24 Fifth Avenue

Breaking with the red brick architecture that dominates these blocks, 24 Fifth Avenue is an elaborate confection of Spanish Renaissance-inspired terra cotta. Architect Emery Roth’s great Central Park West buildings include the twin and triple-towered fantasies of the San Remo and the Beresford: in comparison to those structures, 24 Fifth is almost subdued.  In comparison… Continue reading

20 Fifth Avenue

Designed by Boak & Paris, 20 Fifth Avenue is a transitional work for the district, completed in 1939 when few large-scale luxury dwellings were being constructed in the city.  Its architecture represents an intriguing inter-period mix of jazz-era historicism and the post-war functionalism to come. Details are heavily Neo-Classical, but applied to a surprisingly dynamic… Continue reading

14 Fifth Avenue

The first of Fifth Avenue’s architectural duds, 14 Fifth is all that remains of the two northernmost Gothic Revival brownstone houses constructed by Henry Brevoort, now combined into one apartment building. All original details have been removed and a dull stucco façade replaces the design still visible at 10 Fifth. An ambitious developer might consider partial… Continue reading

12 Fifth Avenue

Constructed in 1903, 12 Fifth Avenue is an ornate forerunner of the so-called “sliver” apartment houses of the later 20th century.  As architectural historian Christopher Gray notes, the building “was erected well before the patterns were set for high-rise multiple dwellings” and architect Louis Korn took a highly eclectic approach, inflating details and scale in… Continue reading