Architects L - N

Principals: Lester S. LaPierre, Clarence B. Litchfield, Frank Bower, Gannett Herwig, Lawrence Litchfield, Edmund J. Whiting,.

LaPierre, Litchfield and Partners was organized in 1954 by six associates who had worked together at Alfred Hopkins & Associates, an architect of Gilded Age country estates, especially farm complexes.

However, the Hopkins firm also did other work and Hopkins published book on specialty topics including, “The Fundamentals of Good Bank Building” in 1929 and “Prisons and Prison Building” in 1930. Although Hopkins died in 1941, the firm continued to work on projects including banks in the 1940s and 50s.

Once the firm changed names to better represent the new partners, their work continued on a variety of public and private commissions. The Queens Chamber recognized their bank work with four awards from 1955 to 1964, Jackson Height Savings & Loan, Bankers Federal Savings & Loan, Bayside Federal Savings & Loan, and Jamaica Savings Bank.Two of these, Bayside and Bankers, are simplistic versions of Georgian Revival design, while the Jackson Heights location is transitional with a brickface facade but more modern, streamlined shape. However the real standout here is the Jamaica Savings Bank headquarters in downtown Jamaica, consisting of a three story granite structure with an eye-catching concave wall of blue glass above the entrance.

The architect who designed the main branch of the Jamaica Savings Bank was a partner in the firm named Gannett Herwig. His obituary stated he also designed a bank in Jackson Heights so it is possible that Herwig was in charge of bank design for the firm. Litchfield was noted for his expertise in prison design while LaPierre’s was in country houses and public buildings.

Sources:

“Alfred Hopkins” Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hopkins>

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

“Bankers Federal Savings and Loan, West Village, NYC” Mid-Century Mundane, 25 February 2013.

“Chase Bank, East Village, NYC” Mid-Century Mundane, 30 January 2012.

“Gannett Herwig, 69, Architect, Is Dead” The New York Times, 21 April 1966.

Goodwin, Michael, “C. B. Litchfield Dies; Architect Renowned as Designer of Prisons” The New York Times, 17 May 1981.

“Jamaica Savings Bank, Elmhurst Branch, Designation List 365, LP 2173” NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, 28 June 2005.

“Lester S. LaPierre, 85; Architect Had Designed Large Country Homes” The New York Times, 8 September 1976.

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Morris Rothstein was based at 26 Court Street in Brooklyn.  The firm Morris Rothstein & Son designed dozens of larger apartment buildings in Brooklyn andQueens, as well as the 2,000 semi-attached and free-standing homes that were constructed in Seaview Village in Canarsie, Brooklyn, a planned community that opened its first section in April 1955.

Sources:

Taylor, Jonathan. “Tapestry Brick Dwellings: The Emergence Of A Residential Type In Brooklyn” Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. 2013.

Henry V. Murphy was a noted Catholic church architect primarily in Brooklyn and Queens. He was born in 1888 and died in 1960, with the most active decades of his output being the 1930s, 40s and 50s. He is well-known for his more traditional earlier and Deco churches, but he also designed the master plan for St. John’s University’s new campus in Jamaica, Queens, which was created in 1954. Here his two award winning works were a large Catholic high school and one of the first educational building for the St. John’s campus., the Liberal Arts Building.