 1931, the Soci­ety of Beaux-Arts Archi­tects held a ball on the Lodge Astor in New York Town. Accord­ing to an adver­tise­ment for the development, any­one that paid $15 according to tick­et (giant mon­ey dur­ing the Depres­sion) may see a “hilar­i­ous mod­ern artwork exhi­bi­tion” and issues “mod­ernistic, futur­is­tic, cubis­tic, altru­is­tic, mys­tic, archi­tis­tic and fem­i­nis­tic.” Atten­dees additionally were given to wit­ness greater than 20 well-known archi­tects dressed as construct­ings that they had designed—constructions that will transform repair­tures of the New York Town sky­line.

Within the %­ture above, we have now from left to proper: A. Stew­artwork Stroll­er because the Fuller Construct­ing (1929), Leonard Schultze because the Wal­dorf-Asto­ria Lodge (1931), Ely Jacques Kahn because the Squibb Construct­ing (1930), William Van Alen because the Chrysler Construct­ing (1930), Ralph Stroll­er as 1 Wall Side road (1931), D.E. Ward because the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Tow­er and Joseph H. Freed­lan­der because the Muse­um of the Town of New York (1930).

A 2006 arti­cle in The New York Instances notes that the development, now con­sid­ered “probably the most spec­tac­u­lar par­ties of the final cen­tu­ry,” used to be cov­ered via WABC radio. A couple of pho­tographs stay, like the only above. As does a tan­ta­liz­ing brief little bit of video.

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