9-11 West 124th Street, The New York Public Library, Harlem Branch

Standing at 9-11 West 124th Street, the Harlem Branch of the New York Public Library is one of the numerous handsome branch libraries erected by the organization in the years during the construction of its main building at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue.  An elegant design by McKim, Mead & White, it balances austere detail… Continue reading

1000 Fifth Avenue, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art at 1000 Fifth Avenue is the largest art museum in the United States and one of the largest art museums in the world.  Holding an incomparable encyclopedic collection that spans thousands of years and includes work from every continent save Antarctica it may be the most comprehensive collection of art… Continue reading

998 Fifth Avenue

The apartment building that started the shift away from single homes on Fifth Avenue, 998 Fifth Avenue was not the first nor the largest luxury apartment house in New York when it was constructed in 1910-1912 (the far larger Dakota Apartments on Central Park West was completed in 1883) but it was the first to… Continue reading

972 Fifth Avenue, The French Cultural Attaché

The last remaining and arguably the best townhouse design on Fifth Avenue by McKim, Mead & White, the Payne Whitney House at 972 Fifth Avenue was designed by Stanford White as a wedding gift from Colonel Oliver H. Payne for his nephew Payne Whitney as a wedding gift.  Built in 1902-1906 on the garden plot… Continue reading

1 East 60th Street, The Metropolitan Club

A spectacular 1893 extravaganza by McKim, Mead & White, the Metropolitan Club is chiefly the work of the firm’s leading partner Stanford White and may be his most flamboyant New York City design, especially when compared to Charles McKim’s University Club at 54th and Fifth.  McKim’s building is a highly ornate but sober monument to… Continue reading