647 Fifth Avenue
The survivor of a pair of double houses erected by the Vanderbilt Family as investment properties, 647 Fifth Avenue was designed in 1905 by Hunt & Hunt, the sons of Richard Morris Hunt, the celebrated Gilded Age architect. A Louis VI mansion distinguished by high-relief Corinthian pilasters and vermiculated ground-floor stonework, it is imposing even as a single portion.
The façade was extensively restored by Gianni Versace in 1995; architects Laboratorio Associati painstakingly recreated the ground floor and elegant marble balcony, both of which had been previously lost to commercial shop-fronts.
647 Fifth Avenue is currently under renovation, as is the Morton Plant Mansion directly to the north. We’ll take another look when the work is complete.