212-216 Fifth Avenue
Built in 1912-13 and one of the avenue’s overlooked gems, 212-216 Fifth Avenue is a design by the accomplished architectural firm of Schwartz & Gross, whose work on Lower Fifth Avenue includes the apartment buildings at 30 and 35 Fifth Avenue.
In place of the Colonial Revival style employed there, 212-216 Fifth Avenue is a unique example of Gothic and Romanesque details applied to a startlingly modern steel frame building: instead of attempting to create a historically-based tower, such as Cass Gilbert’s Woolworth Building, the architects used the ornament to frame and articulate what is an otherwise aggressively severe structure.
The result suggests some of the early skyscrapers in Chicago of the previous decade, such as the Fisher Building, where Gothic terra cotta enlivens a rationally planned Chicago School design.