Art Deco Elevator Panels at Fred French Building (1927) — Glinsky & Bach
Gilded Art Deco Masterpieces at 551 Fifth Avenue, New York City.
A rare surviving ensemble of gilded bronze panels created in 1927 by Vincent Glinsky and Oscar Bach.
These elevator doors visualize the four pillars of Fred F. French’s real-estate empire—Industry, Commerce, Finance, and Building—through a sculptural language blending Art Deco geometry with echoes of ancient Mesopotamian reliefs.
Completed in 1927, the Fred F. French Building stands as one of Manhattan’s finest expressions of the early Art Deco style. While the tower is admired for its stepped crown and gilded ornament, its most exceptional artworks lie hidden in the lobby: eight bronze elevator panels conceived by sculptor Vincent Glinsky and master metalworker Oscar Bach.
Commissioned to embody the vision of developer Fred Fillmore French, these doors translate the essential forces driving New York’s rise—labor, trade, wealth, and architecture—into a sophisticated visual program. Their hybrid style reflects Classical allegory, modern stylization, and distinct echoes of Assyrian and Mesopotamian palace reliefs, which were widely studied and admired in 1920s New York.
The Merchant – Commerce.
Symbolizing trade, exchange, and the movement of goods.
Holding a ship in his hand, the bearded figure represents maritime trade—still the backbone of international commerce in the early 20th century. His confident pose and flowing drapery echo archaic depictions of Hermes, god of trade.
The Luxurious Offering- Commerce.
Symbolizing trade, exchange, and the movement of goods.
A female figure with fan and flowing garments symbolizes refined commerce: luxury goods, services, cultural exchange, retail.
She embodies the elegant face of Fifth Avenue commerce—perfectly suited to an office tower in Midtown.
The Artists & The Style
Glinsky & Bach: Sculptor and Metalwork Virtuoso.
Vincent Glinsky shaped the narrative sequences in low relief, giving the figures a compact mass and rhythmic energy typical of early Deco sculpture. Oscar Bach realized the panels in gilt bronze, applying the refined technical methods that made him one of the pre-eminent metalworkers of his era.
Together, they produced one of the most complete and coherent decorative cycles in American Art Deco. The vertical registers, crouching beasts, muscular torsos, and geometric borders reveal a deliberate engagement with Neo-Assyrian art—an archaeological fascination fueled by recent discoveries at Nineveh and Khorsabad, and by the Metropolitan Museum’s expanding Near Eastern collection.
This modern–ancient fusion allowed the French Building to project both contemporary ambition and timeless authority.
The Merchant – Commerce.
Symbolizing trade, exchange, and the movement of goods.
Holding a ship in his hand, the bearded figure represents maritime trade—still the backbone of international commerce in the early 20th century. His confident pose and flowing drapery echo archaic depictions of Hermes, god of trade.
The Luxurious Offering- Commerce.
Symbolizing trade, exchange, and the movement of goods.
A female figure with fan and flowing garments symbolizes refined commerce: luxury goods, services, cultural exchange, retail.
She embodies the elegant face of Fifth Avenue commerce—perfectly suited to an office tower in Midtown.
The Luxurious Offering- Commerce.
Symbolizing trade, exchange, and the movement of goods.
A female figure with fan and flowing garments symbolizes refined commerce: luxury goods, services, cultural exchange, retail.
She embodies the elegant face of Fifth Avenue commerce—perfectly suited to an office tower in Midtown.
The Four Pillars
Industry, Commerce, Finance, and Building.
Each elevator panel embodies one of the four sectors central to the French Companies:
• Industry — strength, engineering, infrastructure
• Commerce — exchange, trade, and refined goods
• Finance — wealth, investment, administration
• Building — architecture, planning, construction
Though allegorical, the imagery was designed for instant legibility. These were the forces shaping New York in the 1920s: the labor that built the skyline, the commerce animating Fifth Avenue, the financial system behind every development, and the architectural vision that defined modern urban life.
The Merchant – Commerce.
