The Algonquin Hotel, built in 1902, is a New York City Landmark.
In my more than 30-year career as a bricklayer, preservationist, and project manager, I've been fortunate to have worked on many noteworthy buildings in New York City. None, however, has had more significance to me than the Algonquin Hotel, a Beaux-Arts inspired New York City Historic Landmark property built in 1902 and site of the legendary Algonquin Round Table. I recently had the good fortune to start my third tour of duty at the building, located at 59 West 44th Street in Midtown Manhattan, leading me to look back fondly at my previous stints there.
In 2000 I helped conduct RAND's 5th Cycle Local Law 11/98 facade inspection on the hotel and visited the site regularly during the repair program. I returned in 2005 for the 6th Cycle inspection and repairs, and I am now working on the building's Facade Inspection & Safety Program for the 7th Cycle.
Mane man: RAND Project Manager Tom Russack enters the lion's den at the Algonquin in 2000 (left), and again recently.
Though I've aged some since my first inspection at the hotel more than a dozen years ago—and my wedding night there the same year (an opportunity to appreciate the building from the inside)—I'm happy to report the Algonquin and its proud terra cotta lions guarding the facade haven't changed much in their 110 years, still as stately and grand as ever.
They do: Tom & Susan Russack, October 2000.
Winston Churchill, who toiled for a time as a bricklayer himself, once said "We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us," which has certainly been my experience with the Algonquin. Known as "the last lion, the defender of the realm," Churchill also famously said "I was not the lion, but it fell to me to give the lion's roar."
For me it's been an honor to help keep the Algonquin and its lions in shape, giving them roar for hopefully many a decade as they defend their realm in the heart of New York.
