Alexander Saeltzer

Alexander Saeltzer (31 July 1814 Eisenach, of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, in the then German Confederation (Germany)— 23 September 1883 New York City, U.S.A.).

Later journeyed across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas and was a German-American architect active in the United States in New York City during the 1850s and 1860s, before the American Civil War (1861-1865).

Saeltzer was engaged in February 1849 to design the synagogue at 172 Norfolk Street[6] in an area of New York City on the Lower East Side of Manhattan island known as kleine Deutschland (Little Germany).

[10] Debuted with great celebration, but the layout / arrangement of the list of the Ten Commandments and the use of stained glass in the synagogue later caused some controversy within the congregation.

[12] When finished, the building[13] – who was designing the Astor Library at about the same time, and had previously designed the Anshe Chesed Synagogue[3][14][15] – was the world's largest opera venue with seats for an audience of four thousand arranged on five levels (orchestra, parquette, balcony and first, second and third tiers / balconies) and an interior height from floor to rotunda roof / dome of 80 feet (24 m).

[16] It had a plush luxurious interior, and private boxes in the orchestra level, but, perhaps due to local daily newspaper editorials questioning the project's republican and common man values,[17] was consciously somewhat less "aristocratized" / upscaled then the previous Astor Opera House had been – there, general admissions were relegated to the benches of a "cockloft" reachable only by a narrow stairway, and otherwise isolated from the gentry below, while in the new theatre many of the regular seats were relatively inexpensive.

[21] Both large expansions followed Saeltzer's original design making it difficult for an observer to detect that the edifice was built in three stages.

[23] It was one of the first buildings to be recognized as such by the newly formed Landmarks Preservation Commission of New York City, thanks to Joseph Papp's perseverance.

[25][26] Groundbreaking for the $35 million renovation occurred on March 9, 2010, with notables such as Liev Schreiber and Philip Seymour Hoffman in attendance.