Symbolizing trade, exchange, and the movement of goods.
Holding a ship in his hand, the bearded figure represents maritime trade—still the backbone of international commerce in the early 20th century. His confident pose and flowing drapery echo archaic depictions of Hermes, god of trade.
The Luxurious Offering- Commerce.
Symbolizing trade, exchange, and the movement of goods.
A female figure with fan and flowing garments symbolizes refined commerce: luxury goods, services, cultural exchange, retail.
She embodies the elegant face of Fifth Avenue commerce—perfectly suited to an office tower in Midtown.
The Merchant – Commerce.
Symbolizing trade, exchange, and the movement of goods.
Holding a ship in his hand, the bearded figure represents maritime trade—still the backbone of international commerce in the early 20th century. His confident pose and flowing drapery echo archaic depictions of Hermes, god of trade.
The Luxurious Offering- Commerce.
Symbolizing trade, exchange, and the movement of goods.
A female figure with fan and flowing garments symbolizes refined commerce: luxury goods, services, cultural exchange, retail.
She embodies the elegant face of Fifth Avenue commerce—perfectly suited to an office tower in Midtown.
Legacy & Meaning
A Gilded Narrative of New York’s Rise
Nearly a century later, the elevator doors of the Fred F. French Building remain among the most beautifully preserved Art Deco bronzes in Manhattan. Their luminous surfaces and sculptural symbolism still communicate the optimism, discipline, and creative ambition that defined the era.
In an ordinary lobby, the elevator is a utility.
Here, it becomes a declaration of identity—a manifesto in bronze celebrating the forces that shaped the city.
The Luxurious Offering- Commerce.
Symbolizing trade, exchange, and the movement of goods.
A female figure with fan and flowing garments symbolizes refined commerce: luxury goods, services, cultural exchange, retail.
She embodies the elegant face of Fifth Avenue commerce—perfectly suited to an office tower in Midtown.
Copyright, Links and credits
Copyright, Links & Credits
Text and Photography
All text and photographic material © Ikonographia / Roberto Bigano.
Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.
Sources & References
• Architectural Digest — coverage of René Chambellan and the Chanin grilles
(Insert the exact URL you have — I will embed it when you paste it here.)
• Historical context drawn from period architectural publications and Art Deco scholarship.
• Building details referenced from original documentation of the Chanin Building and 70 Pine Street.
Related Works
• Evolution of Fuel elevator doors — 70 Pine Street, New York
• Chanin Building — Mental and Physical Series, René Paul Chambellan (1929)
Image Licensing
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Acknowledgments
Special thanks to architectural historians, archivists, and preservation groups who have documented the Art Deco heritage of New York City.
About Vincent Glinsky and Oscar Bach. A short bio.
Bettentan at work in his studio.
Rene Paul Chambellan (1893–1955) was an American sculptor born in West Hoboken, New Jersey. A specialist in architectural ornament, he became one of the leading artists of the French Modern Style — later known as Zig-Zag Moderne or Art Deco — translating its geometric elegance into metal, stone, and architectural relief.
Trained at the Pratt Institute and the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, Chambellan developed a sculptural language defined by rhythmic low relief, dynamic stylization, and seamless architectural integration. His work helped shape the visual identity of New York during the 1920s and 1930s.
During World War I, Chambellan served in the U.S. Army, where a gas attack left him with long-term lung damage that affected him throughout his life. Despite this, his career flourished during Manhattan’s great building boom. From 1922 to 1939, he collaborated with leading architects and designers, producing some of the era’s most iconic metalwork.
His best-known works include:
• the gilt-bronze mental and physical cycle of radiators for the Chanin Building
• the nickel-silver elevator doors at 70 Pine Street
• the sculptural modeling for the Atlas statue (1937) at Rockefeller Center, created with Lee Lawrie
Few sculptors expressed the spirit of American Art Deco with such symbolic power and modernist clarity. Chambellan’s work remains a cornerstone of New York’s architectural mythology — precise, expressive, and enduringly human.
