Trowbridge & Livingston

Trowbridge & Livingston
The Oregon State Capital
Practice information
Founders	Breck Trowbridge; Goodhue Livingston
Founded	1897
Dissolved	1925
Location	New York City, New York, U.S.
Affiliations	Trowbridge, Colt & Livingston

Trowbridge & Livingston was an architecture firm based in New York City, active from 1897 to 1925. The firm's partners were Breck Trowbridge and Goodhue Livingston.[1] They were successors to the firm Trowbridge, Colt & Livingston, founded in 1894 but dissolved in 1897 when Stockton B. Colt left the partnership.

Often commissioned by well-heeled clients, much of the firm's work was built in the Upper East Side and Financial District neighborhoods of New York. The firm became known for its commercial, civic, and institutional buildings, many designed in a Beaux Arts or neoclassical style. Some examples are the B. Altman and Company Building (1905), J. P. Morgan Building (1913), and the Oregon State Capitol (1938).

Biographies of the partners

Breck Trowbridge

Samuel Breck Parkman Trowbridge was born in New York City on May 20, 1862, the fourth of eight children of William Petit Trowbridge and Lucy Parkman Trowbridge. His father was a military engineer who oversaw construction of Fort Totten Battery, and repairs to Fort Schuyler during the American Civil War. After the war, he became a professor of mechanical engineering at Yale's Sheffield Scientific School in 1871, then at the Columbia School of Mines in 1877.[2]

The younger Trowbridge graduated in 1883 from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut,[3] and in 1886 from Columbia University's School of Architecture. After further study abroad at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens and at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris,[3] he returned to New York where he worked in the office of George B. Post for four years,[3] before practicing in partnership from 1894 with Livingston and Stockton B. Colt, and from 1897 with Livingston, after Colt left the firm. Trowbridge died of pneumonia at his home in New York City on January 29, 1925.

Goodhue Livingston

Goodhue Livingston was born in New York City on February 23, 1867, the son of Robert Edward Livingston and his wife, Susan DePeyster.[4] He graduated from Columbia College (1888), and from Columbia University's School of Mines (1892).

Firm activity

14 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan

In 1894, Trowbridge, Livingston and Colt formed a partnership that lasted until 1897 when Stockton B. Colt left, and the firm became Trowbridge & Livingston.[3]

Its major commissions were received between 1901 and 1938, most in a Beaux Arts or neoclassical style. The majority of the firm's work was in New York City, where the firm designed several notable public and commercial buildings. Among the most famous are the neo-Baroque St. Regis New York (1904).[5] and the B. Altman and Company Building (1906), both on Fifth Avenue.[6] In particular, nearly all of the buildings at the intersection of Wall, Broad, and Nassau Streets in Manhattan's Financial District were designed by the firm: 14 Wall Street (1912), the Bankers Trust Building on the northwest corner; 11 Wall Street (1922), the New York Stock Exchange Annex on the southwest corner; and 23 Wall Street (1913) and 15 Broad Street (1927), the J. P. Morgan & Co. Building on the southwest corner.[7]

Their practice extended to townhouses on Manhattan's Upper East Side, of which 41 East 65 Street (1910), 11 East 91st Street and 49 East 68th Street (1914) remain. The New York Society Library, a lending library with a long genteel tradition in New York, moved into the former John Rogers House at 53 East 79th Street.

