70 Fifth Avenue
An early skyscraper by Charles Alonzo Rich, formerly of the prolific residential architectural firm of Lamb & Rich, 70 Fifth Avenue was built for publisher George A. Plimpton as the Educational Building in 1912. Home to numerous distinguished charity and social work organizations, its tenant roster once included the NAACP.
Only three bays wide on the Fifth Avenue side, 70 Fifth Avenue widens behind 68 Fifth Avenue to form an L-shaped structure. The elegant acroterions – stylized ornaments that rise from the cornice level of a building – are a suave touch from an architect perhaps better known for work in a lavish Queen Anne style, including Sagamore Hill, the Theodore Roosevelt house in Oyster Bay, Long Island.
Along with 66 and 68 Fifth Avenue, the building is now part of the Shelia C. Johnson Design Center.