Category Archives: Collections

East Village - Cooper Union Foundation Building

East Village (Manhattan)

Collections, Manhattan, New York, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Work In Progress: This neighborhood gallery is not yet complete.

The East Village was once among New York’s most prestigious residential neighborhoods, with elegant architecture in classical styles. In the mid-1800s wealthy New Yorkers moved “uptown” and waves of immigrants moved in. Pieces of Germany, Eastern Europe, and much later Latin America all became part of the Lower East Side tenement tapestry.

More than 30 individual landmarks and four historic districts earned protection of The NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. The top 12 are referenced below. The NYC Landmarks Map is highly recommended!

One of the most important landmarks anchors the northwest corner of the district: The Cooper Union Foundation Building. This building was the first to use rolled iron “I” beams, so essential to development of skyscrapers. The building also contained an elevator shaft – even before passenger elevators were available. Additionally, this is where then-candidate Abraham Lincoln gave an address that catapulted him to the nomination and the Presidency.

The photos here are just a sampling of the most picturesque buildings.

East Village Recommended Reading
East Village Building Photos

◉ = Landmark. This table is sortable and searchable.

LMname#streetbuiltarchitect
Astor Place IRT Subway EntranceAstor Placeunknown
↗51Astor Place2013Fumihiko Maki
●Cooper Union Foundation Building50Astor Place1859Frederick A. Peterson
141Avenue Aunknown
●First Houses29Avenue A1936Frederick L. Ackerman
50Avenue Bunknown
131Avenue B
●Grace Church800Broadway1846James Renwick, Jr.
The Standard, East Village25Cooper Place2009Carlos Zapata, Perkins Eastman
Cooper Union41Cooper Square2009Thom Mayne - Morphosis
206E 10th Streetunknown
213E 10th Streetunknown
Dora Park Apartments172E 10th Streetunknown
Sarah Powell Huntington House347E 10th Streetunknown
●293E 10th Streetunknown
●317E 10th Street1848James C. Whitlock
●329E 10th Street1853
●311E 10th Street1853
●St. Nicholas of Myra Orthodox Church288E 10th Street1883James Renwick, Jr.
●Tompkins Square Branch, NY Public Library331E 10th Street1904McKim, Mead & White
All Saints Ukrainian Orthodox Church206E 11th Street1852unknown
●Webster Hall125E 11th Street1886Charles Rentz
●St. Marks Rectory232E 11th Street1900Ernest Flagg
●NYC Free Public Bath538E 11th Street1905Arnold William Brunner
126E 12th Streetunknown
St. Ann's Church120E 12th Street1847unknown
●Elizabeth Home for Girls307E 12th Street1892Calvert Vaux
151E 3rd Street
141E 3rd Street
Most Holy Redeemer Church165E 3rd Street
246E 4th Streetunknown
235E 4th Street
●Merchant House Museum29E 4th Street1832unknown
542E 5th Street
545E 5th Street
●226E 6th Street1890Jobst Hoffman
●228E 6th Street1890Jobst Hoffman
●Tompkin Square Lodging House295E 8th Street1887Calvert Vaux
206E 9th Streetunknown
True North127Fourth Avenueunknown
U.S. Post Office - Cooper Station93Fourth Avenueunknown
●Grace Memorial94Fourth Avenue1883James Renwick, Jr.
141Second Avenueunknown
144Second Avenueunknown
145Second Avenueunknown
151Second Avenueunknown
159Second Avenueunknown
166Second Avenueunknown
170Second Avenueunknown
12th Street Ale House192Second Avenue
●St. Mark's in the Bowery Church165Second Avenue1799Ithiel Towne, unknown
●101Second Avenue1880Julius Boekell
●Ottendorfer Branch, NY Public Library135Second Avenue1884William Schickel
●Stuyvesant Polyclinic Hospital137Second Avenue1884William Schickel
●71Second Avenue1886Adam Munch
●69Second Avenue1887Julius Kastner
●77Second Avenue1903George F. Pelham
●97Second Avenue1903Sass & Smallheiser
●65Second Avenue1926Charles B. Meyers
●105Second Avenue1926Harrison Wiseman
●Village East189Second Avenue1926Harrison G. Wiseman
●Saul Birns Building111Second Avenue1928Ralph H. Segal
8St. Marks Placeunknown
10St. Marks Placeunknown
32St. Marks Placeunknown
●Daniel Leroy House20St. Marks Place1832unknown
●German-American Shooting Society Clubhouse12St. Marks Place1889William C. Frohne
Barney Building - NYU28Stuyvesant Street1896unknown
●Nicholas and Elizabeth Stuyvesant Fish House21Stuyvesant Street1804unknown
110Third Avenue

Google Map

Greenwich Village signs

Greenwich Village

Collections, Manhattan, New York, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Work In Progress: This neighborhood gallery is not yet complete.

