Crown of General Electric Building

Art Deco at its most exuberant — this fine art photograph of the crown of the General Electric Building captures one of the most spectacular and inventive rooftop compositions in New York, a burst of terracotta and brick ornament that rises above Lexington Avenue in a blaze of Gothic fantasy and modernist ambition. The General Electric Building, completed in 1931 and designed by Cross & Cross, was built as the headquarters of RCA Victor and sits immediately behind St. Bartholomew's Church on Park Avenue, its red brick and terracotta crown designed to complement the church's Byzantine dome below. The crown itself is extraordinary: a cluster of radiating spires and lightning bolt forms — a deliberate reference to the electrical power of its original tenant — rendered in terracotta of deep brick red and warm gold, rising to a point against the sky like a Gothic cathedral reimagined for the age of electricity. This photograph looks up at that crown with the wonder it deserves, the ornament sharp and vivid against the open sky. One of the great rooftop details of the New York skyline. Printed on Fuji Crystal Archive paper with optional acrylic glass or Alu-Dibond mounting for a gallery-quality finish.