NYC Facades

Cancer Hospital, now Condos!

There’s lots on the web about this building. It was originally the New York Cancer Hospital (they seem to have a better angle on the building). See its latest development (no pun intended).

New York Athletic Club

Arcade detail

I have long found this building, with its arcade high off the ground, to be enchanting, as though it is an Arabian castle or a cathedral in cross-section and in a diorama high on display. What is the story behind it?

Was the building expanded on one side only? (Note: the curving facade is an artifact of the panorama stitching)

I like how The Home Depot fits with the building style. Look at the seal! The "S" is for "Stern" -- see below.

Some buildings I see details I like a lot, and some I am blown away by. This was the latter. It just had such great detail and scale. The facade was finished the entire height, and it even had a mystery: why is there a modern extension on the eastern side that does not match that on the western? Was there a patio there? Was it destroyed in an accident and rebuilt in a time without style?

EDIT: New York Architecture has a page about this building (with a slightly different address?). As the author says on that site about the extension,

W.M. Schickel’s typically 19th century addition tripled the dimensions of the original structure on the eastern portion of the site. The tall central section of this addition animates the long and delicately detailed facade. The company’s monogram is located above a central arch.

I do think Home Depot does a great job here with respecting the building (although they could have done with less orange). See also 28 West 23rd.

Picture frame

Grand decorations

The horizontal surrounding the leaves on the middle floor on the bottom picture look like they are shaded in a comic book. Note the great ornaments in the center and corbels on the sides.

Upper floors with exapnsion

Lower detail

One thing I enjoy about looking up is noticing how the architects decided to incorporate expansions. This building clearly added a floor, and made no effort beyond matching the red to fix it into the existing design. Nonetheless, it has some very subtle features to enjoy.

Upper stories

Molding detail

I like the subtelty of this building; the molding decorations done in brick, and the motif with the waves (in the cornice and in the bolding at the bottom of the second image). The whole thing is just unpresumptuous. I’m not sure of the style, though.

Highly ornate

This is one of many highly ornamented buildings in the southern part of the Upper West Side, particularly on Broadway.