Oregon wine

The state of Oregon in the United States has established an international reputation for its production of wine, ranking fourth in the country behind California, Washington, and New York. Oregon has several different growing regions within the state's borders that are well-suited to the cultivation of grapes; additional regions straddle the border between Oregon and the states of Washington and Idaho. Wine making dates back to pioneer times in the 1840s, with commercial production beginning in the 1960s.

American Viticultural Areas entirely within the state are the Willamette Valley AVA (with 10 nested AVAs) and the Southern Oregon AVA with (5 nested AVAs). Parts of the Columbia Gorge, Walla Walla Valley, and Snake River Valley AVAs lie within Oregon. Pinot noir and Pinot Gris are the top two grapes grown, with over 59,452 short tons (53,934 t) harvested in 2016. Oregon winemakers sold just under 3.4 million cases in 2016.

With 908 wineries in Oregon, a tourism industry has developed around wine tasting. Much of the tourism focuses on the wineries and tasting rooms in and around the Yamhill Valley southwest of Portland. It is estimated that enotourism contributed USD \$207.5 million to the state economy in 2013 excluding sales at wineries and tasting rooms.

## History

Wine has been produced in Oregon since the Oregon Territory was settled in the 1840s; however, winemaking has only been a significant industry in the state since the 1960s. Grapes were first planted in the Oregon Territory in 1847. Valley View, the first recorded winery, was established by Peter Britt in the late 1850s in Jacksonville. Throughout the 19th century, there was experimentation with various varietals by immigrants to the state. In 1904, an Oregon winemaker won a prize at the St. Louis World's Fair. Wine production stopped in the United States during Prohibition. As in other states, the Oregon wine industry lay dormant for thirty years after Prohibition was repealed.

The Oregon wine industry started to rebuild in the 1960s, when California winemakers opened several vineyards in the state. By 1970, there were five commercial wineries, with 35 recorded acres (14 ha).

This included the planting of Pinot noir grapes in the Willamette Valley, a region long thought too cold to be suitable for viticulture. In the 1970s, more out-of-state winemakers migrated to the state and started to organize as an industry. The state's land-use laws had prevented rural hillsides from being turned into housing tracts, preserving a significant amount of land suitable for vineyards. In 1979, The Eyrie Vineyards entered a 1975 Pinot noir in the Wine Olympics; the wine was rated among the top Pinots in the world, thus gaining the region its first international recognition.

The accolades continued into the 1980s, and the Oregon wine industry continued to add both wineries and vineyards. The state industry continued to market itself, establishing the first of several AVAs (American Viticulture Areas) in the state. The state also grew strong ties with the Burgundy region of France, as Oregon's governor Neil Goldschmidt paid an official visit to Burgundy and a leading French winemaking family bought land in Dundee.

In the early 1990s, the wine industry was threatened by a Phylloxera infestation in the state, but winemakers quickly turned to the use of resistant rootstocks to prevent any serious damage. The state legislature enacted several new laws designed to promote winemaking and wine distribution. The state found a newfound focus on "green" winemaking, leading the global wine industry into more environmentally friendly practices. In 2005, there were 314 wineries and 519 vineyards in operation in Oregon. By 2014, the a number of wineries in the state has increased to 676, the 3rd most behind California and Washington. Oregon remains the 4th largest wine producer in the country in cases produced behind New York.

## Varieties of wine

Like other wines produced in the United States, Oregon wines are marketed as varietals. Oregon law requires that wines produced in the state must be identified by the grape variety from which it was made, and for most varietals, it must contain at least 90% of that variety. The exceptions to the 90% law are the following varietals: Red and White Bordeaux varietals, Red and White Rhône varietals, Sangiovese, Tempranillo, Zinfandel and Tannat. For these wines, they follow the Federal guidelines of 75%. Oregon law has long forbidden the use of place names, except as appellations of origin. Oregon is most famous for its Pinot noir, which is produced throughout the state. Pinot noirs from the Willamette Valley have received much critical acclaim from wine connoisseurs and critics, and Oregon is regarded as one of the premier Pinot-producing regions in the world.

In 2016 the top five varieties produced in Oregon were:

- Pinot noir 17,744 acres (7,181 ha), 45,851 short tons (41,595 t)
- Pinot gris 3,705 acres (1,499 ha), 13,601 short tons (12,339 t)
- Chardonnay 1,482 acres (600 ha), 4,359 short tons (3,954 t)
- Riesling 713 acres (289 ha), 3,095 short tons (2,808 t)
- Cabernet Sauvignon 626 acres (253 ha), 1,652 short tons (1,499 t)

Other varieties with significant production by harvested acres in 2016 are Syrah, Merlot, Tempranillo, Pinot blanc, Gewürztraminer, Viognier, Cabernet franc, Müller-Thurgau, Sauvignon blanc, and Zinfandel, V. vinifera based wines produced in smaller quantities include Arneis, Baco noir, Black Muscat, Chenin blanc, Dolcetto, Gamay noir, Grenache, Marechal Foch, Malbec, Muscat, Nebbiolo, Petite Syrah, Sangiovese, and Sémillon. The state also produces fruit wine, sparkling wine, late harvest wine, ice wine, and dessert wine.

## Facts and figures

As of the 2015 wine growing season, the state of Oregon has 702 wineries and 1052 vineyards growing Vitis vinifera, composing a total of 28,034 acres (11,345 ha) of which 24,742 acres (10,013 ha) were harvested. Out of all US wine growing regions, Oregon ranks third in number of wineries and fourth in production. Nearly 3 million cases of Oregon wine were sold in 2015. The retail value of these cases was \$470,650,919 a 9% increase over the previous vintage.

The industry has had a significant economic impact on the state. The industry contributed a total of US\$3.35 billion to the Oregon economy. 17,100 people participate in the wine industry with \$527 million in wages. In 2014 70% was sold to US markets outside Oregon and 4% was sold internationally.

Oregon produces wine on a much smaller scale than the California wine industry. Oregon's leading producer, King Estate, ships only 401,400 cases per year and most produce under 35,000 cases. The state features many small wineries that produce less than 5,000 cases per year. In contrast, E & J Gallo, the United States' largest winery with more than 50 different brands including Washington's Columbia Winery and Covey Run holds a 22.8% share of the US market. The majority of wineries in the state operate their own vineyards, although some purchase grapes on the market. Oregon contains a significant number of independent vineyards.

The Oregon wine industry focuses on the higher-priced segments of the wine market. Oregon growers receive a higher average return per ton and a higher average revenue per case than do growers in other wine-producing regions in the United States. Despite producing a much smaller volume of wine, Oregon winery revenues per capita are comparable to those of New York and Washington.

## Major wine-producing regions

There are, loosely speaking, three main wine producing regions with a major presence in the state of Oregon, as defined by non-overlapping American Viticultural Areas. Two of them—the Willamette Valley AVA and the Southern Oregon AVA—are wholly contained within Oregon; a third, the Columbia Gorge AVA straddles the Columbia River and includes territory in both Oregon and Washington; however, this AVA is considered to be an Oregon AVA. Portions of the Walla Walla Valley AVA, an area primarily in Washington (along with the Columbia Valley AVA, which contains it), descend into Oregon in the Milton-Freewater area. The Southern Oregon AVA was recently created as the union of two Southern Oregon winegrowing regions long considered distinct, the Rogue Valley and the Umpqua Valley. Several other smaller AVAs are found within some of these larger regions. The Snake River Valley AVA, which straddles Oregon's border with Idaho along the Snake River, is the first AVA to include a part of Eastern Oregon.

### Willamette Valley AVA

The Willamette Valley AVA is the wine growing region that encompasses the Willamette Valley. It stretches from the Columbia River in the north to just south of Eugene in the south, where the Willamette Valley ends; and from the Oregon Coast Range in the West to the Cascade Mountains in the East. At 5,200 square miles (13,500 km2), it is the largest AVA in the state, and contains most of the state's wineries; with 545 as of 2016.

The climate of Willamette Valley is mild year-round, with cool, wet winters and warm, dry summers; extreme temperatures are uncommon. Most rainfall occurs outside the growing season and the valley gets relatively little snow. Not all parts of the Valley are suitable for viticulture, and most wineries and vineyards are found west of the Willamette River, with the largest concentration in Yamhill County.

The region is best known for its Pinot noir, and also produces large amounts of Pinot gris, Chardonnay, Pinot blanc, and Riesling. The region also produces Cabernet Sauvignon, Gewürztraminer, Müller-Thurgau, Sémillon, and Zinfandel grapes, but in far smaller quantities.

The region is divided into 10 nested AVAs: Chehalem Mountains AVA, Dundee Hills AVA, Eola-Amity Hills AVA, Laurelwood District AVA, Lower Long Tom AVA, McMinnville AVA, Ribbon Ridge AVA, Tualatin Hills AVA, Van Duzer Corridor AVA, and the Yamhill-Carlton District AVA. Ribbon Ridge AVA and Laurelwood District AVA are nested within the Chehalem Mountains AVA. In addition, many wine connoisseurs further divide the Willamette Valley into northern and southern regions approximately at the latitude of Salem.

### Southern Oregon AVA

The Southern Oregon AVA is an AVA formed as the union of two existing AVAs—the Rogue Valley AVA and the Umpqua Valley AVA. (A small strip of the connecting territory is included in the Southern Oregon AVA to make it a contiguous region; however, this strip passes through mountains regions not suitable for vineyards.) This AVA was established in 2004 to allow the two principal regions in Southern Oregon to jointly market themselves. As the Rogue Valley and Umpqua Valley regions produce different grapes and different varietals, they are examined separately.

