Architects C - F

Cann was president of the Bank Building and Equipment Corporation, based in St. Louis, from the mid-1960s until 1976. As head of the company, he personally designed the Elmhurst Branch of the Jamaica Savings Bank. But earlier in his career with the firm he also designed at least four other banks in New York City in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Sources:

Huffaker, Kirk. “William F. Cann” Defining Downtown at Mid-Century: The Architecture of the Bank Building and Equipment Corporation of America. 2010. <http://www.midcenturybanks.recentpast.org/architecture/meet-the-architects/item/216-william-f-cann>

Postal, Matthew A. “Jamaica Savings Bank-Elmhurst Branch designation report” NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. 28. Jun. 2005. Web.

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Principals: Caesar De Sina, Vincent Pellegrino

This firm’s work is visible in almost a dozen religiously-affiliated buildings in the New York region and beyond. Among this work is the Queens Chamber award winner, the Queen of Peace Home for the Aged, built for the Little Sisters of the Poor; the Upper Manhattan shrine for St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, convent on Cabrini College’s campus outside Philadelphia; and St. Cabrini Hospital in Montreal, all for that order; as well a three other hospitals, an elementary school, and a public library. When Pellegrino died in 1970, the New York Times noted the firm as specialists in hospital design, but today they might be best remembered for their religious shrine for St Frances Cabrini, an elaborate complex in Upper Manhattan next to the school she founded.

Sources:

DeSina & Pellegrino AIA Architects. Self published. c. 1970

Dunlap, David W. From Abyssinian to Zion: A Guide to Manhattan’s Houses of Worship. Columbia University Press: 2004.

“St. Francis Xavier Cabrini Shrine, Washington Heights, NYC” Mid-Century Mundane. 20 Mar. 2013. Web.

“Vincent Pellegrino” The New York Times. 4 Nov. 1970. Web.

Eggers and Higgins were a leading architectural firm that emerged as the successor firm to the neoclassist John Russell Pope. Therefore it is not surprising that much of their work erred toward the more classical end of mid-century design. In addition to completing Pope’s design for the Jefferson Memorial, they also designed the Dirksen Senate Office Building and National Gallery West Building in Washington, DC; Gateway Center in Pittsburgh; the master plan for Indiana University; and had a major role in the planning of NYU. Higgins died in 1953 and Eggers in 1964 but the firm continued on in various iterations until merging with the giant RMJM Hillier. Both of their Queens Chamber awards were for catholic high schools.

Principals: Alfred Fellheimer, Steward Wagner

Fellheimer and Wagner existed from 1923-1961. The firm was a rechristening of the firm Stem and Reed, well-known for their expertise in building railroad stations. Fellheimer joined the firm in 1903 and worked on some of its most renowned projects including the current Grand Central Terminal in New York. The firm then went through several iterations with Fellheimer as a named partner until finally becoming Fellheimer and Wagner in 1923 with the addition of Steward Wagner, who had been with Stem and Reed since the early 1910s.

The firm continued its work on railway projects but expanded to include a wide variety of projects; its Queens Chamber Award-winning work includes a vocational high school, college arts and language center, bank branch, hospital, and apartment building. Wagner died in 1958 and Fellheimer in 1959. In 1961 the firm was renamed Wank Adams Slavin Associates, today known as WASA/Studio A. Wank was the chief designer of the firm starting in 1927 and so had a major hand in all projects and his interest in modernism is apparent in most of those highlighted on Queens Modern.

Special thanks to Pamela Jerome, partner at WASA/Studio A, for her assistance on this project.

Portrait of Mr. Steward Wagner, courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Gottscho-Schleisner Collection [Reproduction Number: LC-G612-T-48505-A]

Sources:

American Architects Directory, First Edition, 1956. Copyright 1956 R. R. Bowker LLC.

American Architects Directory, Second Edition, 1962. Copyright 1962 R. R. Bowker LLC.

“Firm: History” WASA/Studio A Website <www.wasallp.com>