New York’s Greenwich Village preserves two centuries of architectural treasures. These photos only hint at the historical architecture protected by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1969.

Although “the Village” usually includes West Village, NoHo, and East Village, this gallery excludes those subdivisions – which have their own galleries.

As befits the district’s bohemian/counterculture image, the streets here ignore (because they predate) Manhattan’s street grid. Hence, you’ll find West 4th Street and West 10th Street intersecting, when they should be parallel, six blocks apart. Getting lost may be fun, but first-time visitors will want to bring a map!*

Wikipedia summarizes:

Greenwich Village, often referred to by locals as simply “the Village,” is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan, New York City. Greenwich Village has been known as an artists’ haven, the Bohemian capital, the cradle of the modern LGBT movement, and the East Coast birthplace of both the Beat and ’60s counterculture movements. Groenwijck, one of the Dutch names for the village (meaning “Green District”), was Anglicized to Greenwich. New York University (NYU) is located in Greenwich Village.

Greenwich Village has undergone extensive gentrification and commercialization; the four zip codes that constitute the Village – 10011, 10012, 10013, and 10014 – were all ranked among the ten most expensive in the United States by median housing price in 2014, according to Forbes, with residential property sale prices in the West Village neighborhood typically exceeding US$2,000 per square foot ($22,000/m2) in 2016.

Highly recommended: NYC Landmarks Map

* P.S., the West Village’s Gay Street has nothing to do with sexual orientation. Go ahead, Google it!

Greenwich Village Recommended Reading
Greenwich Village Architecture Photos
Building / Address Year Architect
1 Fifth Avenue 1927 Helme & Corbett, Sugarman & Berger
37 Washington Square West 1928 Gronenberg & Leuchtag
39 Fifth Avenue 1922 Emery Roth
Beauclaire / 25 E 9th Street, 26 E 10th Street, 40 University Place 1926 Sugarman & Berger
Cable Building / 611 Broadway 1894 McKim, Mead & White
Devonshire House / 28 E 10th Street 1926 Emery Roth
Lockwood de Forest house / 7 E 10th Street 1887 Van Campen Taylor
The New School / 63 Fifth Avenue 2014 Skidmore Owings & Merrill
Novarre / 135 W 4th Street 1860 Charles Hadden
Roosevelt Building 1894 Stephen D. Hatch
Wordsworth / 21 E 10th Street 1926 Sugarman & Berger

Google Map Note: Google’s definition includes the West Village; this gallery encompasses only the area east of Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas).

NYC Landmarks Map

West Village

West Village (Manhattan)

Collections, Manhattan, New York, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The West Village runs from Sixth Avenue to the Hudson River, between W 14th Street and W Houston Street. Almost all of the neighborhood is protected by landmark status, preserving centuries of history. As the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission noted:

“Greenwich Village is one of the oldest sections of Manhattan which was laid out for development in the years following the American Revolution. Today, it contains the greatest concentration of early New York residential architecture to be found anywhere within the five Boroughs of the City.

“Unlike Chelsea, Gramercy Park and other small residential islands in Manhattan which have managed to survive from the last century, Greenwich Village is unique because it is the only good-sized residential area which has remained largely intact and where the architecture reflects the continuum of a community. Many old buildings have retained their old uses while others, treasured as architecture, have been preserved to serve new and viable uses. Thus a sashmaker’s workshop, a medical dispensary, a malt house, a public livery stable, a fire station, a court house, a grocery or drygoods shop and dozens of other structures, built to serve the early community, are today as much a part of the architectural and historical heritage of The Village as are its many fine town houses, smaller dwellings and churches.”

