Emery Roth & Sons architectural records and papers, 1906-1996, bulk 1951-1994

Summary Information

At a Glance

Bib ID:
3460569 View CLIO record
Creator(s):
Emery Roth & Sons; Belluschi, Pietro, 1899-1994; Durst, Joseph, 1882-1973; Graves, Michael, 1934-2015; Gropius, Walter, 1883-1969; Helmsley, Harry; Jaffe, Norman, 1932-1993; Manerias, J. C. S; Matsui, Yasuo; Merrick, Frederick I; Pomeroy, Lee Harris, 1932-2018; Roth, Emery, 1871-1948; Roth, Julian; Roth, Richard, 1904-; Roth, Richard, Jr., 1933-; Ruderman, James; Rudin, Samuel, 1896-1975; Silverstein, Larry A., 1933-; Stone, Edward Durell; Viñoly, Rafael, 1944-; Yamasaki, Minoru, 1912-1986; Zukov, Nikita; Emery Roth & Sons; Cesar Pelli and Associates; Cosentini Associates; Cross & Cross; Diesel Construction Company; Dormitory Authority of the State of New York; Durst Organization; Edward Durell Stone & Associates; Fox & Fowle Architects; Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects; Helmsley Hotels, Inc; Helmsley-Spear, Inc; Hugh Stubbins and Associates; Hurley & Farinella; Lee Harris Pomeroy Associates; Magnusson Architecture and Planning; New York (N.Y.). Board of Education; Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.); New York City Housing Authority; Otis Elevator Company; Pei Partnership; Pelli/Viñoly Architects; Peterson and Brickbauer; Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; RTKL Associates; Shah Alam Properties; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; Syska & Hennessy; Tishman Realty & Construction Co; Tishman Speyer; Trammell Crow Company; United States. Army. Corps of Engineers. New York District; United States. Department of Housing and Urban Development; United States. National Park Service; Uris Buildings Corporation
Repository:
Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library
Physical Description:
34175 drawings (34,175 drawings); 201 document boxes (245 linear feet papers); 4 print boxes
Language(s):
English .
Access:

This collection is available for use by appointment in the Department of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. For further information and to make an appointment, please email avery-drawings@library.columbia.edu.

Description

Scope and Content

This collection primarily contains architectural drawings, correspondence, business records, and a small number of photographs related to the projects of Emery Roth & Sons and its subsidiary entities. A large portion of the entities are represented only in the Office Records series and are identified as such. Some projects on which Emery Roth & Sons acted as architect of record are not represented in this collection, most notably the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.

Arrangement

This material is arranged in two series: Project Records and Office Records. Within the Project Records series, materials are arranged in the following subseries: Drawings, Files, Photographs, and Specifications. The further arrangement of material within each level is described at the beginning of each series and subseries.

Using the Collection

Restrictions on Access

This collection is available for use by appointment in the Department of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. For further information and to make an appointment, please email avery-drawings@library.columbia.edu.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

Columbia University is providing access to the materials in the Library's collections solely for noncommercial educational and research purposes. The unauthorized use, including, but not limited to, publication of the materials without the prior written permission of Columbia University is strictly prohibited. All inquiries regarding permission to publish should be submitted in writing to the Director, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. In addition to permission from Columbia University, permission of the copyright owner (if not Columbia University) and/or any holder of other rights (such as publicity and/or privacy rights) may also be required for reproduction, publication, distributions, and other uses. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of any item and securing any necessary permissions rests with the persons desiring to publish the item. Columbia University makes no warranties as to the accuracy of the materials or their fitness for a particular purpose.

Preferred Citation

Emery Roth & Sons architectural records and papers, 1906-1996. Dept. of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University.

Related Material

Emery Roth & Sons was the architect of choice for the real estate developers Uris Brothers. Materials pertaining to their Emery Roth & Sons projects can be found in the Percy and Harold D. Uris Papers, also held by Avery Library's Department of Drawings & Archives.

Additionally, the Department of Drawings & Archives also holds the Emery Roth Architectural Drawings and Biography collection.

Lastly, the Christopher Gray Research Materials on Emery Roth and Emery Roth Sons are also held in the Department.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Source of acquisition--Gift from Higgins Quasebarth & Partners. Accession number--2006.013.

About the Finding Aid / Processing Information

Columbia University Libraries, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library

Sponsor Information

Processing was funded by a generous grant from the E.H.A. Foundation

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Vanessa Cameron, Emery Roth & Sons Project Archivist, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Department of Drawings & Archives, 2007 - 2008 with the assistance of Hollyamber Kennedy, Bibliographic Assistant. Additional support was provided by Mellon Graduate School Interns Lindsay McCook and Teresa Harris. Processing was funded by a generous grant from the E.H.A. Foundation.

Revision Description

2008-11-10 File created.

2009-07-23 File revised.

2019-05-20 EAD was imported spring 2019 as part of the ArchivesSpace Phase II migration.

