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Object Timeline
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1922 |
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1969 |
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1991 |
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1995 |
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2013 |
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2014 |
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2017 |
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2025 |
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Drawing, Study for Maximum Mass Permitted by the 1916 New York Zoning Law, Stage 4
This is a Drawing. It was created by Hugh Ferriss. It is dated 1922 and we acquired it in 1969. Its medium is black crayon, stumped, pen and black ink, brush and black wash, varnish on illustration board. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.
The skyscraper, symbol of New York City and emblem of American culture, is envisioned in this charismatic series of architectural renderings by Hugh Ferriss. First Published in the New York Times in 1922, these drawings show how the city's landmark 1916 "set-back" law would produce the stepped architectural silhouette realized years later in structures such as the Waldorf Astoria and the Empire State Building. The limitations imposed on maximum mass were designed to allow light into city streets, and to allay public fears that the new monoliths would turn city streets into canyons of darkness. (Treasures of the Collection, 2003)
This object was featured in our Object of the Week series in a post titled Mod Metropolis.
This object was
donated by
Mrs. Hugh Ferriss.
It is credited Gift of Mrs. Hugh Ferriss.
- Drawing, Study for Maximum Mass Permitted by the 1916 New York Zoning Law,...
- black crayon, stumped; brush and black ink over photostat, varnish on....
- Gift of Mrs. Hugh Ferriss.
- 1969-137-1
- Drawing, Design for a Skyscraper
- graphite with fixative on tracing paper mounted on cardboard .
- Gift of Ely Jacques Kahn..
- 1952-15-13
- Hanging, New York Waterfront
- silk.
- Gift of Lydia Bush-Brown.
- 1974-23-6
Our curators have highlighted 8 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:
- Drawing, The City at Night, Descent into the Streets
- lithographic crayon on heavy cream wove paper.
- Gift of Jean Ferriss Leich.
- 1980-39-1
- Print, Design for the Ten-Deck House
- mimeograph print, brush and blue watercolor on white paper.
- Museum purchase from Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program....
- 1991-53-1
- Textile, Big City
- cotton.
- Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund.
- 2007-5-2
Its dimensions are
66.8 × 51 cm (26 5/16 × 20 1/16 in.)
It is signed
Signed in pen and black ink, lower right: Hugh Ferriss
It is inscribed
Inscribed in black chalk, verso: #4 (underlined)/Return to Hugh Ferriss/101 Park Ave/New York, NY, USA
Cite this object as
Drawing, Study for Maximum Mass Permitted by the 1916 New York Zoning Law, Stage 4; Hugh Ferriss (American, 1889–1962); USA; black crayon, stumped, pen and black ink, brush and black wash, varnish on illustration board; 66.8 × 51 cm (26 5/16 × 20 1/16 in.) ; Gift of Mrs. Hugh Ferriss; 1969-137-4
"Sugar Foot Stomp," Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra (1925)
The Hugh Ferriss drawing, Study for Maximum Mass Permitted by the 1916 New York Zoning Law, Stage 4 seemed to call out for the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra with Louis Armstrong. In “Sugar Foot...
This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibitions The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s, Making Design and The Cooper-Hewitt Collections: A Design Resource.
