Morton F. Plant House
| Morton F. Plant House | |
|---|---|
 |
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| General information | |
| Location | 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, New York |
| Opened | 1905 |
| Renovated | 2014-2016 |
| Client | Morton Freeman Plant |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Robert W. Gibson |
| Renovating team | |
| Architect | Thierry W. Despont |
| Renovating firm | Beyer Blinder Belle |
Morton F. Plant House may refer to either of two mansions on Fifth Avenue in New York City built for Morton F. Plant. The first, at 52nd Street, was completed in 1905 and is now also known as the Cartier Building. The second, at 86th Street, was built in 1916 and is now demolished. The 52nd Street building was designated a New York City Landmark on July 14, 1970.
The 1905 Neo-Renaissance mansion of Morton Freeman Plant (son of railroad tycoon Henry B. Plant) was designed by architect Robert W. Gibson. By 1916, Plant felt that the area was becoming too commercial and decided to move farther uptown. Cartier SA acquired the mansion from Plant in 1917, in exchange for $100 in cash and a Cartier double-stranded necklace of 128 flawlessly matched natural pearls valued at the time at $1 million (equivalent to $18,693,500 in 2017). Soon after, Kokichi Mikimoto's cultured pearls came on the market, and the Cartier necklace of pearls fetched just $150,000 (equivalent to $1,321,400 in 2017) after Mrs. Plant died in 1956 (she was Mrs. John Rovensky at that time).
The building was renovated during a two and half year renovation, completed in 2016 by Beyer Blinder Belle and French architect Thierry W. Despont, also the architect of Edmond J. Safra Synagogue on New York's Upper East Side. During the renovation, the Cartier store was temporarily located General Motors Building, which was also home to F.A.O. Schwarz and Apple.
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