Passing under a glitzy geometric ceiling mosaic and through ornate bronze revolving doors at Two Park Avenue, Ayn Rand went to work on her novel The Fountainhead. The building was designed by Ely Jacques Kahn and built when tall towers were rapidly springing up across New York City—this was the era of Hugh Ferriss’s fantasies first published in Pencil Points. Yet, unlike the abstract stepped masses depicted in those charcoal renderings, Two Park Avenue is a polychromatic gem.
Rand’s destination was the top floor, where Kahn’s architecture office provided sweeping views of the Manhattan skyline just blocks from the Empire State Building. The two had come to an arrangement: unknown to her colleagues, Rand offered to work as an unpaid typist in exchange for the opportunity to be among architects, which, as she explained to Kahn, would help her write a compelling novel about the profession. She could discuss everything from licensure to design plagiarism and discreetly jot down gossip about architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, whose uncompromising design approach made hi…