For several months, WCS Archives Technician Gianna Brassil has been diligently creating a detailed inventory of the physical architectural drawings from a century of building and design at the Bronx Zoo. The project was made possible by a Conservation/Preservation Discretionary Grant from the New York State Library. The drawings are key to understanding more about our built environment and our history. To that end, Gianna presents the second of two posts related to those themes.
Who were the people who built some of the iconic buildings of the Bronx Zoo? In this blog post, I will explore the legacies of three architects whose work significantly shaped the early built environment at the Bronx Zoo and in New York City at large: George Lewis Heins, Christopher Grant LaFarge, and Aymar Embury II.
Heins & LaFarge
George Lewis Heins (1860-1907) and Christopher Grant LaFarge (1862-1938) met while studying at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1888, the two won a design competition for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, an extremely prestigious project for the late twenty-somethings. Their design for the cathedral was eclectic, incorporating many Byzantine-Romanesque elements. The cathedral’s domed ceiling was built by the Guastavino Fireproof Construction Company, which was founded by the renowned Spanish architect Rafael Guastavino Sr. and his son, Rafael Guastavino Jr. The Guastavinos innovated a unique, self-supporting vaulted ceiling system that used gravity to lock the tiles in place. The partnership between Heins and LaFarge and the Guastavino family first took root during the Cathedral of St. John the Divine project and continued for decades to come while both firms were active.
In 1899, Heins was appointed New York State Architect by Governor Theodore Roosevelt, who himself was a foundational figure in the establishment of the Bronx Zoo. Roosevelt commissioned Heins & LaFarge to design the buildings along Astor Court, known at the time as Baird Court. The design included a series of pavilions and six brick and limestone buildings in the Roman Ionic and Doric style, adorned with animals on their friezes. One of the most iconic–and the tallest– buildings on Astor Court is the Elephant House (present day Zoo Center). Heins & LaFarge designed the Elephant House based on the Hippo Palace at the Antwerp Zoo, and the stunning interior tilework was done by none other than the Guastavino Fireproof Construction Company.
In 1901, Heins & LaFarge began designing subway stations and buildings for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, the first subway system in New York. Their showpiece City Hall station opened in 1904, adorned with sweeping Guastavino-tiled arches and skylights. A few examples of Heins & LaFarge subway designs are still standing, including the above ground Dutch renaissance style control house at Bowling Green and the West 72nd and Broadway subway entrance.
Aymar Embury II
New York City-born Aymar Embury II (1880-1966) is best known for his work on commissions from the City of New York between the 1930s through the 1950s. He was a frequent collaborator of Robert Moses, with whom he worked as an architect and supervisor of a design and construction team that executed more than six hundred projects for the city of New York, including the Triborough Bridge, the Lincoln Tunnel, the Henry Hudson Memorial Bridge, the Whitestone Bridge, the Rainbow Bridge, the Jamaica Bay Bridge and The Port of New York Authority Terminal Building.
Embury was the associate architect for the Great Apes House at the Bronx Zoo. Opened in 1950, the Great Apes House was the first major exhibit building to be opened in the Zoological Park since the Zebra House was completed in 1914. The cost of the building was split in half between the New York Zoological Society and Robert Moses’ Parks Department, totaling $386,000, the equivalent to about 5.3 million dollars today. Embury began designs for the Great Apes House in 1941, but due to disruptions caused by the Second World War, construction for the building did not start until 1949. In addition to the Great Apes House, Embury was an associate architect for a number of other Bronx Zoo projects such as the Penguin House, Crotona Toll House, Animal Rides, the Picnic Pavilion, an infrastructural project related to a bridge over the Bronx River, and more. Embury’s collaboration with the New York Zoological Society also extended to the New York Aquarium at Coney Island, where he was a consulting architect.
Heins, LaFarge, and Embury II each left their imprint not only on the Bronx Zoo, but on the city of New York itself. After all, the history of the Bronx Zoo is inseparable from the history of New York.
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