420 Fifth Avenue

420 Fifth Avenue has the misfortune to stand at an intersection across from three of the avenue’s best and most unusual buildings.  For all that, this 1989 design by Brennan Beer Gorman is a competent essay in the Dallas High PostModern vein, featuring carefully modulated setbacks and lavish marble facing. A small public plaza on… Continue reading

400 Fifth Avenue, Langley Place

The swan song of Gwathmey Siegel, 400 Fifth Avenue, also known as Langham Place, is so far the best building of the 21st Century on Fifth Avenue. Replacing a collection of Beaux Arts commercial buildings, 400 Fifth Avenue is a rare triumph of PostModernism – a building that neither apes nor mocks the past yet stands… Continue reading

304 & 306 Fifth Avenue

It’s probably too soon to come to a final opinion about 304 Fifth Avenue (seen here during an early stage of construction), although its 1983-PoMo vibe is not entirely encouraging. We’ll take another look when the last scaffolding is down. The site was previously home to a unique example of a mural-decorated façade with an… Continue reading

224 Fifth Avenue

In contrast to its neighbor at 222 Fifth, 224 Fifth Avenue is a crass Po-Mo disaster, resembling the tiled interior of an airport lounge men’s room turned inside out.    

138 Fifth Avenue

Another conversion from a brownstone, 138 Fifth Avenue has a pleasant late Post-WWII stucco façade and details that suggest the Craftsman movement. The wooden window frames are an unusual feature. The original house was constructed in the 1840s and first converted for commercial use in 1886. The modillioned roof cornice may date from a further… Continue reading