Charles D. Wetmore

Warren and Wetmore was an architecture firm in New York City which was a partnership between Whitney Warren (1864–1943) and Charles Delevan Wetmore (June 10, 1866 – May 8, 1941), that had one of the most extensive practices of its time and was known for the designing of large hotels.

Whitney Warren was a cousin of the Vanderbilts and spent ten years at the École des Beaux Arts. There he met fellow architecture student Emmanuel Louis Masqueray, who would, in 1897 join the Warren and Wetmore firm. He began practice in New York City in 1887.

Warren's partner, Charles Delevan Wetmore (usually referred to as Charles D. Wetmore), was a lawyer by training. Their society connections led to commissions for clubs, private estates, hotels and terminal buildings, including the New York Central office building, the Chelsea docks, the Ritz-Carlton, Biltmore, Commodore, and Ambassador Hotels. They were the preferred architects for Vanderbilt's New York Central Railroad.

Whitney Warren retired in 1931 but occasionally served as consultant. Warren took particular pride in his design of the new library building of the Catholic University of Leuven, finished in 1928, which he wanted to carry the inscription Furore Teutonico Diruta: Dono Americano Restituta ("Destroyed by German fury, restored by American generosity") on the facade. This post-war propaganda was never added to the building. The library was severely damaged by British and German forces during World War II, but was completely restored after the war.

The architectural records of the firm are held by the Dept. of Drawings & Archives at the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University.

The firm's most important work by far is the Grand Central Terminal in New York City, completed in 1913 in association with Reed and Stem. Warren and Wetmore were involved in a number of related hotels in the surrounding "Terminal City".

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