#### Umpqua Valley AVA

The Umpqua Valley AVA contains the drainage basin of the Umpqua River, excluding mountainous regions. The Umpqua Valley has a warmer climate than the Willamette Valley, but is cooler than the Rogue Valley to the south. It is the oldest post-prohibition wine region in Oregon. Grapes grown here include Tempranillo, Baco noir, Pinot noir, Pinot gris, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, and Riesling, Grüner Veltliner, and a host of lesser-known Vitis vinifera. The region includes two sub-AVAs, the Red Hill Douglas County, Oregon AVA, a single vineyard AVA, as well as the Elkton Oregon AVA, which was established in early 2013.

#### Rogue Valley AVA

The Rogue Valley AVA includes the drainage basin of the Rogue River and several tributaries, including the Illinois River, the Applegate River, and Bear Creek. Most wineries in the region are found along with one of these three tributaries, rather than along the Rogue River itself. The region is 70 miles (110 km) wide by 60 miles (100 km) long (although much of the land within the AVA is not suitable for grape cultivation); there are currently 32 wineries with only 1,100 acres (445 ha) planted. The three valleys differ greatly in terroir, with the easternmost Bear Creek valley being warmest and driest, and the westernmost Illinois River valley being coolest and wettest. Each river valley has a unique climate and grows different varieties of grapes. Overall, however, this region is the warmest and driest of Oregon's wine-growing regions. The region has one sub-AVA, the Applegate Valley AVA.

### Columbia Gorge AVA

The Columbia Gorge AVA is found in the Columbia Gorge. This region straddles the Columbia River, and thus lies in both Oregon and Washington; it is made up of Hood River and Wasco counties in Oregon, and Skamania and Klickitat counties in Washington.

The region lies to the east of the summits of nearby Mount Hood and Mount Adams, situated in their rain shadows; thus, the region is significantly drier than the Willamette Valley. It also exhibits significant differences in elevation due to gorge geography, and strong winds common in the area also play a factor in the region's climate. This allows a wide variety of grapes to be grown in the Columbia Gorge. The region has nearly 40 vineyards, growing a wide variety of grapes, including Syrah, Pinot noir, Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer, Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot gris, Riesling, and Sangiovese.

### Columbia Valley AVA

Portions of northeastern Oregon (in the vicinity of Milton-Freewater) are part of the Walla Walla Valley AVA established in 1984; which in turn is nested within the Columbia Valley AVA. Both Columbia Valley and Walla Walla Valley AVAs reside primarily within Washington state. The Oregon subsection has 5 wineries and 1,200 acres (486 ha) planted. Wines grown in the valley include Syrah, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon, as well as Sangiovese and a few exotic varietals including Counoise, Carmenère, Mourvèdre, Cabernet Franc, Nebbiolo and Barbera.

A new nested AVA, The Rocks District of Milton–Freewater, was established in 2015.

### Snake River Valley AVA

A new viticultural area along the Snake River was established on April 9, 2007. Principally located in Idaho, the area also encompasses two large counties in Eastern Oregon, Baker County and Malheur County. The region's climate is unique among AVAs in Oregon; the average temperature is relatively cool and rainfall is low, creating a shorter growing season. Current production is led by hardy grapes such as Riesling, Gewürztraminer, and Chardonnay. The climate also lends itself extremely well to the production of ice wine. However, the AVA is quite large and warmer microclimates within the area can also support different types of grapes such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

## Enotourism

With the continuing improvement in the region's winemaking reputation, enotourism in Oregon has become a significant industry in its own right. On-site sales are becoming an increasingly important part of the business of Oregon winemaking, and other businesses that cater to wine tourists, such as lodging, fine restaurants, art galleries, have been appearing in places like Dundee, many of which have long been rural farming communities. Wine festivals and tastings are commonplace. It is estimated that enotourism contributed USD \$207.5 million to the state economy in 2013 excluding sales at wineries and tasting rooms. There are approximately 1.8 million visits to Oregon wineries each year, 59% by Oregonians and 41% from out-of-state visitors. Major events drawing significant numbers of tourists to wine country include the International Pinot Noir Celebration which is held the last weekend of July every year since 1987 and the more recent Oregon Chardonnay Celebration.

Since wine themed events are a significant driver of tourism new ones are launched each year.

- Memorial Day weekend and Thanksgiving weekend (since 1983) feature open house events at most wineries across the entire state.
  - ¡Salud! is a wine fundraising organization that has held annual November auctions since 1991
  - The Oregon Wine Experience is in its 19th year.
- The Pour Oregon wine festival, launched in 2017 by Oregon wine club Cellar 503, typically features 50+ wineries from the entire state.

Facilities for wine tourists in Oregon are considered underdeveloped compared to wine regions in California, especially premium growing regions like the Napa Valley AVA. Only 5% of overnight leisure trips in the state involve visits to wineries, a much smaller figure than comparable Californian growing regions, which range from 10% to 25%.

The increase in winery-related tourism, as well as the presence of a casino in the Willamette Valley, has greatly impacted the region's transportation infrastructure. Oregon Route 99W, the highway running through the heart of Willamette Valley wine country (and which is the main street in towns such as Newberg and Dundee), is plagued with frequent traffic jams. Phase I of the Newberg-Dundee Bypass, a new highway that avoids the congested city centers opened in January 2018, and a second phase (currently in the design process) will allow for further diversion of traffic off of 99W.

## Wine Industry

A growing number of organizations have been established to promote Oregon Wine. In February of each year the Oregon Wine Board and Oregon Wine Grower's association team up to hold the Oregon Wine Symposium.

Statewide organizations:

- Oregon Beer and Wine Distributors Association is a full-service, professional trade association representing beer and wine distribution companies in Oregon since 1975.
- Oregon Pinot Camp brings together invite-only members of the wine trade to learn about Oregon Pinot Noir so they can better represent Oregon Wines to their customers.
- Oregon Pinot Gris is a pinot gris centered marketing organization created by nine Oregon wineries in 2011.
- Oregon Wine Board is a semi-independent Oregon state agency managing marketing, research and education initiatives that support and advance the Oregon wine and wine grape industry.
- Oregon Wine Grower's Association advances and protects the investments of its members.
- Oregon Wine Press is a monthly print and online publication supporting the wine industry.
- Steamboat Pinot Noir Conference is an annual event for winemakers held since 1980 to openly exchange information and share experiences regarding the growing of Pinot noir and the styles and techniques of Pinot noir winemaking.

Regional organizations, largely aligned to AVAs:

- Applegate Valley Wine Trail supports 17 member wineries.
- Chehalem Mountain Winegrowers Association supports 67 member vineyards and wineries.
- Columbia Gorge Winegrowers supports wineries from both Oregon and Washington along the Columbia gorge.
- Dundee Hills Winegrowers Association supports 41 member wineries within the Dundee Hills AVA.
- Heart of Willamette Wineries supports 18 member wineries located between Salem and Junction City Oregon.
- McMinnville Foothills Winegrowers supports 8 member vineyards and wineries within the McMinnville AVA.
- North Willamette Vintners brings together wineries, vineyards and tourism partners to support and advance the North Willamette wine region.
- Ribbon Ridge Winegrower's Association supports 20 member vineyards and wineries within the AVA.
- Rogue Valley Winegrowers Association supports more than 40 wineries within the Rogue Valley.
- South Willamette Wineries Association has 20 member wineries from the region encircling Eugene OR.
- Southern Oregon Winery Association supports more than 150 wineries spanning 4 AVAs: Applegate Valley AVA (a sub-appellation of Rogue Valley AVA), Elkton Oregon AVA, Rogue Valley AVA, and Umpqua Valley AVA.
- Umpqua Valley Wineries has 23 member wineries from the Umpqua Valley AVA.
- Willamette Valley Wineries Association was created in 1986 with 11 members from Yamhill County and has grown to 215 members.
- Willamette Valley Visitors Association promotes the region with their popular Oregon Wine Country website.
- Yamhill-Carlton Winegrowers Association has 64 vineyard members as of August 2016.

## Recognition

### Recognition for quality

Oregon wines have won several major awards, and/or been praised by notable wine critics.

- In 1904, Forest Grove winemaker Ernest Reuter won a silver medal at the St. Louis World's Fair.
- In 1979, Eyrie Vineyards' 1975 South Block Pinot noir placed in the top 10 of Burgundy-style wines at the Gault-Millau French Wine Olympiades, and was rated the top Pinot noir. In a rematch, however, the Eyrie finished second to a French wine.
- Two gold medals in the International Wine Competition in London in 1982.
- A Yamhill Valley Vineyards 1983 Pinot noir was the first place preference at the 1985 Oregon Pinot noir/French Burgundy Challenge at the International Wine Center in New York City.

### Other recognition

- Evening Lands's 98 point 2012 Eola-Amity Hills Seven Springs Vineyard La Source Pinot Noir was \#3 of 100 on 2015 Wine Spectator's annual Top 100 Wines. 5 other Oregon wines made the 2015 list: Big Table Farm's 2012 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir at No. 11, Bergström's 2013 Ribbon Ridge Le Pré Du Col Vineyard Pinot Noir at No. 13, Soléna's 2012 Willamette Valley Grande Cuvée Pinot Noir at No. 38 and Colene Clemens' 2012 Chehalem Mountains Margo Pinot Noir at No. 45.
- Beaux Freres The Upper Terrace 2012 received the second higher score in the history of Oregon wine a 97 also from Wine Spectator.
- In 2006, seven Oregon wines made Wine Spectators annual Top 100 Wines list. Producers on the list included: Shea, Argyle, Archery Summit, Lemelson, Ken Wright, Elk Cove, and Benton Lane.

