Every Building on Fifth

2-4 East 128th Street has the detailing and overall “feel” of a traditional brownstone house, although it was constructed as a multi-family dwelling.

2071 Fifth Avenue, also known as the Abingdon, is a well-kept Beaux Arts design.

2069 Fifth Avenue is a striking terra-cotta clad townhouse that brings a burst of cranky Victorian exuberance to the neighborhood.  The dentilated brickwork of the off-center pediment is particularly eye-catching.

2068-2076 Fifth Avenue is one of Harlem’s most impressive rowhouse developments, a collection of massive Richardsonian structures that terminates with a rugged tower at the West 28th Street corner.  Modern windows and other flimsy recent renovations detract from the design but the overall effect is still of a storybook fortress.

2064 & 2066 Fifth Avenue stand together as a study in contrasts, with 2064’s Composite pilasters and neo-Dutch gable at odds with the Bauhaus-like brick cage of 2066.  The latter seems even more unfortunate in light of replacing a particularly elegant Renaissance Revival design. The brickwork is at least an attempt at contextualism.