Background
Whitney Warren was born in 1864 in New York, United States.
Whitney Warren was born in 1864 in New York, United States.
At the age of eighteen he went to Paris to study architecture, and while attending Atliers of the Ecole des Beaux Arts, led the life of a cosmopolite, and became so enamored with France that he continued to live there for a decade.
In 1896 he returned to New York and formed a partnership with Charles Wetmore under the name Warren & Wetmore. The firm's bid for recognition in the city was made in submitting plans in a competition for a new home for the New York Club.
The firm's first important commission, Grand Central Terminal in New York, was followed by Stations on other Railroad Lines, such as the Michigan Central, Canadian Northern and Erie Roads, and in New York a new Office Building for the New York Central, the Chelsea Piers, Steinway Building, and Aeolian Hall.
Early in the 1900's Warren & Wetmore established a reputation in hotel work. Among the firm's successfully executed designs were the old Belmont, the Ambassador, Ritz Carlton, the Commodore, Vanderbilt, and the Bilt- more, all in New York, the Ritz Carlton in Atlantic City, the Belmont, Providence, R. I., Royal Hamilton Hotel in Honolulu, and the Broadmore in Colorado Springs. While all of these were important commissions, Mr. Warren took the most pride in having designed the re-constructed Louvain Library in Belgium, destroyed by the Germans in World War I. The dedication of the building in 1928 led to an international controversy because of Warren's insistence on an inscription placing on the Germans the guilt of having destroyed the building.
Although Mr. Warren gave up professional practice in 1931, he was frequently called upon to serve as Consultant on public projects, and retained his studio in the Beaux Arts Building on West 44th Street as Office headquarters. A co-founder of the Beaux Arts Institute of Design and a Director for many years, he remained active in its affairs, and originated the famous annual Ball, parties over which he presided until they were given up in 1937.
Grand Central Terminal in New York
(Warren & Wetmore)
Steinway Building, New York
(Warren & Wetmore)