Warren and Wetmore was an architecture firm based in New York City, a partnership established about 1889 by Whitney Warren (1864–1943) and Charles D. Wetmore (1866–1941). They had one of the most extensive practices of their time, and were especially known for having designed many large hotels.

Partners

Whitney Warren was a cousin of New York's Vanderbilt family, and spent ten years at the École des Beaux Arts. There he met fellow architecture student Emmanuel Louis Masqueray, who would in 1897 join the Warren and Wetmore firm. He began practice in New York City in 1887.

Warren's partner, Charles Delevan Wetmore (usually referred to as Charles D. Wetmore), was a lawyer by training. Their society connections led to commissions for clubs, private estates, hotels and terminal buildings, including the New York Central office building, the Chelsea docks, the Ritz-Carlton, Biltmore, Commodore, and Ambassador Hotels. They were the preferred architects for Vanderbilt's New York Central Railroad.

Whitney Warren retired in 1931 but occasionally served as consultant. Warren took particular pride in his design of the new library building of the Catholic University of Leuven, finished in 1928, which he wanted to carry the inscription Furore Teutonico Diruta: Dono Americano Restituta ("Destroyed by German fury, restored by an American gift") on the facade. This post-war propaganda was never added to the building. The library was severely damaged by British and German forces during World War II, but was completely restored after the war.

The architectural records of the firm are held by the Dept. of Drawings & Archives at the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University.

Commissions

The firm's most important work by far is the construction of Grand Central Terminal in New York City, completed in 1913 in association with Reed and Stem. Warren and Wetmore were involved in a number of related hotels in the surrounding "Terminal City".

Among the firm's other commissions were:

the Racquet House at the Tuxedo Club, Tuxedo Park, New York, 1890-1900 Newport Country Club, Newport, RI, 1895 Westmorly Court, part of Adams House at Harvard University 1898-1902 New York Yacht Club Building, 1899–1901 High Tide, William S. Miller residence, Newport, RI 1900 10 West 56th Street, the Edey Mansion, 1901 Kirby Hill Estate (Eric Kuvykin Mansion), Long Island, New York, 1902 the Marshall Orme Wilson House, 1903 the Brooklyn Department of Street Cleaning's Stable and Chateau, Brooklyn, New York, 1904 Sidney Dillon Ripley House, 16 East 79th Street, 1905 49 East 52nd Street, Vanderbilt guest house, New York City, 1908 Marion P. Brookman Mansion, 5 East 70th Street, New York Coty, 1910 (demolished c. 1973) Green-Wood Cemetery Chapel, New York City, 1911 Union Station, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, 1911 Union Station, Houston, Texas, 1911 (Now a part of Daikin Park) Condado Vanderbilt Hotel, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1911 Aeolian Hall, New York City, 1912 Vanderbilt Hotel, New York City, 1912 Ritz-Carlton, Montreal, Quebec, 1912 The Pantlind Hotel, now the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1913 Grand Central Palace, New York City, 1913 with Reed and Stem, demolished 1964 Michigan Central Station, Detroit, Michigan, 1913, also with Reed and Stem Ritz-Carlton, Philadelphia, PA, 1913, with Horace Trumbauer Packard Manor, Chautauqua, New York- A summer home for William Doud Packard, 1915 the Texas Company, Texaco Building, Houston, Texas, 1915 New York Central Railroad Station, 1 East Hartsdale Avenue, Hartsdale, New York Warren Public Library, Warren, Pennsylvania, 1916 927 Fifth Avenue, New York City, a cooperative apartment house, 1917 The Broadmoor Hotel, Colorado Springs, 1918 The Ambassador Hotel, Atlantic City, 1919 Struthers Library Building, Warren, Pennsylvania, renovations, 1919 The Commodore Hotel, now the Grand Hyatt New York, part of "Terminal City", 1920 New York Biltmore Hotel, also part of "Terminal City" Crown Building, formerly the Heckscher Building, New York City, 1921 The Briarcliffe, 57th Street, New York City Ritz-Carlton, Atlantic City, NJ, 1921 Providence Biltmore Hotel, Providence, Rhode Island, 1922 Mayflower Hotel, Washington, D.C., 1922, with Robert F. Beresford Plaza Hotel, West Market St. Wilkes-Barre, PA, 1923. Purchased by Hotel Sterling, 1927. Demolished 2007. Asbury Park Convention Hall, 1923, and the adjoining Paramount Theatre, 1930 Madison Belmont Building at Madison Avenue and 34th Street, New York City, 1925 Steinway Hall at 111 West 57th Street, New York City, 1925 Italian Embassy building, Washington DC, 1925 200 Madison Avenue, New York City, 1926 Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1927 689 Fifth Avenue, New York City, 1927 St. James Theatre, New York City, 1927 Consolidated Edison Building at 4 Irving Place in Manhattan, 1928 Norwood Gardens terrace homes, 36th St., Astoria, New York, planned development by W&W architect Walter Hopkins, 1928 The Helmsley Building, originally the New York Central Building, part of the Grand Central Terminal complex, 1929 Empire Trust Company Building, 580 Fifth Avenue, New York; currently the World Diamond Building as of 2013 the Chelsea Piers 903 Park Avenue, a Bing & Bing building.

Gallery

References Notes

Bibliography Pennoyer, Peter and Walker, Anne. The Architecture of Warren & Wetmore New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. .

External links

at New York Architecture Images High-resolution photographs of the interior of the New York Yacht Club Warren & Wetmore architectural drawings and photographs, 1889-1938Held by the Department of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University