10 Mount Morris Park West

10 Mount Morris Park West is an anomalous if attractive intrusion into a district that displays a marked late 19th century architectural character; built in 1923, it rises seven stories.  Ironically, its prior use was as a penitentiary – the Parkside Correctional Facility for women.  It was converted to residential use in 2006 and now… Continue reading

4-9 Mount Morris Park West

Larger overall than the buildings lining the south side of West 120th Street, 4-9 Mount Morris Park West is a handsome row that displays a Beaux Arts sensibility translated into the traditional brownstone associated with New York rowhouses of an earlier era.  4-6 were designed by Gilbert A. Schellenger in 1893 and 7-9 were designed… Continue reading

Just Off Fifth: 12-24 West 120th Street

The townhouses that line 12-24 West 120th Street were probably erected as a speculative development.  Built with red brick and brownstone trim, the style is an eclectic mixture of Neo-Grec and Queen Anne details.

Just Off Fifth: The Barbey Building at 15 West 38th Street

An astonishing tour-de-force of red terra cotta, the Barbey Building at 15 West 38th Street was built in 1909 to designs by Delano & Aldrich, a firm better known for subdued Colonial Revival work.  Here they produced a startling early skyscraper design that terminates with a vast Baroque cartouche. Despite the austere clarity of much… Continue reading

Just Off Fifth: 4 East 39th Street

One of the few remaining small-scale commercial works by the great New York architect George B. Post, 4 East 39th Street was originally the home of Keppel & Co., a renowned art gallery that alternated exhibitions of Old Masters with those of contemporary American artists – thus the remarkable likenesses of Rembrandt and James Whistler… Continue reading