Daily Dose 1932

Albert C. Ledner

Daily Dose Monographic Images 1932 | Albert C. Ledner - The National Maritime Union buildings The first picture is a photograph I took in 2014, walking at night past the emergency signage and the beautiful glass bricks facade. I was totally unaware of the above prefabricated concrete facade or the building itself, but I imagine I was intrigued by such an impressive and unusual entrance for the emergencies of a hospital. "The building was originally the Headquarters for the National Maritime Union in New York, designed by Albert C. Ledner, a New Orleans based architect and Frank Lloyd Wright student at Taliesin. Ledner was hired by the Union’s president Joseph Curran in the early ’70s and completed the project in 1964. For 10 years it remained a populist palace, representing Maritime workers along the East Coast, and across the US at large. The aforementioned duet of intersecting cylinders, in section, extend its exterior perception into the double height hiring halls, event space, and lobby of the union. Less than 10 years later, in 1973, and after the depletion of the union’s funds, the Joseph Curran Building was sold to the St. Vincent Hospital, renaming it as the Edward and Theresa O’Toole building. The O’Toole/Curran building was finally donated to Lenox Hospital in 2011." Archinect Via Archinect, Hidden Architecture, The New York Times, Tulane University Libraries. Recent photographs by Perkmin Eastman after the renovation of the building in 2015, Konstantinos Chatzaras.