NYC Facades

Upper stories with friezes

Detail - is the eagle on the right looking down?

Detail

This was hard to get a shot of, since it’s in the middle of the street. I used the GIMP to try to improve the view in the second to pictures (cropped from the first), however they just look a little funny.

This building is next to the famous Chelsea Hotel, which is so well-known I had no interest in looking at it. On the other hand, the Carteret (named after the English aristocratic family) looked like a palace, with sentries of eagles and knights, and large ornamental patterns. The air conditioners sticking out the window ruin the effect, of course.

I’m quite sure the central tower is actually disguising the water tower.

Decorative parapet

This building caught my eye well before I was looking carefully. It’s like a castle, don’t you think?

The top of the corner.

2nd floor corner

West face column

The watertower, from the West.

The water tower, from the easet.

I was blown away by this building. It was understated, yet highly ornamented. Even the column in the gap between windows had a decorative framing. It also offered a number of strange features, such as:

• What is “corporation” on the water tower?
• Why is the water tower a different style altogether? (Yes, I made sure they’re the same building!)
• Why is the facade different on the Broadway  side versus the 57th street side? That is, in the first picture, why are there two angular tops on Broadway, and only 1 on 57th street?

Is that even a water tower at all? Why would there be an air conditioner coming from the window, then?

Panorama facing west. Click for a much bigger version.

Steinman Hall from the eastern, St. Nicholas Terrace

Detail of the doorway to east entrance to Steinman Hall

The flagship campus of City University of New York is City College, at 137th Street and Convent avenue. Top is a panorama of the campus, with the North Academic Center at left, and Wingate, Harris, Compton & Goethals, and Baskerville Halls are the gothic buildings left to right from there. This picture is taken from in front of Steinman Hall; the bottom to pictures are from the east side of the campus on St. Nicholas Campus, and are of the other side of Steinman Hall.

The entire old campus has great curb appeal, and I found it a very inspiring setting.

Here is a map of City College I used; match it up to the Google map (you may need to zoom in).