Hell's Kitchen - Paneled Brick Architecture ~ By Joe Zito

702 Ninth Avenue, on the Northeast corner of West 48th Street, a five storied tenement built in the 1830s features an 1880 specialty of the Panel Brick architectural style. Because its long side street wall presents a well-balanced almost perfectly symmetrical facade decorated in red brick panels, it will be discussed in detail.

Stand across the street to enjoy its broad expanse. One is immediately impressed by four long, vertical brick panels that rise from the second to the top story, creating a decorative all-over composition.

A more intensive study will bring to light a central axis that divides the four panels into two on each side of the axis. This axis is articulated by a foot and a half brick strip that runs from the second to the top story. The central axis’ unique design of six layers of red bricks on a vertical strip plays a significant part in dividing the four panels in half, two on its west side and two on its east side.

Of the two vertical panels on its west side, the end one is the geometric version of a chimney stack that encloses single vertical slots, triple vertical slots, figures of a diamond and an odd shaped figure near the roof. The diamond shape is a hallmark of the Panel Brick Style. In this style there are no forms borrowed from Classical Greek & Rome, such as swags, scrolls, or festoons.

Of the two panels on the west side of the central axis, the one next to the axis is also designed with straight line figures and a small cross which is another hallmark of the panel brick style. Though the two end panels of the original four-paneled composition are identical, the two middle panels adjacent to the central axis are not, for there is a slight difference in the size of their windows. The windows on every floor of the central axis are larger than the ones on the east side. Probably, the architect, following the dictum of form following function, provided for more light on the staircase landing on the west side of the axis. In architectural glossaries, a central axis has always been defined as an imaginary line that divides a facade into two symmetrical parts. In this case, the architect decided to reify an imaginary line by creating an actual real central axis.

Making an allowance for the slight difference in one of the panels, the essential symmetrical relationship of the four panels may be codified in the rhythmic scheme: A-B-B-A (A for the two outer panels at the ends of the wall, and B for the two inner panels in the middle.)

Now looking for smaller details, above the second floor window and below the third floor window, a rectangular panel in red brick is decorated in a checkerboard pattern. To accentuate the red brick wall, contrasting light grey belt courses run up and down and above the window frames. On the sidewalk level, the architect provided a whimsical touch by placing the foliate head of a pagan Medieval Green Man in the keystone of the archway of the cellar door, where for many years it has been a good luck charm for the building’s residents. Just in case one has forgotten the location of the building, on the northeast corner just above the ground floor, there is a plaque that reads “49th/S and 9th/A”.

The Panel Brick style in its variety of patterns enabled architects to design middle and working class tenements in durable plain red brick material without incurring the cost of expensive hand carved stone.

A jewel of decorative brickwork in a tenemental setting, ornamented in colorful patterns, 702 Ninth Avenue is an expression of Hell’s Kitchen’s pride in its wealth of historic architecture.

By Joe Zito, copyrighted, all rights reserved, originally published in the Clinton Chronicla, January 2007.