Fuller Building
AFTER EXPERIMENTING with low massing, Walker & Gillette arrived at the classic Art Deco silhouette in their Fuller Building, which was until recently the headquarters of the Fuller Construction Company. Here, the skyscraper form is codified into a wid
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f t e r e x p e r i m e n t i n g with low massing, Walker & Gillette arrived at the classic Art Deco silhouette in their Fuller Building, which was until recently the headquarters of the Fuller Construction Company. Here, the skyscraper form is codified into a wide, multiuse base that conforms to the street cornice; a relatively unornamented, slender shaft for prime office space; and a signature decorative crown. One of the first tall buildings north of midtown, the 40-story Fuller Building’s striking, black-and-white Deco/Aztec crown, prominently sited on the northeast corner of Madison Avenue and East 57th Street, can be seen for great distances. Story-tall oculi framed in monochromatic sunburst patterns look out over the city in three directions, and are surmounted by a triple setback crown capped with black terra cotta in vibrant motifs of zigzags and triangles. The six-story base, framed in black granite, contains luxury shops and galleries. Eight bays of Chicago-style windows on the 57th Street front provide light for the galleries. The thin tower slab, clad in light-colored stone with smaller fenestration, contains offices, and the boldly decorated crown accented by three-sided balconies is the Fuller headquarters, still one of the largest construction companies in the country. By the late 1920s, modern classicism (or Deco, as we now call it) was well accepted by the public as the contemporary style, and no longer had to state its case so emphatically. Historicist ornament is transformed into two-dimensional representation. In place of a typical classical columned entrance, the Fuller Building features flat pilasters with two-dimensional black-granite triangles instead of capitals, and lines to represent fluting. The cornices of the upper setbacks suggest crenellations in patterns of black-andwhite terra cotta. The sculptural clock above the entry by Elie Nadelman in black Swedish granite and white Rockwood stone is a syncretic image of
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WALKER
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GILLETTE ,
1929
classical and modern classical motifs: two classically garbed workmen rest on their sledgehammers, flanking an octagonal clock against an abstract skyline of setback towers. The lobby celebrates the achievements of the Fuller Company in its floor mosaics: the Tacoma Building in 1889, the first all-steel structure; the Fuller Flatiron Building, here given its rarely used full name; and the Fuller Building itself, in a schematic black-and-white representation with shaded blue tile. Bronze elevator door panels form a tableau of the building trades: a workman “rides the ball” of a swinging derrick; bricklayers set bricks with mortarboards; plasterers lay up laths; stone masons set blocks with a tackle; pneumatic drill operators chip out the foundation; carpenters frame out the rooms; and pipe fitters adjust the plumbing.
[ 1 ] Setback skyscrapers were also appreciated for their picturesque qualities. [ 2 ] The Fuller’s classically styled workers rest before an abstract Art Deco skyline.
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