## Notable wineries and vineyards

This is a list of notable operating and defunct wineries and vineyards in the state of Oregon''' in the United States, including those in the Southern Oregon AVA and Willamette Valley AVA. Included are wineries and vineyards owned or operated by larger wineries not based in Oregon.

## See also

- Alcoholic beverages in Oregon
- Oregon Wine Board

## Further reading, by publication date

- Spectacular Wineries of Oregon: A Captivating Tour of Established, Estate, and Boutique Wineries, 2015,
- Wine Map of the Pacific Northwest, 2015,
- Explorer's Guide to Oregon Wine, 2013,
- Winemakers of the Willamette Valley: Pioneering Vintners from Oregon's Wine Country, 2013,
- The Law of Wine A Guide to Business and Legal Issues in Oregon, 2013
- Voodoo Vintners: Oregon's Astonishing Biodynamic Winegrowers, 2011,
- Essential Wines and Wineries of the Pacific Northwest: A Guide to the Wine Countries of Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, and Idaho, 2010,
- WineTrails of Oregon, 2009,
- Oregon Eco-Friendly Wine: Leading the World in "Green" Wine, 2008,
- Oregon: The Taste of Wine, 2008,
- Pacific Pinot Noir: A Comprehensive Winery Guide for Consumers and Connoisseurs, 2008,
- Cooking with the Wines of Oregon, 2007,
- Grail, The: A year ambling & shambling through an Oregon vineyard in pursuit of the best pinot noir wine in the whole wild world, 2006,
- At Home in the Vineyard: Cultivating a Winery, an Industry, and a Life, 2006,
- Wines of the Pacific Northwest, 2006,
- Oregon Wine Country, 2004,
- Oregon Viticulture, 2003,
- A Travel Companion to the Wineries of the Pacific Northwest: Featuring the Pinot Noirs of Oregon's Willamette Valley, 2002,
- Boys Up North: Dick Erath and the Early Oregon Wine Makers, 1997,
- Oregon Winegrape Grower's Guide, 1992,
- The Wines and Wineries of America's Northwest: the Premium Wines of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho'', 1986,

Overview about the wine in Oregon

Wine regions of the United States by state


HMS King George V (41)

HMS King George V (pennant number 41) was the lead ship of the five British King George V-class battleships of the Royal Navy. Laid down in 1937 and commissioned in 1940, King George V operated during the Second World War in all three major naval theatres of war, the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Pacific, as well as part of the British Home Fleet and Pacific Fleets. In May 1941, along with HMS Rodney, King George V was involved in the hunt for and pursuit of the German battleship Bismarck, eventually inflicting severe damage which led to the German vessel's sinking. On 1 May 1942 the destroyer HMS Punjabi sank after a collision with King George V in foggy conditions. King George V took part in Operation Husky (the allied landings in Sicily) and bombarded the island of Levanzo and the port of Trapani. She also escorted part of the surrendered Italian Fleet, which included the battleships Andrea Doria and Duilio, to Malta. In 1945 King George V took part in operations against the Japanese in the Pacific.

King George V was made flagship of the British Home Fleet on 1 April 1941, she remained so during the rest of the war and became a training battleship in November 1947.

## Design

### General characteristics

King George V was built by Vickers-Armstrong at Walker Naval Yard, Newcastle upon Tyne; she was laid down on 1 January 1937, launched on 21 February 1939 and commissioned on 11 December 1940. The ship had an overall length of 745 ft (227 m), a beam of 112 ft (34 m) and a draught of 34 ft (10 m). She displaced 38,031 tons at normal load and 42,237 tons at full load. After her refit in 1944, she displaced 39,100 tons at standard load, and 44,460 tons at full load. She could carry 3,918 tons of fuel oil, 192 tons of diesel oil, 256 tons of reserve feed water and 444 tons of freshwater. Based on the designed fuel consumption, range was: 4,000 nautical miles (7,400 km; 4,600 mi) at 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph), 10,250 nautical miles (18,980 km; 11,800 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) and 14,400 nautical miles (26,700 km; 16,600 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). However, in practice fuel consumption was much higher, and at 16 knots (30 km/h) the actual range was about 6,300 nautical miles (11,700 km) with a five per cent reserve allowance. Designed within the tight 35,000 ton limitations of the Washington Naval Treaty, wartime service necessitated increases over the design displacement, seriously reducing freeboard and affecting seaworthiness. This was most acute at the already low bow. With too little buoyancy forward the bows were easily buried even in moderate seas, with spray washing up over both forward turrets. Heavy seas could flood 'A' turret, drenching both men and machinery within.

### Propulsion

King George V was equipped with eight Admiralty boilers. This configuration was a little more conventional than the preceding Nelson class, with boiler rooms placed side by side and with each pair associated with a turbine room astern of them. The total heating surface of the boiler plants in King George V was 78,144 sq ft (7,259.8 m2). The 416-ton boiler installation produced more than 100,000 shaft horsepower (75,000 kW), giving a top speed of 28 knots. The eight boilers were more economic in space and fuel than the twenty-four boilers in the battlecruiser HMS Hood. Fewer, but larger, boilers lowered the weight per unit of heat delivered, as did increased boiler efficiency and consumption of fuel per unit area of heating surface. This made King George V the fastest battleship in the British fleet but slower than the German, French or the new Italian capital ships, or the battlecruisers HMS Hood, Repulse and Renown.

King George V had four sets of Parsons geared turbines. Two main turbines were arranged in series and drove a shaft through double helical gears. An astern turbine was incorporated in the exhaust casing of the low-pressure turbine, and a cruising turbine was coupled directly to the high-pressure turbine. A speed of 28.5 knots was expected at standard displacement and 27.5 knots at full-load displacement on normal output; corresponding speeds at overload condition were 29.25 and 28.25 knots respectively. The turbine unit was a low-speed type (2,257 rpm) coupled to a single reduction gear which produced 236 rpm at the propeller shaft.

### Armament

#### Main battery

The tight limitations of the Washington Naval Treaty raised many challenges and required difficult compromises if they were to be met. To avoid the class being outgunned by the new ships of foreign navies, especially as by the mid-1930s the Treaty had been renounced by Japan and Italy, Churchill wrote to the First Lord of the Admiralty in 1936, voicing strong objections to the proposed armament of ten 14-inch guns. His proposal was for nine 16-inch guns. However, when completed King George V mounted ten 14-inch (356 mm) guns. They were mounted in one Mark II twin turret forward and two Mark III quadruple turrets, one forward and one aft. They could be elevated 40 degrees and depressed 3 degrees. Training arcs were: "A" turret, 286 degrees; "B" turret, 270 degrees and "Y" turret, 270 degrees. Training and elevating was achieved through a hydraulic drive, with rates of two and eight degrees per second, respectively. A full gun broadside weighed 15,950 pounds; a salvo could be fired every 30 seconds. The quadruple turrets weighed 1,582 tons, the twin turret 915 tons. The turrets were designed by the Vickers Armstrong's Elswick Works, but sets of each type of equipment were manufactured by Vickers Armstrongs in Barrow. A considerable amount of design effort was expended to make the turrets as flashtight as possible. This complicated the mechanical design of the turrets, particularly the quadruple mountings. Due to insufficient clearances and slightly distorted link mechanisms, failures in the intricate safety interlocks in the loading sequence for antiflash precautions caused jams during drills and practice firing. During the summer of 1941 the King George V-class battleships had their main armament turrets and turret linkages modified to correct the operational faults revealed during Bismarck's final operation. HMS King George V used an Admiralty Fire Control Table Mark IX to control her main armament.

#### Secondary battery

The secondary armament consisted of sixteen 5.25-inch (133 mm) guns in eight twin mounts, weighing 81 tons each. They were grouped at the four corners of the citadel, with a twin mount on the main deck and another superimposed above it nearer amidships. This disposition gave better arcs of fire, freedom from blast, more separation of the magazines and a better arrangement of the ammunition supply. The cupolas for these mounts revolved on either the upper or superstructure deck; between deck mountings travelled on roller paths on the armoured deck. This permitted a flat-trajectory or high-angle fire. Loading was semi-automatic, normal rate of fire was ten to twelve rounds per minute. The maximum range of the Mk I guns was 24,070 yards (22,009.6 m) at a 45-degree elevation, the anti-aircraft ceiling was 49,000 feet (14,935.2 m). The guns could be elevated to 70 degrees and depressed to 5 degrees. However, the guns could only practically fire seven to eight rounds per minute, due to the heavy weight of the shell and the fact that the 5.25-inch round was semi-fixed, requiring the crew to separately load the cartridge and shell into the breech. King George V introduced the High Angle Control System Mark IVGB anti-aircraft fire control system to the Royal Navy, which, along with the Mk IV Pom-Pom Director, pioneered the use of the Gyro Rate Unit.

#### Anti-aircraft battery

The King George V design had four 0.5-inch quadruple machine gun mounts, but in 1939 these were replaced by two Mark VI pom-pom mounts. In 1940, to combat air attack, four Unrotated Projectile mountings were fitted, on "B" turret, two on "Y" turret, one replaced a pom-pom mount added in 1939 at the stern. The pom-poms mounted in the King George V were designed and produced by Vickers Armstrongs as a result of a post-First World War requirement for a multiple mounting which was effective against close-range bombers or torpedo planes. The first model, tested in 1927, was superior to anything developed in other countries at the time and in 1938 the Mark VI\* had a muzzle velocity of 2,400 feet per second, a 1.594-inch bore and a barrel length of 40 calibres. They fired a 1.8-pound (0.82 kg) shell at a rate of 96–98 rounds per minute for controlled fire and 115 rounds per minute for automatic fire. The range of the Mark VI\* was 6,800 yards (6,200 m), at a muzzle velocity of 2,300 feet per second. The Mark VI octuple mount weighed 16 tons. The Mark VII quadruple mount weighed 10.8 tons if power operated; it could be elevated to 80 degrees and depressed to 10 degrees at a rate of 25 degrees per second which was also the rate of train. The normal ammunition supply on board for the Mark VI was 1,800 rounds per barrel. King George V introduced the Mk IV Pom-pom director to the Royal Navy in 1940, becoming the first ship in the world to feature gyroscopic target tracking in tachymetric anti-aircraft directors.

## Operational history

The first of her class to be completed, King George V was commissioned at her shipyard and sailed for Rosyth in Scotland on 16 October 1940; there she took on board her ammunition and began her sea trials. By the end of the year she had joined the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow. She crossed the Atlantic early in 1941 to take Lord Halifax, the Ambassador to the United States, to Annapolis and covered an east-bound convoy on her return, arriving back at Scapa Flow on 6 February. Her next task was to provide distant cover for Operation Claymore, the Royal Marines raid on the Lofoten islands off the north-west coast of Norway. She escorted further Atlantic convoys, HX 104 and HX 115 during March 1941.

### Action with Bismarck

When the German battleship Bismarck along with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen broke out into the Atlantic Ocean, King George V sailed on 22 May 1941 with the aircraft carrier Victorious and eleven cruisers and destroyers in support of the cruiser patrols off Iceland. King George V was the flagship of Admiral Sir John Tovey, who commanded the force. King George V was still 260 to 350 nmi; 480 to 640 km (300 to 400 mi) away on the morning of 24 May, when sister ship Prince of Wales and Hood engaged both Bismarck and Prinz Eugen. Hood was sunk and Prince of Wales was damaged when taking fire from both Bismarck and Prinz Eugen and forced to retire. Bismarck, although damaged, continued south with Prinz Eugen.

The British re-located Bismarck at 10:30 on 26 May, when a Catalina flying boat of RAF Coastal Command sighted her, heading for the French port of Brest. Rodney and King George V were still about 109 nmi; 201 km (125 mi) away. The aircraft carrier Ark Royal was ordered to launch an air attack, and at 22:25 her torpedo bombers, a flight of Fairey Swordfishes damaged Bismarck, slowing her down and jamming her rudder, forcing her to turn back out into the Atlantic, away from the safety of port. At 15:00 Rodney joined King George V and they maintained 22 knots – which was nearly maximum speed for Rodney. King George V had only 32 per cent of her fuel left while Rodney had only enough fuel to continue the chase at high speed until 8:00 the following day.

Admiral Tovey signalled his battle plan to Rodney just before sunrise on 27 May; she was free to manœuvre independently as long as she conformed generally to the movements of King George V. Both ships were to close the range to 15,000 yards (14,000 m) as quickly as possible, then turn for broadside fire.

At 08:15 the cruiser Norfolk spotted Bismarck and turned away out of range. She soon sighted the other British ships off her starboard quarter, and informed them that Bismarck was roughly 50,000 yards (46,000 m) to the southwest. By 08:43 King George V had Bismarck in sight, at 20,500 yards (18,700 m). Four minutes later Rodney opened fire. King George V followed suit in less than a minute. Bismarck answered almost immediately, straddling Rodney on her second salvo. By 08:59 King George V had closed to 16,000 yards (15,000 m) and all her 14-inch guns were firing; Rodney was firing 16-inch salvoes. Bismarck concentrated all her remaining guns on King George V, but only an occasional shell came close. At 09:14 King George V, at 12,000 yards (11,000 m), had opened fire with her 5.25-inch guns, and Rodney had moved to 8,500–9,000 yards (7,800–8,200 m).

At 09:27 a shell hitting Bismarck penetrated the hydraulic machinery in turret 'Anton' and disabled it, causing the guns to run down to maximum depression. Her topsides were wrecked, and a large fire burned amidships. After firing steadily for over 30 minutes, without any problems, King George V , by 09:27, began having trouble with her main battery, and from that point onward every gun missed at least one salvo due to failures in the safety interlocks for antiflash protection and from ammunition feed jams. At 10:21, with Bismarck silenced and obviously sinking, Admiral Tovey detailed the cruiser Dorsetshire to finish her off with torpedoes. King George V fired 339 14 in (356 mm) and over 700 5.25 in (133 mm) shells during the action. As both Rodney and King George V were low on fuel they returned to port at 19 knots (35 km/h), escorted by eleven destroyers to guard against German air or submarine attack. The next day, after the escort was reduced to three destroyers, four German aircraft did attack but scored no hits. Both King George V and Rodney returned to port safely, but the destroyer Mashona, sent ahead to refuel, was bombed and sunk.

### Collision damage

After repairs and adjustments to her guns, King George V attacked German shipping in the Glom Fjord, Norway, in October 1941. She then covered convoys to Russia. On 1 May 1942 she was operating with USS Washington as an escort to Convoy PQ 15, and collided with the destroyer HMS Punjabi, which had manoeuvred to avoid a mine and crossed her bow in dense fog. Punjabi was cut in two and sank; King George V had 40 feet (12 m) of her bow badly damaged. King George V entered the Gladstone Dock in Liverpool on 9 May for repairs by Cammell Laird, and returned to Scapa Flow on 1 July 1942. The battleship did not leave Scapa Flow until 18 December when she finally resumed convoy escort duty, providing distant cover for the Arctic convoy JW 51A.

### Mediterranean operations

In May 1943, King George V was moved to Gibraltar in preparation for Operation Husky. King George V and her sister ship Howe were allocated to the reserve covering group when the operation got under way on 1 July. The two ships bombarded Trapani in Sicily on 12 July and also helped defend against an air raid whilst in Algiers prior to departing for Operation Avalanche, (the Allied invasion of Italy). The two ships also bombarded the islands of Levanzo and Favignana, after which they were in the reserve group for the Salerno landings (Operation Avalanche) which began on 9 September. King George V escorted part of the Italian Fleet, including the battleships Andrea Doria and Duilio, to Malta after the armistice and with Howe provided cover for the 1st Airborne Division who were transported to Taranto in support of Operation Slapstick from 9 to 11 September by the cruiser USS Boise and the fast minelayer HMS Abdiel. The battleship then escorted a naval force which occupied the Italian naval base at Taranto. She later escorted surrendered Italian ships from Malta to Alexandria. After bombarding German positions during the Salerno landings, King George V returned to the United Kingdom.

### Pacific operations

King George V was in Liverpool for an overhaul from March to June, 1944; it included the installation of additional radar gear, more anti-aircraft guns, improved accommodation, and ventilation. On 28 October 1944 King George V sailed from Scapa Flow under the command of Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser to join other Royal Navy units assembling at Trincomalee in Ceylon. A stop at Alexandria en route enabled her to divert to Milos in the Aegean Sea to bombard German positions. On 1 December she resumed her eastward journey, arriving in Trincomalee on 15 December. King George V got under way again on 16 January 1945. The flotilla, known as TF 63, comprised King George V, the aircraft carriers Illustrious, Indomitable, Indefatigable and Victorious, four cruisers and ten destroyers. The first stage of the voyage was covering the 11,000 nautical miles to Sydney; en route the force attacked oil refineries on Sumatra in Operation Meridian. They also practised replenishment-at-sea and beat off a Japanese air attack, with King George V's anti-aircraft crews shooting down one Mitsubishi Ki-21.

Joined by Howe and re-designated Task Force 57, the British Pacific Fleet was again involved in operations in late March 1945, when it launched attacks on the Sakishimo-Gunto airfields, a task it repeated in early May. On 4 May 1945 King George V led battleships and cruisers in a forty-five-minute bombardment of Japanese air facilities in the Ryukyu Islands. As the Allies approached the Japanese homeland, King George V was dispatched in mid-July to join the US battleships in a bombardment of industrial installations at Hitachi. King George V fired 267 rounds from her 14-inch guns during this operation. The task force then moved on to Hamamatsu in southern Honshu, where it carried out a further bombardment of aviation factories. During the Okinawa campaign, the battleship supported four fast carriers of the British Pacific Fleet. Her last offensive action was a night bombardment of Hamamatsu on 29 and 30 July 1945.

With the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the surrender that followed, King George V moved with other units of the British Pacific Fleet into Tokyo Bay to be present at the surrender ceremonies.

### Post-war activity

In January 1946 she conveyed the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester on an official visit to Australia, returning to Portsmouth in March. She was flagship of the Home Fleet until December 1946, after becoming a training vessel.

King George V's active naval career was terminated by the Royal Navy in June 1950, when she and her surviving sister-ships went into reserve and were mothballed. King George V was the first large warship to be preserved in this fashion. This involved sealing the armament, machinery and boilers against damp and installing dehumidifiers throughout. In December 1955, she was downgraded to extended reserve and in 1957 the decision was taken to scrap the four ships. The following year King George V was moved from her berth in Gareloch to the ship breaking firm of Arnott Young and Co. in Dalmuir to undergo dismantling.

## Refits

During her career, King George V was refitted on several occasions in order to update her equipment. The following are the dates and details of the refits undertaken:

British battleship

World War II battleships of the United Kingdom


Tintin in the Land of the Soviets

Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (French: Tintin au pays des Soviets) is the first volume of The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. Commissioned by the conservative Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle as anti-communist satire for its children's supplement Le Petit Vingtième, it was serialised weekly from January 1929 to May 1930 before being published in a collected volume by Éditions du Petit Vingtième in 1930. The story tells of young Belgian reporter Tintin and his dog Snowy, who are sent to the Soviet Union to report on the policies of Joseph Stalin's Bolshevik government. Tintin's intent to expose the regime's secrets prompts agents from the Soviet secret police, the OGPU, to hunt him down with the intent to kill.

