Arthur Cort Holden

Biography

Arthur Cort Holden, architect, planner and poet, was born in New York City on November 29, 1890. He attended Princeton University, where he was elected the President of his class. He graduated in 1912 with a Bachelor of Literature. In 1915, he subsequently pursued degrees at Columbia University, receiving a Bachelor of Architecture and an A.M. in economics1.

After army service during World War I, he joined the architecture firm of McKim, Mead and White2. In 1920, he established his own firm, Holden, McLaughlin, and Associates. Holden is perhaps most noted for advising Frank Lloyd Wright on the design of the Guggenheim Museum in 1949. His architectural achievements were acknowledged in 1957, when he received the Medal of Honor from the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects3. At the age of 87, his professional focus shifted towards consulting on the financing of construction and real estate. He was the consulting architect to American Houses, Inc4.

During the Depression, Holden worked on committees for both the National Recovery Administration and the Work Progress Administration5.

Holden was the author of several books and pamphlets on the topics of finance, architecture, housing and urban design. His works include: Primer of Housing (New York: Workers Education Bureau Press, 1927), Money in Motion (1940), Brick Architecture of the Colonial Period in Maryland and Virginia (1919), and Sonnets for my City; an essay on the kinship of art & finance as factors in the development of the city and the molding of man's environment (New York: Schulte Publishing Company, 19656.)

He died on December 18, 1993, at the age of 1037.

Oral History

Oral history interview with Arthur Cort Holden, January 20, 1971, conducted by Paul Cummings for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.A transcript of the interview is available on-line at: http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/holden71.htm

Offices Held

• President and Chairman of the Board of New York Urban League, Inc. 1922-1931
• American Institute of Architects, Chairman of civic design, 1935-1942
• American Institute of Architects, Chairman of Housing Committee, 1947-1949
• American Institute of Architects, Vice Chairman, Committee on Post-War Planning, 1944-1946

Involvement in Preservation Campaigns and Related Activities

Arthur Cort Holden exercised his skills as a city planner to benefit preservation interests in New York.

- Holden was a member of the New York City Mayor's Committee on City Planning from 1934 to 1938.

- He was involved, along with Albert Bard, in the 1939 battle against Robert Moses' plan to construct a Brooklyn-Battery Bridge.

Fight to Save the Village- Post World War II, the residents of New York's Greenwich Village found themselves in a continuous battle to preserve the cherished ambiance of their neighborhood. In so doing they faced challenges in the forms of real estate developer Robert Moses, an ever-expanding New York University, and the encroachment of out-of-scale apartment buildings. The Washington Square Association launched a planning effort in 1944 designed "to preserve the residential character of the Washington Square and Greenwich Village sections of Manhattan8." Arthur Cort Holden produced the plan, which was published in a 101-page booklet in 1946, entitled the Washington Square Association's Planning Survey. It called for the "protection of historic and picturesque buildings9." As reported in the New York Times, the plan recommended, "the area around Washington Square and north to Fourteenth Street be guarded as a high-class residential section, that Greenwich Village be redeveloped to retain its essential character but with a periphery of high apartment buildings...The majority of buildings in Greenwich Village should not be disturbed10."

Arthur Cort Holden and James Felt’s Zoning Amendment Arthur Cort Holden helped to draft an amendment to New York City's zoning for the purpose of saving the Village.

On June 24, 1959, James Felt announced that a new zoning resolution would go into effect, after a one-year moratorium. The year gap would in essence create a "grace period" that would legally "grandfather" in building projects that followed the old zoning11. This "grace period" presented a serious threat to existing Greenwich Village architecture, because real estate developers rushed to get new projects underway before the new zoning came into effect. Robert Weinberg suggested that Greenwich Village residents go to the City Planning Commission and try to obtain an amendment to the existing zoning in order to protect itself in the meantime. The amendment that Weinberg was referring to was "essentially the same as the one which Holden had recommended in his "Washington Square Survey12."- Holden subsequently took up the challenge of uncovering the most effective way to implement the Bard Act in New York City, largely on behalf of Save the Village13.

Archives, Personal files, and Ephemura

• 1. Biographical Introduction to the finding aid for the Arthur Cort Holden Papers, 1845-1993 (bulk circa 1890-1993).
• 2. "Arthur Cort Holden, Architect, 103, Dies," New York Times, December 21, 1993.
• 3. Oral history interview with Arthur Cort Holden, January 20, 1971, conducted by Paul Cummings for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
• 4. Biographical Introduction to the finding aid for the Arthur Cort Holden Papers, 1845-1993 (bulk circa 1890-1993).
• 5. Biographical Introduction to the finding aid for the Arthur Cort Holden Papers, 1845-1993 (bulk circa 1890-1993).
• 6. Guide to the finding aid of Arthur Cort Holden Papers, 1920-1987.
• 7. "Arthur Cort Holden, Architect, 103, Dies," New York Times, December 21, 1993.
• 8. "Seeks to Improve the Lower West Side as a Home Center," New York Times April 23, 1944.
• 9. "Washington Square Tommorrow," New York Times Oct 3, 1946.
• 10. "Plan is outlined for Village Area," New York Times Oct 1 1946.
• 11. Makielski, The Politics of Zoning: The New York Experience Columbia University Press, New York 1966: 93, 88.
• 12. "The Boiling Cauldron-GVA," The Villager Oct. 22, 1959.
• 13. "Accelerate Drive to 'Save the Village,'" The Villager November 12, 1959.