Rosario Candela

Early life and education Born in Montelepre, Italy in 1890, Candela immigrated to New York in 1906. He returned to Italy after his arrival to study there and returned to the US in 1909. His father was Michele Candela, a plasterer, and his mother was Josephine Pizzurro. He gained admission to the Columbia University School of Architecture and graduated in 1915. Keenly aware of his talent, he went so far as to erect a velvet rope around his drafting table to prevent other students from copying his designs. Career After graduation, Candela worked briefly as a draftsman for the Palermo-born Italian-American architect, Gaetan Ajello. During the next five years, Candela designed a number of residential buildings on the Upper West Side, primarily on West End Avenue and Riverside Drive. He had more commissions in 1929, but the housing boom had begun to slow prior to the stock market crash in October. Of 27 designs that year, only 12 were completed. These included 740, 770, 778 and 834 and 1040 Fifth Avenue. He decrypted messages originally coded in 1898 by Commandant Étienne Bazeries of the French Army. Commandant Bazeries was "one of the most brilliant cryptologists of his era," and developed an encryption method considered unbreakable. Candela wrote a book, The Military Cipher of Commandant Bazeries, in 1938 detailing how he broke Bazeries' code. Starting in 1941, Candela taught a class on cryptography and cryptanalytics at Hunter College in New York. At the time, the course was considered the only one of its kind offered to the public in the United States. Books by Candela • • ==Bibliography==

Buildings All within New York City unless otherwise noted. Source: listing in Emporis Buildings Early 1900s • 575 West End Avenue, 1914 1920s 1930s • 1220 Park Avenue, 1930 • 770 Park Avenue, 1930 • 1040 Fifth Avenue, 1930 • 1021 Park Avenue, 1930 • 834 Fifth Avenue, 1930 • 12 East 88th Street, 1931 • 1500 North Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois, 1931 • 56 Seventh Avenue, 1931 • 778 Park Avenue, 1931 • Regency Park, 1937 • 955 Fifth Avenue, 1938 Outside of New York City: • Personal Normandy Style home in Harrison, New York 1930 • Personal homes of friends in Bronxville and Tarrytown 1940s • 44 East 67th Street, 1941 • 135 East 54th Street, 1948 • 1 East 66th Street, 1948 Twin apartments on Collins Ave. In Mount Vernon abutting the Fleetwood train station. • 3103 Fairfield Avenue, Riverdale, The Bronx (1949) 1950s • Montclair on the Park, St. Louis, MO, 1951 • Public School 87, NY, NY, 1953 Projects • 960 Fifth Avenue, with Warren & Wetmore, 1929 ==Footnotes==