Bolstered by publicity stunts, Land of the Soviets was a commercial success in Belgium, and also witnessed serialisation in France and Switzerland. Hergé continued The Adventures of Tintin with Tintin in the Congo, and the series became a defining part of the Franco-Belgian comics tradition. Damage to the original plates prevented republication of the book for several decades, while Hergé later expressed embarrassment at the crudeness of the work. As he began to redraw his earlier Adventures in second, colour versions from 1942 onward, he decided against doing so for Land of the Soviets; it was the only completed Tintin story that Hergé did not reproduce in colour. Growing demand among fans of the series resulted in the production of unauthorised copies of the book in the 1960s, with the first officially sanctioned republication appearing in 1969, after which it was translated into several other languages, including English. Critical reception of the work has been largely negative, and several commentators on The Adventures of Tintin have described Land of the Soviets as one of Hergé's weakest works.

## Synopsis

Tintin, a reporter for Le Petit Vingtième, is sent with his dog Snowy on an assignment to the Soviet Union, departing from Brussels. On the route to Moscow, an agent of the OGPU—the Soviet secret police—sabotages the train and declares the reporter to be a "dirty little bourgeois". The Berlin Police indirectly blame Tintin for the bombing but he escapes to the border of the Soviet Union. Following closely, the OGPU agent finds Tintin and brings him before the local Commissar's office, instructing the Commissar to make the reporter "disappear ... accidentally". Escaping again, Tintin finds "how the Soviets fool the poor idiots who still believe in a Red Paradise" by burning bundles of straw and clanging metal in order to trick visiting English Marxists into believing that non-operational Soviet factories are productive.

Tintin witnesses a local election, where the Bolsheviks threaten the voters to ensure their own victory; when they try to arrest him, he dresses as a ghost to scare them away. Tintin attempts to make his way out of the Soviet Union, but the Bolsheviks pursue and arrest him, then threaten him with torture. Escaping his captors, Tintin reaches Moscow, remarking that the Bolsheviks have turned it into "a stinking slum". He and Snowy observe a government official handing out bread to homeless Marxists but denying it to their opponents; Snowy steals a loaf and gives it to a starving boy. Spying on a secret Bolshevik meeting, Tintin learns that all the Soviet grain is being exported abroad for propaganda purposes, leaving the people starving, and that the government plans to "organise an expedition against the kulaks, the rich peasants, and force them at gunpoint to give us their corn".

Tintin infiltrates the Red Army and warns some of the kulaks to hide their grain, but the army catches him and sentences him to death by firing squad. By planting blanks in the soldiers' rifles, Tintin fakes his death and is able to make his way into the snowy wilderness, where he discovers an underground Bolshevik hideaway in a haunted house. A Bolshevik then captures him and informs him, "You're in the hideout where Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin have collected together wealth stolen from the people!" With Snowy's help, Tintin escapes, commandeers a plane, and flies into the night. The plane crashes, but Tintin fashions a new propeller from a tree using a penknife, and continues to Berlin. The OGPU agents appear and lock Tintin in a dungeon, but he escapes with the aid of Snowy, who has dressed himself in a tiger costume. The last OGPU agent attempts to kidnap Tintin, but this attempt is foiled, leaving the agent threatening, "We'll blow up all the capitals of Europe with dynamite!" Tintin returns to Brussels amidst a huge popular reception.

## History

### Background

Georges Remi—best known under the pen name Hergé—had been employed as an illustrator at Le Vingtième Siècle ("The Twentieth Century"), a staunchly Roman Catholic and conservative Belgian newspaper based in Hergé's native Brussels. Run by the Abbé Norbert Wallez, the paper described itself as a "Catholic Newspaper for Doctrine and Information" and disseminated a far-right and fascist viewpoint; Wallez was an admirer of Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini and kept a signed picture of him on his desktop, while Léon Degrelle, who later became the leader of the fascist Rexists, worked as a foreign correspondent for the paper. According to Harry Thompson, such political ideas were common in Belgium at the time, and Hergé's milieu was permeated with conservative ideas revolving around "patriotism, Catholicism, strict morality, discipline, and naivety". Anti-communist sentiment was strong, and a Soviet exhibition held in Brussels in January 1928 was vandalised amid demonstrations by the fascist National Youth Movement (Jeunesses nationales) in which Degrelle took part.

Wallez appointed Hergé editor of a children's supplement for the Thursday issues of Le Vingtième Siècle, titled Le Petit Vingtième ("The Little Twentieth"). Propagating Wallez's socio-political views to its young readership, it contained explicitly pro-fascist and anti-Semitic sentiment. In addition to editing the supplement, Hergé illustrated L'extraordinaire aventure de Flup, Nénesse, Poussette et Cochonnet ("The Extraordinary Adventures of Flup, Nénesse, Poussette and Cochonnet"), a comic strip authored by a member of the newspaper's sport staff, which told the adventures of two boys, one of their little sisters, and her inflatable rubber pig. Hergé became dissatisfied with mere illustration work, and wanted to write and draw his own cartoon strip.

Hergé already had experience creating comic strips. From July 1926 he had written a strip about a boy scout patrol leader titled Les Aventures de Totor C.P. des Hannetons ("The Adventures of Totor, Scout Leader of the Cockchafers") for the Scouting newspaper Le Boy Scout Belge ("The Belgian Boy Scout"). The character of Totor was a strong influence on Tintin; Hergé described the latter as being like Totor's younger brother. Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier stated that graphically, Totor and Tintin were "virtually identical" except for the scout uniform, also noting many similarities between their respective adventures, particularly in the illustration style, the fast pace of the story, and the use of humour. Hergé also had experience creating anti-communist propaganda, having produced a number of satirical sketches for Le Sifflet in October 1928 titled "70 per cent of Communist chefs are odd ducks".

### Influences

Hergé wanted to set Tintin's first adventure in the United States in order to involve Native Americans—a people who had fascinated him since boyhood—in the story. Wallez rejected this idea, which later saw realisation as the series' third instalment, Tintin in America (1932). Instead, Wallez wanted Hergé to send Tintin to the Soviet Union, founded in 1922 by the Marxist–Leninist Bolshevik Party after seizing power from the Russian Empire during the 1917 October Revolution. The Bolsheviks greatly changed the country's feudal society by nationalising industry and replacing a capitalist economy with a socialist one. By the early 1920s, the Soviet Union's first leader, Vladimir Lenin, had died and been succeeded by Joseph Stalin. Being both Roman Catholic and politically right-wing, Wallez was opposed to the atheist, anti-sectarian, anti-theocratic and left-wing Soviet policies, and wanted Tintin's first adventure to reflect this, to persuade its young readers with anti-Marxist and anti-communist ideas. Later commenting on why he produced a work of propaganda, Hergé said that he had been "inspired by the atmosphere of the paper", which taught him that being a Catholic meant being anti-Marxist, and since childhood he had been horrified by the Bolshevik shooting of the Romanov family in July 1918.

Hergé did not have the time to visit the Soviet Union or to analyse any available published information about it. Instead, he obtained an overview from a single book, Moscou sans Voiles: Neuf ans de travail au pays des Soviets ("Moscow Unmasked: A Record of Nine Years Work in Soviet Russia") by Joseph Douillet (1878–1954), a former Belgian consul to Rostov-on-Don who had spent nine years in Russia following the 1917 revolution. Published in both Belgium and France in 1928, Moscou sans voiles sold well to a public eager to believe Douillet's anti-Bolshevik claims, many of which were of doubtful accuracy. As Michael Farr noted, "Hergé freely, though selectively, lifted whole scenes from Douillet's account", including "the chilling election episode", which was "almost identical" to Douillet's description in Moscou sans voiles. Hergé's lack of knowledge about the Soviet Union led to many factual errors; the story contains references to bananas, Shell petrol and Huntley & Palmers biscuits, none of which existed in the Soviet Union at the time. He also made errors in Russian names, typically adding the Polish ending "-ski" to them, rather than the Russian equivalent "-vitch".

In creating Land of the Soviets, Hergé was influenced by innovations within the comic strip medium. He claimed a strong influence from French cartoonist Alain Saint-Ogan, producer of the Zig et Puce series. The two met the following year, becoming lifelong friends. He was also influenced by the contemporary American comics that reporter Léon Degrelle had sent back to Belgium from Mexico, where he was stationed to report on the Cristero War. These American comics included George McManus's Bringing Up Father, George Herriman's Krazy Kat and Rudolph Dirks's Katzenjammer Kids. Farr believed that contemporary cinema influenced Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, indicating similarities between scenes in the book with the police chases of the Keystone Cops films, the train chase in Buster Keaton's The General and with the expressionist images found in the works of directors such as Fritz Lang. Farr summarised this influence by commenting: "As a pioneer of the strip cartoon, Hergé was not afraid to draw on one modern medium to develop another".

### Publication

Prior to serialisation, an announcement ran in the 4 January 1929 edition of Le Petit Vingtième, proclaiming: "e are always eager to satisfy our readers and keep them up to date on foreign affairs. We have therefore sent Tintin, one of our top reporters, to Soviet Russia". The illusion of Tintin as a real reporter for the paper, and not a fictional character, was emphasised by the claim that the comic strip was not a series of drawings, but composed of photographs taken of Tintin's adventure. Biographer Benoît Peeters thought this a private joke between staff at Le Petit Vingtième; alluding to the fact that Hergé had originally been employed as a reporter-photographer, a job that he never fulfilled. Literary critic Tom McCarthy later compared this approach to that of 18th-century European literature, which often presented fictional narratives as non-fiction.