Biographical / Historical

Emery Roth Sons (1938-1996) was a family-run architecture firm that had a major influence on the post-war development of Manhattan. In 1938 the architect Emery Roth (1871-1948), renowned for upscale Manhattan apartment buildings like the Beresford and the San Remo, renamed his practice Emery Roth Sons to reflect the inclusion of his sons Julian and Richard as partners. Julian (1901-1992) specialized in construction costs and building materials and technology, while Richard (1904-1987) was named the firm's principle architect. In the early 1960s, Richard Roth's son, Richard Roth, Jr. (b. 1933) became the third generation to join the firm, eventually rising to chief architect and shareholder. As the firm expanded and diversified over six decades, it remained a family business through the 1990s. Richard Roth's children, Robyn Roth-Moise and Richard Lee Roth, both worked for the firm and its subsidiaries.

Emery Roth Sons continued to design high-rise apartment buildings in Manhattan, as Emery Roth had, but shortly after World War II the firm began to shift its focus to high-rise office buildings. As they became increasingly specialized in commercial space, they worked closely with real estate developers such as the Uris Corporation, Tishman Construction, Diesel Construction, the Durst Organization, and Helmsley-Spear, Inc.

Significant examples of their work in New York include 55 Water Street, 300 Park Avenue, the Palace Hotel, 546 Fifth Avenue, and 600 Lexington Avenue. Emery Roth Sons frequently collaborated with other architects on large projects for which they were the architects of record. These projects included the World Trade Center (Minoru Yamasaki), General Motors Office Building (Edward Durell Stone), 1585 Broadway (Gwathmey Siegel Associates), 7 Hanover Square (Norman Jaffe), the Portland Municipal Building (Michael Graves), 375 Hudson Street (Skidmore, Owings Merrill), and the Pan Am Building (Walter Gropius and Pietro Belluschi).

Over the years the firm consistently provided marketable designs that maximized the net rentable area, a feature highly prized by real estate developers. Writing of the firm's work in a 1957 article, Richard Roth remarked "The entire endeavor in our office is to create the best that can be produced within the restrictions that are placed upon us; and these restrictions are seldom those of our client, but rather of lending institutions; economics; and municipal authorities' laws." (Progressive Architecture, June 1957).

The promotion of the Texas-based architect Robert Sobel (b. 1931) to principal in the late 1970s marked a shift in their focus from Manhattan office buildings to mixed-use properties in Texas and overseas. Beginning in the 1970s, possibly in reaction to New York City's fiscal crisis, and continuing through the 1990s, the firm expanded and diversified its operations into several related entities. In the 1980s they took advantage of the Texas oil boom, establishing the office of Sobel / Roth that was based in Houston. Notable examples of their work outside of Manhattan include Houston's Alliance Tower, Beijing's China World Trade Center, and the Taman Tuk Abdul Razak Center in Malaysia.

In 1993, Richard Roth, Jr., sold his all of his issued and outstanding shares of Emery Roth & Sons and all of its affiliated and related entities to Robert Sobel. In 1996, the firm ceased to operate, apparently because of financial distress.

Subject Headings

The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.

All links open new windows.

Genre/Form
Architectural reprographic prints CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Correspondence CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Film negatives CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Holograph papers CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Mixed media works CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Photographic prints CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Printing paper CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
architectural drawings (visual works) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
typescripts CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Name
111 Wall Street (New York, N.Y.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
1290 Avenue of the Americas (New York, N.Y.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
2 Broadway (New York, N.Y.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
2 World Trade Center (New York, N.Y.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
300 Park Avenue (New York, N.Y.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
320 Park Avenue (New York, N.Y.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
350 Park Avenue (New York, N.Y.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
375 Hudson Street (New York, N.Y.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
380 Madison Avenue (New York, N.Y.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
55 Water Street (New York, N.Y.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
575 Madison Avenue (New York, N.Y.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
7 Hanover Square (New York, N.Y.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
A&S Plaza (New York, N.Y.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Baruch Houses (New York, N.Y.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Bronx High School of Science CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
CBS Building (New York, N.Y.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Citicorp Center (New York, N.Y.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Consolidated Edison Company of New York, inc. CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Emery Roth & Sons CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
General Motors Building (New York, N.Y.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Hungary. Főkonzulátus (New York, N.Y.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Lycée Français de New York CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
MetLife Building (New York, N.Y.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Morgan Stanley Building (New York, N.Y.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Pan American Building (New York, N.Y.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Portland Building (Portland, Or.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Ritz-Carlton Hotel (New York, N.Y.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Seven World Trade Center. World Trade Center, New York, N.Y. (1987-2001) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
St. Moritz Hotel (New York, N.Y.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Tudor City (New York, N.Y.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
United States Postal Service CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Villard Houses (New York, N.Y.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Place
Chelsea Piers (New York, N.Y.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Government Center (Boston, Mass.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Subject
Architecture -- New York (State) -- New York CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Architecture -- United States -- Designs and plans CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Buildings -- New York (State) -- New York CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Commercial buildings -- New York (State) -- New York CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Family corporations -- New York (State) -- New York CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
High-rise apartment buildings -- New York (State) -- New York CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Hotels -- New York (State) -- New York CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Real estate development -- New York (State) -- New York CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Skyscrapers -- New York (State) -- New York CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID