Midtown Terra Cotta Tour

Service Description

Terra-Cotta, or “fired earth” is the clay chameleon of the concrete jungle: it can mimic stone or sport a rainbow of Technicolor glazes. Both light-weight and highly malleable, its ideal for both slim curtain walls and ornate sculptural ornaments. By the turn of the 20th century, many of the city’s most eminent architects, including Cass Gilbert, Henry Hardenbergh, George B. Post and Ely Jacques Khan, worked in terra-cotta, and the clay faced some of the city’s most iconic facades, including the Flatiron Building, the Woolworth Building and the Plaza Hotel. On this tour led by Lucie Levine of Midtown Manhattan, we’ll see the clay chameleon in some of its most beautiful and diverse forms, from a Technicolor Moorish-Revival Temple to a French Renaissance Chateau to an Italian Mannerist school. Along the way, stop by New York’s most ornate apartment building, check out one of the city’s earliest co-ops and find-out how the New York’s most illustrious theater and finest hotel were clad in clay produced right here in the five boroughs!