The first instalment of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets appeared in the 10 January 1929 edition of Le Petit Vingtième, and ran weekly until 8 May 1930. Hergé did not plot out the storyline in advance; he improvised new situations on a weekly basis, leaving Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier to observe that both "Story-wise and graphically, Hergé was learning his craft before our eyes." Hergé admitted that the work was rushed, saying: "The Petit Vingtième came out on Wednesday evening, and I often didn't have a clue on Wednesday morning how I was going to get Tintin out of the predicament I had put him in the previous week". Michael Farr considered this evident, remarking that many drawings were "crude, rudimentary, rushed", lacking the "polish and refinement" that Hergé would later develop. Contrastingly, he thought that certain plates were of the "highest quality" and exhibited Hergé's "outstanding ability as a draughtsman".

The story was an immediate success among its young readers. As Harry Thompson remarked, the plotline would have been popular with the average Belgian parent, exploiting their anti-communist sentiment and feeding their fears regarding the Russians. The series' popularity led Wallez to organise publicity stunts to boost interest. The first of these was the April Fools' Day publication of a faked letter purporting to be from the OGPU (Soviet secret police) confirming Tintin's existence, and warning that if the paper did not cease publication of "these attacks against the Soviets and the revolutionary proletariat of Russia, you will meet death very shortly".

The second was a staged publicity event, suggested by the reporter Charles Lesne, which took place on Thursday 8 May 1930. During the stunt, the 15-year-old Lucien Pepermans, a friend of Hergé's who had Tintin's features, arrived at Brussels' Gare du Nord railway station aboard the incoming Liège express from Moscow, dressed in Russian garb as Tintin and accompanied by a white dog; in later life Hergé erroneously claimed that he had accompanied Pepermans, whereas it had been Julien De Proft. A crowd of fans greeted Pepermans and De Proft and pulled the Tintin impersonator into their midst. Proceeding by limousine to the offices of Le Vingtième Siècle, they were greeted by further crowds, largely of Catholic Boy Scouts; Pepermans gave a speech on the building's balcony, before gifts were distributed to fans.

From 26 October 1930, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets was syndicated to French Catholic magazine Cœurs Vaillants ("Brave Hearts"), recently founded by the Abbé Gaston Courtois. Courtois had travelled to Brussels to meet Wallez and Hergé, but upon publication thought that his readers would not understand the speech bubble system, adding explanatory sentences below each image. This angered Hergé, who unsuccessfully "intervened passionately" to stop the additions. The publication was highly significant for initiating Hergé's international career. The story was also reprinted in its original form in L'écho illustré, a Swiss weekly magazine, from 1932 onward. Recognising the continued commercial viability of the story, Wallez published it in book form in September 1930 through the Brussels-based Éditions du Petit Vingtième at a print run of 10,000, each sold at twenty francs. The first 500 copies were numbered and signed by Hergé using Tintin's signature, with Snowy's paw print drawn on by Wallez's secretary, Germaine Kieckens, who later became Hergé's first wife. For reasons unknown, the original book version omitted the page originally published in the 26 December 1929 edition of Le Petit Vingtième; since the story's republication in Archives Hergé, it has appeared in modern editions as page 97A.

In April 2012 an original copy of the first album was sold for a record price of €37,820 by specialised auctioneers Banque Dessinée of Elsene, with another copy being sold for €9,515. In October the same year a copy was sold at the same auction house for €17,690.

### Later publications

By 1936 there was already a demand for reprints of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, with Lesne sending a letter to Hergé enquiring if this was possible. The cartoonist was reluctant, stating that the original plates for the story were now in a poor condition and that as a result he would have to redraw the entire story were it to be re-published. Several years later, amid the German occupation of Belgium during World War II, a German-run publishing company asked Hergé for permission to republish Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, with the intent of using it as anti-Soviet propaganda, but again Hergé declined the offer.

From 1942 onwards, Hergé began redrawing and colouring his earlier Tintin adventures for Casterman, but chose not to do so for Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, considering its story too crude. Embarrassed by it, he labeled it a "transgression of [his] youth". Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier believed that another factor in his decision might have been the story's virulently anti-Marxist theme, which would have been unpopular amidst growing West European sympathies for Marxism following the Second World War. In an article discussing Hergé's work which was published in the magazine Jeune Afrique ("Young Africa") in 1962, it was noted that despite the fact that fans of his work visited the Bibliothèque Nationale to read the copy of Land of the Soviets that was held there, it "will never (and with good cause) be republished". In 1961, Hergé wrote a letter to Casterman suggesting that the original version of the story be republished in a volume containing a publisher's warning about its content. Louis-Robert Casterman replied with a letter in which he stated that while the subject had been discussed within the company: "There are more hesitant or decidedly negative opinions than there are enthusiastic ones. Whatever the case, you can rest assured that the matter is being actively considered".

As The Adventures of Tintin became more popular in Western Europe, and some of the rarer books became collectors' items, the original printed edition of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets became highly valued and unauthorized editions began to be produced. As a result, Studios Hergé published 500 numbered copies to mark the series' 40th birthday in 1969. This encouraged further demand, leading to the production of further "mediocre-quality" unlicensed editions, which were sold at "very high prices". To stem this illegal trade, Hergé agreed to a 1973 republication as part of the Archives Hergé collection, where it appeared in a collected volume alongside Tintin in the Congo and Tintin in America. With unofficial copies continuing to be sold, Casterman produced a facsimile edition of the original in 1981. Over the next decade, it was translated into nine languages, with an English-language edition translated by Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner published by Sundancer in 1989. This edition was republished in 1999 for the 70th anniversary of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets.

Sociologist John Theobald noted that by the 1980s, the book's plot had become "socially and politically acceptable" in the western world as part of the Reaganite intensification of the Cold War and increased hostility towards Marxism and socialism. This cultural climate allowed it to appear "on hypermarket shelves as suitable children's literature for the new millennium". That same theme prevented its publication in Communist Party-governed China, where it was the only completed adventure not translated by Wang Bingdong and officially published in the early 21st century.

In 2017, two French colour versions were created by Casterman and Moulinsart.

## Critical reception

In his study of the cultural and literary legacy of Brussels, André De Vries remarked that Tintin in the Land of the Soviets was "crude by Hergé's later standards, in every sense of the word". Simon Kuper of the Financial Times criticised both Land of the Soviets and Tintin in the Congo as the "worst" of the Adventures, being "poorly drawn" and "largely plot-free". Sociologist John Theobald of the Southampton Institute argued that Hergé had no interest in providing factual information about the Soviet Union, but only wanted to inculcate his readers against Marxism, hence depicting the Bolsheviks rigging elections, killing opponents and stealing the grain from the people. According to literary critic Jean-Marie Apostolidès of Stanford University, Hergé cast the Bolsheviks as "absolute evil" but was unable to understand how they had risen to power, or what their political views were. This meant that Tintin did not know this either, thereby observing the Soviet "world of misery" and fighting Bolsheviks without being able to foment an effective counter-revolution. Literary critic Tom McCarthy described the plot as "fairly straightforward" and criticised the depiction of Bolsheviks as "pantomime cut-outs".

Hergé biographer Benoît Peeters was critical of the opening pages to the story, believing that the illustrations in it were among Hergé's worst and stating: "One couldn't have imagined a less remarkable debut for a work destined for such greatness". He believed that Tintin was an existentialist "Sartre-esque character" who existed only through his actions, operating simply as a narrative vehicle throughout the book. Where Hergé showed his talent, Peeters thought, was in conveying movement, and in utilising language in a "constantly imaginative" way. He considered the story's "absurdity" to be its best feature, rejecting plausible scenarios in favour of the "joyously bizarre", such as Tintin being frozen solid and then thawing, or Snowy dressing in a tiger skin to scare away a real tiger. Hergé biographer Pierre Assouline described the comic writer's image of the Soviet Union as being "a Dantesque vision of poverty, famine, terror, and repression".

Marking the release of Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn film in 2011, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) commissioned a documentary devoted to Tintin in the Land of the Soviets in which journalist Frank Gardner—who considered Tintin to be his boyhood hero—visited Russia, investigating and defending the accuracy of Hergé's account of Soviet human rights abuses. First airing on Sunday 30 October on BBC Two, the documentary was produced by Graham Strong, with Luned Tonderai as producer and Tim Green as executive producer. David Butcher reviewed the documentary for the Radio Times, opining that Gardner's trip was dull compared to the comic's adventure, but praising a few "great moments", such as the scene in which Gardner tested an open-topped 1929 Amilcar, just as Tintin did in the adventure.

Comic album by Belgian cartoonist Hergé

Literature first published in serial form

Works originally published in Le Petit Vingtième


The Normandy

The Normandy is a cooperative apartment building at 140 Riverside Drive, between 86th and 87th Streets, adjacent to Riverside Park on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Designed by architect Emery Roth in a mixture of the Art Moderne and Renaissance Revival styles, it was constructed from 1938 to 1939. The building was developed by a syndicate composed of Henry Kaufman, Emery Roth, Samson Rosenblatt, and Herman Wacht. The Normandy is 20 stories tall, with small twin towers rising above the 18th story. The building is a New York City designated landmark.

The lowest 18 stories of the building are "H"-shaped, flanking courtyards to the west and east. There are numerous setbacks, some of which double as terraces. The first two stories are clad in rusticated blocks of limestone, with horizontal Art Moderne-style horizontal grooves. There are two semicircular entrances at ground level. The remainder of the facade is made of light brick with cast stone ornamentation, as well as movable windows and curved corners. The building has a sunken lobby leading to two elevator banks. On the upper stories, there were originally 250 apartments, each with two to seven rooms. The rooms are generally more compact than in earlier luxury apartment buildings, with many rooms arranged around central galleries. There is a double-level penthouse suite in each tower with seven rooms.

