Grocery shopping is an inspiring experience at the Food Emporium at 59th Street and First Avenue.
Instead of a box-like store with bad fluorescent lighting, this giant supermarket tucked beneath the Queensboro Bridge is like a cathedral, with graceful arches and pillars and beautiful vaulted ceilings lined with Guastavino tiles.
Bridgemarket, as the site is known, is one of many spaces in the city designed by architect Rafael Guastavino.
“Guastavino, an architect from Barcelona, pioneered the adaptation of a centuries-old vernacular building technology called the boveda catalana, or Catalan vault, in which long flat tiles are laid in courses and mortared together with a special mixture of portland cement and cow bay sand,” states Architecture Week.
“Guastavino vaults can be found in numerous grand interiors, including Grand Central Terminal, the U.S. Customs House, and the main hall at Ellis Island.”
Bridgemarket didn’t get its name from its association with Food Emporium. The site actually housed a farmer’s market in the early 1900s.
Guastavino also designed the vaulted ceilings of the long-closed, absolutely beautiful City Hall subway station.
Tags: beautiful vaulted ceiling, Bridgemarket New York City, Food Emporium ceiling, Guastavino architect, Guastavino tiles, most beautiful ceiling in New York City, Queensboro Bridge bridgemarket
Ephemeral New York 
January 6, 2014 at 8:15 am |
Reblogged this on Shapeshifters: Living With Dissociation and commented:
Wow! Wow! Wow!
January 6, 2014 at 11:53 am |
Beautiful!
Liz
January 7, 2014 at 3:22 am |
I would love to see this!
January 8, 2014 at 9:18 pm |
[…] An East Side supermarket’s lovely vaulted ceiling [Ephemeral New York] […]
January 9, 2014 at 1:53 am |
Wow, I’ve seen this from the outside many times — I used to work just a few blocks away — but I never took the time to go inside. Next time I’m in the neighborhood, I’m definitely going in! Thanks for letting us “see” this gorgeous place.
January 9, 2014 at 5:27 am |
I’d seen it from the outside many times too, and this was my first time indoors. It’s incredible! There’s a mezzanine level where you can sit and gaze at the beauty.
January 14, 2014 at 6:08 pm |
[…] https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2014/01/06/an-east-side-supermarkets-lovely-vaulted-ceiling/ […]
September 7, 2015 at 7:17 am |
[…] Rafael Gustavino and his son designed this part of the terminal “based on architectural principles that have been used for centuries worldwide—from St. Paul’s Cathedral in London to the Temple of Heaven in Beijing to the Gol Gumbaz in Bijapur, India,” according to New York Curiosities. […]
August 27, 2018 at 11:22 am |
Another Guastavino marvel of design is the Church of the Holy Trinity on West 82nd Street. It is the only Byzantine style Roman Catholic Church in New York City.
February 4, 2019 at 7:09 am |
[…] these are the decorative lampposts at the entrance to the bridge, and vaulted, Cathedral-like ceilings lined with famous Guastavino tiles under the Manhattan-side bridge approach, the commercial space […]