Projects

New York City projects

• The Nathaniel L. McCready House (1896)[8]
• 123 East 63rd Street (1900)[9]
• St. Regis New York (1901–1904), 2 East 55th Street (NYC Landmark)[10]
• 123 East 70th Street (1902–1903)[11]
• The Knickerbocker Hotel (1902–1906), 1462–1470 Broadway (NYC Landmark and NRHP-listed)[12]
• The Links Club (1902), 36 East 62nd Street[13]
• B. Altman and Company Building (1905), 351–57 Fifth Avenue (NYC Landmark)[6]
• Engine Company 7, Ladder Company 1, FDNY (1905), 100 Duane Street (NYC Landmark)[14]
• John B. and Caroline Trevor House (1909–1911), 11 East 91st Street (NYC Landmark)[15]
• Benson Bennett Sloan House (1910), 41 East 65th Street[15]
• Bankers Trust Company (1910–1912), 14 Wall Street (NYC Landmark)[16]
• J.P. Morgan & Company Building (1913), 23 Wall Street (NYC Landmark and NRHP-listed)[17]
• J. William and Margaretta C. Clark House (1913–1914), 49 East 68th Street (NYC Landmark)[18]
• New York Society Library (1917), 53 East 79th Street (NYC Landmark)[19]
• Extension to the New York Stock Exchange Building (1923), 8 Broad Street (NRHP-listed)[17]
• American Museum of Natural History southeast extension (1912–1924), West 77th Street and Central Park West[20]
• 44 Wall Street (1927)[21]
• 15 Broad Street (1928)[22]
• The Hayden Planetarium (1935) at the American Museum of Natural History, West 81st Street and Central Park West[23]

Projects outside New York City

• Bixby Memorial Free Library, (1911), Vergennes, Vermont[24]
• Jordanville Public Library (1907–1908), Jordanville, New York, NRHP-listed[25]
• St. Elizabeth's Memorial Chapel (1921), Tuxedo, New York[26]
• The Gulf Building, now Gulf Tower (1932), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in association with Edward Mellon;
• The Oregon State Capitol (1936–38) in Salem, in association with Francis Keally, NRHP-listed[25]
• American National Red Cross, 17th and D Sts., NW Washington, D.C. Trowbridge & Livingston, NRHP-listed[25]
• United States Post Office and Courthouse, Jct. of 7th and Grant Streets. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Trowbridge & Livingston, NRHP-listed[25]

References

1. "Trowbridge & Livingston". New York Architecture. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
2. Trowbridge, Francis Bacon (1908). The Trowbridge Genealogy: History of the Trowbridge Family in America. Vol. 1. New Haven, CT: Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor. pp. 608–609. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
3. "B. Altman & Company Department Store Building" (PDF). The Graduate Center, CUNY. City University of New York. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
4. Reynolds, Cuyler (1911). Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs, Vol. I. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co. p. 25. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
5. White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot; Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 334. ISBN 978-0-19-977291-9
6. White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot; Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 266-267. ISBN 978-0-19-977291-9
7. Stern, Robert A. M.; Gilmartin, Patrick; Mellins, Thomas (1987). New York 1930: Architecture and Urbanism Between the Two World Wars. New York: Rizzoli. p. 535. ISBN 978-0-8478-3096-1. OCLC 13860977.
8. White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot; Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press, p. 445. ISBN 978-0-19-977291-9
9. White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot; Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press, p. 423. ISBN 978-0-19-977291-9
10. White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot; Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 334 ISBN 978-0-19-977291-9
11. White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot; Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 438. ISBN 978-0-19-977291-9
12. White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot; Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 296 ISBN 978-0-19-977291-9
13. White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot; Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 421. ISBN 978-0-19-977291-9
14. White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot; Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-19-977291-9
15. White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot; Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 459 ISBN 978-0-19-977291-9
16. White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot; Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press, p. 20 ISBN 978-0-19-977291-9
17. White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot; Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press, p. 19 ISBN 978-0-19-977291-9
18. White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot; Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press, p. 433. ISBN 978-0-19-977291-9
19. White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot; Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press, p. 450ISBN 978-0-19-977291-9
20. White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot; Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press, p. 397 ISBN 978-0-19-977291-9
21. "44 Wall Street". Emporis. Archived from the original on April 17, 2016. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
22. White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot; Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.p. 21 ISBN 978-0-19-977291-9
23. White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot; Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 397. ISBN 978-0-19-977291-9
24. "Bixby Memorial Free Library". Society of Architectural Historians Archipedia. 2018-07-31. Retrieved 2022-03-19.
25. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
26. "St. Elizabeth's Chapel". Tuxedo Chamber of Commerce. Retrieved July 28, 2021.

External links

• Emporis: Trowbridge & Livingston^[usurped]