The building, possibly named for the French ocean liner SS Normandie, replaced twelve row houses built in the late 1890s. Plans for the Normandy apartment building were announced in August 1938; the building opened in September 1939 and was the last major apartment house developed on the Upper West Side before World War II. The Normandy was resold in 1944, 1952, and 1960. The building was converted to a housing cooperative in 1979 following a failed conversion attempt in 1971. The building was designated as a city landmark in 1985 amid a controversy over window replacements.

## Site

The Normandy is at 140 Riverside Drive in the Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The building occupies the eastern sidewalk of Riverside Drive, across from Riverside Park between 86th Street to the south and 87th Street to the north. The Normandy is situated on an "L"-shaped land lot with an area of 28,700 square feet (2,670 m2). The lot measures 200 feet (61 m) along Riverside Drive, 125 feet (38 m) along 86th Street, and 160 feet (49 m) along 87th Street. The surrounding area contains row houses, as well as apartment buildings such as the Red House on 85th Street.

After the completion of Riverside Drive in the late 19th century, row houses were built on and near it. The site of the Normandy was occupied by twelve row houses that were built in 1896 by Henry Cook. These were composed of eight houses at 140–147 Riverside Drive, three at 348–352 West 87th Street, and 351 West 86th Street. Traffic engineer John A. Harriss acquired the house at 140 Riverside Drive in 1910. This house had contained a log cabin, chapel, and ballroom. Harriss's firm Rivercrest Realty acquired six of the adjacent houses in 1918. Rivercrest bought the remaining houses by 1921, and Harriss planned to build an apartment building on the site. The plans never materialized and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company took over the buildings in 1933.

## Architecture

The Normandy was designed by Emery Roth in an Art Moderne style (not to be confused with a modern style). Roth avoided characterizing the Normandy as a modern-style building, in the belief that "every building is modern when erected". Original plans had called for the building to be designed in an Italianate style. Some Italianate details are retained in the final design, such as pilasters with ornate capitals; parapets with balustrades; and a pair of small "towers" above the main building. The facade shares several Art Moderne elements with Roth's earlier 888 Grand Concourse apartment building, including curved "pavilions" and recessed entrance vestibules.

### Form

The Normandy is 20 stories tall. The main section of the building rises 18 stories. These stories are roughly arranged in an "H" shape, with two pavilions, or wings, which flank courtyards both to the west and the east. The eastern section of each pavilion contains setbacks. The street-facing walls of each pavilion's eastern section have setbacks starting at the 15th story, while the inner faces of each pavilion have setbacks beginning at the ninth story. A two-story tower rises above both the building's northern and southern ends; each tower contains one penthouse apartment. The towers' presence may have been inspired by Roth's previous designs, which contained towers for mechanical equipment and water tanks.

The courtyards have a total area of 9,000 square feet (840 m2). According to The New York Times, the courtyards were landscaped by a "horticultural expert from Cornell University". The west courtyard is slightly recessed from Riverside Drive and is separated from the street by a wrought-iron and stone railing with urns. The rear or east courtyard is larger, with dimensions of 80 by 100 feet (24 by 30 m). The presence of the courtyards allowed every apartment to receive natural light from two frontages. Apartments in the center of the "H" received natural light from both courtyards. Roth included these courtyards because he believed residents wanted suburban features such as "a pleasant outlook, not bleak walls and windows".

The massing of the Normandy, and those of similar buildings, was shaped primarily by the Multiple Dwelling Act of 1929. Under this legislation, the "street walls" of apartment buildings could rise one and a half times the width of the adjacent street before they had to contain a setback. On lots of more than 25,000 sq ft (2,300 m2), the street walls could rise three times the width of the adjacent street. Apartment buildings could rise up to 19 stories; additional stories were allowed on large plots, but the floor areas of these stories were limited to 20 percent of the lot area. The Normandy was the only apartment building on Riverside Drive to be designed with twin towers. This contrasted with the multiple twin-towered buildings on Central Park West (namely the Century, the Majestic, the San Remo, and the El Dorado).

### Facade

The Normandy's facade contains decorative detail on all of its elevations. The base, towers, and parapets are made of beige-colored cast stone and limestone; the rest of the facade is made of beige brick. The Normandy's fenestration consists of multi-paned sash windows, as well as vertical pilasters and horizontal courses.

Roth paid particular attention to the designs of the windows, which were manufactured in pieces and assembled to his precise specifications. Most of the windows originally carried a uniform design, with glass panes separated by metal muntins. The widest windows were triple-casement windows, composed of a central tier with five panes, as well as an upper and lower tier with three stationary transoms. In the central tier, the middle pane was stationary, while the other four panes were movable casements. In addition, there are double-paired casement windows, each with four movable panes, and single-paired casement windows, each with two movable panes. The facade's curved corners contain casement windows. Each of the corner windows is divided vertically into five sections (three stationary panes, two movable casements). Though the glass itself is not curved, each vertical window section is set at a slight angle to give the appearance of a curve.

#### Base

The lowest section of the facade, immediately above the sidewalk, consists of a cast-stone water table with a horizontal ovolo molding at its top. Above the water table is the two-story base, which is made of rusticated blocks of limestone. The rustication consists only of horizontal grooves, unlike in earlier buildings that also had vertical grooves; this was one of several Art Moderne elements in the building. Each horizontal course of blocks is separated by three shallow grooves, and the limestone blocks themselves contain horizontal markings. A torus-shaped molding runs horizontally above the base. The two-story rusticated base extends across the 86th Street and Riverside Drive elevations, as well as the western section of the 87th Street elevation. On the remainder of the 87th Street elevation, the rusticated blocks are only one story high and there is no torus molding. On all elevations, the arrangement of the second-story windows follows that of the stories directly above.

The two main entrances on 86th and 87th Streets are connected by a passageway. Near the western end of the 86th Street elevation is a recessed semicircular entryway, with a curved canopy projecting over the sidewalk. The lowest section of the entryway's wall is a cast-stone dado, above which are blue, beige, and gold mosaic tiles in horizontal and vertical patterns. The center of the entryway contains a revolving door. The recessed entryway is flanked by two bronze doors, leading to individual offices on the ground floor. Similarly, the western end of the 87th Street elevation contains a recessed entryway flanked by two bronze doors to individual offices. On the far western end of the 86th and 87th Street frontages, there is a short standalone wall of rusticated blocks, which contains an archway with a metal service gate.

There are no doors on the Riverside Drive elevation, though it does contain multi-pane sash windows, which are recessed directly into the rusticated base. The arrangement of the first- and second-story windows largely follows that of the stories directly above the base. The center of the Riverside Drive elevation is recessed and contains a glass wall (dating from 1983), which is surrounded by a cast-stone frame.

#### Intermediate stories

On Riverside Drive, both the northern and southern pavilions are divided vertically into three bays from the 3rd to the 17th stories. The bays are flanked by brick pilasters. The outermost pilasters rise above stone blocks (set within the band course above the second story) and are topped by Ionic capitals. Each bay contains one triple casement window per floor. A parapet runs above the 17th story of each pavilion. On either side of each pavilion are curved corners with slightly recessed windows on the 3rd through 15th floors. Each corner contains curving terraces at the 16th and 17th floors; those on the 17th floor are cantilevered. The returns of each pavilion, facing the recessed courtyard, contain three windows per floor. In the midsection, each of the 3rd through 18th stories contains a uniform pattern of casement windows. Above the 19th-story penthouse, the midsection is topped by a parapet with corbels.

On the 86th Street elevation, three brick pilasters split the 3rd through 17th stories into two asymmetrical sections, each with five bays of windows. The pilasters flanking the westernmost five bays have Ionic capitals. In the western section, each of the 2nd through 17th stories contains four bays of single-paired casement windows and one bay of smaller windows. On the 16th and 17th stories, the westernmost bay of windows is offset because these stories contain different apartment layouts. In the eastern section, the second and ninth stories contain a slightly different window layout from the 10th to 15th stories. The 16th to 18th stories of the eastern section are set back. The eastern corner of the 86th Street elevation is also curved. The windows are recessed slightly.

The 87th Street elevation contains a recessed midsection flanked by curved corners. The westernmost five bays are flanked by pilasters like those on 86th Street. Each of the 2nd through 17th stories contains four bays of single-paired casements and one bay of smaller windows, while the 18th and 19th stories are set back. The corner windows on this elevation are more sharply curved than those on Riverside Drive; the center pane is angled 45 degrees from the two panes on either side. The midsection contains three casement windows per floor. In the easternmost five bays, the second to ninth stories contain a different window layout from the 10th to 15th stories, and the eastern section of the 16th and 17th stories is set back.

On the rear elevation, facing east, the pavilions at the north and south ends of the building flank a deeply recessed midsection. Each of the pavilions contains five bays of casement windows. The northern pavilion on 87th Street is deeper; the windows on that pavilion only begin above the tenth floor due to the presence of a neighboring townhouse.

#### Upper stories and towers

Above all elevations, there are setbacks starting above the 16th story, as well as windows with broken pediments. These setbacks contain parapets, which highlight the vertical dimensions of the building's small towers. At the 18th and 19th stories, there are angular obelisks at the corners of the parapets.

The Normandy's towers, which contain brick facades with cast-stone ornamentation, rise above the 18th story of either pavilion. Each tower's corners are flanked by clusters of piers. On the north, west, and south elevation of each tower are blind window openings, which contain a wall instead of a window; these openings are surrounded by frames with cartouches. The eastern elevation of each tower has a chimney. The towers are also decorated with denticulated panels and glass-block walls. The walls of each tower are topped by a balustrade with obelisks at each corner. Each tower contains a further setback with blind openings on all sides. Above is a tiled hip roof, which contains a lantern-shaped finial at its peak. According to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), the towers give the effect of Italian campaniles.

