The tour begins at the Park Avenue Armory on the Upper East Side, home to one of the few surviving interiors in the world fully designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany, the Veteran’s Room. Pictured above is the Company B Room, a space generally off limits to the public.
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Tourgoers admire the brilliant turqoise fireplace in the Veteran’s Room at the Park Avenue Armory. Featuring an ornate painted ceiling, a frieze depicting combat throughout the ages, green stained glass windows, wrought iron and carved mahogany appointments and Greek, Celtic and Persian influences, it’s “one of Tiffany’s great jewels,” says tour guide Ben Macklowel
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Louis Comfort Tiffany completed his design of the Armory’s Veterans Room in 1884. “He was using color and form to create an environment,” one that “projects an aura of prestige and power and success,” says Macklowe.
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“Tiffany Tour” host Ben Macklowe stands next to one of Louis Comfort Tiffany’s mosaics housed at St. Michael’s Church on the Upper West Side.
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Tiffany is widely known for his work in churches, and St. Michael’s Church on the Upper West Side is a notable showcase. “It’s the most complete expression of Tiffany’s ecclesiastical work,” says Macklowe, noting that the church contains not only Tiffany glass, but also his mosaics, lighting and marble and metal work.
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Tiffany expert Sheldon Barr shares the history of the Tiffany works at St. Michael’s Church with the tour group members.
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The seven-panel window above the main altar at St. Michael’s Church on the Upper West Side that depicts Lucifer’s banishment from heaven and a victorious St. Michael.
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A detail from a huge, seven-panel window above the main altar.
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Macklowe’s tour group steps into the Belasco Theatre on West 44th Street as the lost stop on their Tiffany tour.
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The newly restored interior of the Belasco Theatre offers a stunning array of Tiffany lighting.
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A more detailed look at Tiffany’s orange and yellow chandeliers, which spent decades in storage before the recent restoration effort.
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The Belasco’s ceiling sports two dozen decorative octagonal glass panels; columns are topped with lit glass designs like the one in the foreground. “Just awesome,” says Macklowe, who imagines theatergoers of the day “looking up and being transported to a place of beauty and perfection.”
Tamara Beckwith
