1158 Fifth Avenue
1158 Fifth Avenue is one of the most architecturally distinguished of the apartment houses that face Fifth north of 96th Street. A handsome structure designed by Crane & Franzheim, the building features one of the city’s most ornate lobbies, an octagonal room sumptuously decorated with Adamesque plasterwork.
The partnership of C. Howard Crane and Kenneth Franzheim, originally based in Detroit, operated nationwide and produced some striking examples of residential and commercial architecture in Chicago, St. Louis, New York and Houston. Working independently Franzheim was the architect of the latter city’s celebrated Art Deco Gulf Building (still extant) and the amazingly advanced Foley’s Department Store (demolished in 2013), one of the first completely windowless structures of the Modernist period.