### Features

The passageway between the 86th and 87th Street entrances is known as the "garden loggia". It is designed in the Art Moderne style. There are four large windows on Riverside Drive, separated by fluted piers. The steps from each entrance to the lobby are made of green marble, and the lower parts of the walls are also wainscoted in green marble. The ceiling is separated at regular intervals by fluted beams with cove lighting. Throughout the lobby are torcheres with simple designs inspired by classical elements. The Normandy is served by six high-speed elevators, which are grouped into two banks at the north and south ends of the lobby. On the upper stories, double-loaded corridors lead from the elevators to each apartment (unlike in the Beresford and the San Remo, where elevator banks led to foyers directly outside the apartments).

#### Apartments

When the Normandy was built, it was arranged with 250 apartments, each with two to seven rooms. There were 1,060 rooms in total. Each story contained up to 15 apartments. Some of the three-room suites were arranged as duplexes, with one bedroom on the upper level and the living room and kitchen on the lower level. In contrast to earlier structures on Central Park West, there were few maids' suites, except in apartments with six or seven rooms. Conversely, apartments generally had large closets; for instance, a unit with four or five rooms typically had six or seven closets.

Common rooms such as the living room were arranged around a central gallery. Unlike in older buildings, the Normandy had circular foyers, which measured 14 to 16 feet (4.3 to 4.9 m) across. Rooms were typically smaller than those in the Beresford or San Remo, and the ceilings measured up to 10 feet (3.0 m) high. There were dining rooms only in the larger apartments. Most units contained dinettes, small dining niches that were physically separated from the kitchens; many of the dinettes are curved. Even though it was economically infeasible to install dining rooms in most units, Roth believed that every resident needed a dining space that was large enough for guests. There was a bathroom adjacent to every bedroom, as well as standing showers in the larger apartments. In some units, there were square bathtubs oriented on a diagonal axis, which were referred to as "neo-angle".

There were two duplex penthouse suites, one within each of the towers; each suite contained seven rooms. The lower level of each suite contain a foyer measuring about 20 by 9 feet (6.1 by 2.7 m). Leading off each foyer were a living room, dining room, a library with a separate bathroom, and a kitchen with a maid's room. The two levels of each suite were connected by curved staircases enclosed in glass-brick shafts. On the upper level were two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a dressing room. On both levels of both suites, there were terraces on three sides. Each suite's ceilings measured 11 to 12 feet (3.4 to 3.7 m) high. Both suites included wood-burning fireplaces with carved-wood and marble mantels. The fireplaces were inefficient and outdated at the time of their construction, and Roth did not want to build fireplaces in the other apartments, since they would require the construction of chimneys, which he thought were unsightly. Roth nonetheless included the fireplaces in the two penthouses for what he described as sentimental reasons.

## History

Several high-rise apartment buildings were developed on the Upper West Side in the 1920s, in anticipation of the completion of the New York City Subway's Eighth Avenue Line, which opened in 1932. The main impediment to the development of high-rise housing on Riverside Drive was the presence of the New York Central Railroad's West Side Line through Riverside Park. Demand for luxury housing in Manhattan had declined significantly during the Great Depression. During the late 1930s, the railroad line was placed in a tunnel under Riverside Park, which was landscaped and extended to the Hudson River shoreline. Following the completion of this project, developers were attracted to the area around the park.

### Development

In August 1938, Metropolitan Life sold Harriss's houses to a syndicate composed of developers Henry Kaufman, Emery Roth, Samson Rosenblatt, and Herman Wacht. This was described as the largest privately funded acquisition of vacant buildings in New York City since the beginning of the Depression. The syndicate funded the purchase with a \$3.3 million loan from Metropolitan Life; it planned to build an 18-story apartment building with 242 units and a combined 1,000 rooms. According to the syndicate, the new development's design would be based on Roth's previous San Remo and Beresford apartment buildings. Later the same month, Roth's firm filed plans for an apartment building at 140 Riverside Drive, which would be erected by 140 Riverside Drive Inc. at a cost of \$1.45 million. It was the Upper West Side's largest development in several years, as well as the only large apartment building being constructed in that area.

The city's building department rejected Roth's original plans in September 1938, and the city's board of appeals upheld the rejection two months later. As a result, Roth submitted new plans with smaller balconies and more prominent Art Moderne design elements. By early 1939, the building was known as the Normandy. The building's name may have come from the SS Normandie, a French ocean liner built in 1935. Although the Normandie made her maiden voyage in July 1938, the month before the apartment building was announced, Roth never publicly confirmed the connection between the apartment building and the ocean liner. About half of the apartments had been rented by July 1939. Annual rents ranged from \$1,000 for two-bedroom apartments to \$5,500 for the two tower suites. Within the next month, the building was nearly completed, and 75 percent of the suites had been leased.

### Rental house

The first apartments were ready for occupancy by September 1, 1939, and the building's apartments were 89 percent rented by the end of the year. Among the building's first tenants was Finnish diplomat T. O. Vahervuori, as well as script writers Arnold M. Auerbach and Herman Wouk. By that time, Roth was 69 years old and was close to retirement. The Normandy was the last large apartment house that Roth designed, as his firm Emery Roth & Sons mainly worked on office buildings after World War II. It was also the last luxury apartment building completed on the West Side before the war. Samson Rosenblatt, acting on behalf of his partners, sold the Normandy in March 1944 to a syndicate led by Julius Perlbinder. At the time, the building reportedly had a long waiting list of potential tenants. Herbert Charles & Co. assumed responsibility for leasing apartments at the building.

In June 1952, Perlbinder sold the building to an unnamed group of investors, who paid entirely in cash and assumed a \$2.5 million mortgage on the property. The New York Times said at the time that the building was "one of the largest and best-known apartment houses on the drive". The same year, a New York state judge ruled that the Normandy's operators had to reinstate a room in the basement "for the acceptance of delivery parcels" after the operators had tried to reduce the number of staff in the building. Normandy Associates, headed by A. Gochalk and Albert Eltingin, acquired the Normandy in 1960 from the Normandy Company, subject to a mortgage of \$3.3 million. At the time, the building had 253 units. All apartments were rent-regulated, being either rent-stabilized or rent-controlled.

### Cooperative conversion

The Normandy's owners proposed converting the building to a cooperative apartment house in 1971. As part of the offering, the apartments would be sold at prices ranging from \$6,462 for two-room units to \$70,500 for the penthouse duplexes; the monthly maintenance costs would range from \$83 to \$906. The Normandy was finally converted to a co-op in 1979. Following the cooperative conversion, its residents published a monthly newsletter and sponsored tours of each other's apartments. According to one long-time resident, the building became "a small town" after the conversion, whereas "nobody knew anybody" when it was a rental house.

During the mid-1980s, the Normandy employed an in-house architect to review proposed renovations to the building. In September 1985, the co-op board voted to replace the existing casement windows, which were leaking, and to create holes in the facade for air conditioners. Several tenants objected to the proposed modifications, citing esthetic concerns and the high cost of the plan. Later that month, the LPC scheduled a public hearing to discuss the possibility of designating the Normandy as a New York City landmark, thereby restricting the scope of modifications to the facade. Some tenants replaced their windows even as the LPC continued to discuss the landmark designation. The LPC designated the Normandy as a city landmark on November 12, 1985. Immediately afterward, the New York Landmarks Conservancy requested an injunction against further window replacements. Within a week of the landmark designation, the Conservancy and the Normandy's board established an agreement on the replacement of the windows. A 1992 letter to The New York Times claimed that the LPC had forced tenants to use steel-framed windows, which cost 50 percent more than aluminum-framed windows.

Another controversy emerged in the late 1990s, when the owner of the adjacent five-story House of Free Russia at 349 West 86th Street announced plans to demolish that building, replacing it with a 15-story condominium tower. Many residents of the Normandy opposed the demolition. A member of the board alleged that the condo development would block the views of over 100 apartments. The Normandy's lawyers said that an existing covenant prevented any "tenement flat or apartment house" from being built at 349 West 86th Street, but a New York Supreme Court judge found that the Normandy itself violated the same covenant. In January 1999, the Normandy's board paid \$1.35 million for the air rights above 349 West 86th Street, thus preventing that house from being expanded.

## Impact

The AIA Guide to New York City described the building as having "sinuous curves". In 1978, architecture critic Paul Goldberger commented in The New York Times:

> the Roth firm took on modernism slowly – the Normandy apartments of 1938 at 140 Riverside Drive have an Art Deco-like base, but the ornamental housing for the water tower lurches back suddenly to the Italian Renaissance. There were a few other such schizophrenic [Roth] designs from the 1930s and buildings such as 930 Fifth Avenue and 875 Fifth Avenue of 1940 show a gradual disappearance of the old ornament.

In 1986, historian Steven Ruttenbaum wrote: "The Normandy is very much a child of the Beresford and the San Remo, yet it is like one that has suffered mild deprivation at austere times." According to Ruttenbaum, the mixture of Art Moderne and Italian Renaissance elements created "a graceful and unique composition which is at once conservative and forward-looking". Anthony Robins wrote in a 2017 book: "Perhaps the Normandy is best thought of as neither Renaissance nor Moderne – but, simply, as Emery Roth."

## See also

- List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan from 59th to 110th Streets

Apartment building in Manhattan, New York

Condominiums and housing cooperatives in Manhattan

Italian Renaissance Revival architecture in the United States