Highly recommended: NYC Landmarks Map

West Village Recommended Reading
West Village Buildings Pictured
Building / Address Year Architect
1 Christopher Street 1931 Van Wart & Wein
2 Cornelia Street 1907 Fred Ebeling
11 Christopher Street 2006 Richard A. Cook
12 & 14 Gay Street 1828 Daniel H. Weed, Joseph D. Baldwin
15 Barrow Street 1896 H. Hasenstein
17 Grove Street 1822 unknown
19 Barrow Street 1834 David Christie, John W. Christie
25 Barrow Street 1826 Jacob Shute
45 Christopher Street 1931 Russell M. Boak and Hyman F. Paris
172 Waverly Place 1868 Richard A. Davis
224 W 4th Street 1932 Phelps Barnum
228 Bleecker Street 1901 Michael Bernstein
255 W 10th Street / 519-525 Hudson Street 1889 Rentz & Lange
257 W 10th Street 1889 Rentz & Lange
259 W 10th Street / 697 Greenwich Street 1892 Martin V.B. Ferdon
473-477 Hudson Street 1825 James N. Wells
527 Hudson Street 1858 unknown
679 Greenwich Street / 139 Christopher Street 1900 F.A. Burdett
Church of St. Luke in the Fields / 479 Hudson Street 1822 James N. Wells
The Gansvoort / 95 Christopher Street 1931 H.I. Feldman
Jane Hotel / 113 Jane Street / 505 West Street 1908 William A. Boring
One Jackson Square / 122 Greenwich Avenue 2011 Kohn Pederson Fox Associates
Our Lady of Pompeii / 240 Bleecker Street 1928 Matthew W. Del Guadio
PATH Christopher Street Station / 137 Christopher Street 1906 Robins & Oakman
Public School 3 / 97 Bedford Street 1906 C.B.J. Snyder
Shenandoah / 10 Sheridan Square 1929 Emery Roth
St. John’s Lutheran Church / 81 Christopher Street 1822 Berg & Clark
St. Joseph’s Church / 365 Sixth Avenue 1834 John Doran, Arthur Crook (1885 repair & alteration)
St. Veronica’s Church / 149 Christopher Street 1890 John J. Deery
Standard Hotel / 848 Washington Street 2009 Ennead Architects (formerly Polshek Partnership)
The Waverly / 136 Waverly Place 1928 Walter S. Schneider

NYC Landmarks Map

Google Map

NoHo - Bayard Condict Building

NoHo (Manhattan)

Collections, Manhattan, New York, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

NoHo – for NOrth of HOuston* Street (as contrasted with SoHo, SOuth of HOuston Street) is a landmarked, primarily residential upper-class neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The district is wedged between Greenwich Village and the East Village. It is bounded by Broadway to the west and the Bowery to the east, and from East 9th Street in the north to East Houston Street in the south.

Through four separate designations (see below) in 1966, 1999, 2003, and 2008, the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission has preserved almost the entire district. Modern glass towers have sprouted up at the fringes, and even within the district – before the LPC could act.

* Attention, visitors: New Yorkers pronounce this as HOW-ston Street.

NoHo Recommended Reading
NoHo Buildings Pictured
Building / Address Year Architect
10 Astor Place aka 444 Lafayette Street 1876 Griffith Thomas
640 Broadway 1897 DeLemos & Cordes
700 Broadway 1891 George B. Post
Astor Place, 445 Lafayette Street 2005 Gwathmey, Siegel & Associates
Bayard-Condict Building, 65 Bleecker Street 1899 Louis H. Sullivan and Lyndon P. Smith
Bleecker Tower, 644 Broadway 1891 Decatur Hatch
Engine Company 33, 42 Great Jones Street 1898 Ernest Flagg, W.B. Chambers
Schermerhorn Building, 380 Lafayette Street 1888 Henry Janeway Hardenbergh

Google Map

Las Vegas

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When my son won a trip to Las Vegas for a national billiards competition, my wife and I went along to cheer him on. Architectural snob that I am, I left my camera at home: What happens in Vegas, I thought, is not architecture.

But I succumbed to the bright lights and the ersatz geography of The Strip: New York, Paris, Rome, Luxor, Venice… I borrowed my wife’s Canon SX50 and shot about a thousand frames, cursing myself for not bringing a tripod.

Lesson learned: Architecture is everywhere, and doesn’t have to be classic to be arresting.

P.S. – What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas….with your money to keep it company.

Las Vegas Highlights

    The Strip

  • MGM Grand
  • Mandalay Bay
  • Treasure Island
  • Trump International Hotel
  • Bellagio
  • The Venetian
  • Palazzo
  • Luxor
  • Ballys
  • Paris Las Vegas
  • Caesars Palace
  • Cosmopolitan
  • Planet Hollywood
  • Mirage
  • Wynn
  • Encore
  • Harrahs

    • Off-Strip

  • Rio All-Suites
  • Gold Coast
  • Golden Nugget
  • Fremont Street

Google Map

West End Avenue (W 76 – W 86)

Collections, Manhattan, , , ,

West End Avenue – the stretch of 11th Avenue above W 59th Street – is one of New York’s architectural time capsules. The avenue boasts four historic districts, from W 70th Street to W 94th Street. The West End Preservation Society even argued that the entire avenue should be an historic district.

Personally, I find this half-mile section between W 76th and W 86th to be the most picturesque.

West End Avenue Selected Buildings

Odd-numbered buildings are on the west side of the avenue; even-numbered buildings are on the east side.

  • Address/Name | Architect | Year Completed
  • W 75th – W 76th Streets
  • 333 WEA | Emery Roth | 1925
  • 336 WEA | Boak & Paris | 1932
  • W 76th – W 77th Streets
  • 341 WEA | Lamb & Rich | 1891
  • 343 WEA | Lamb & Rich | 1891
  • 345 WEA | Lamb & Rich | 1891
  • 347 WEA | Lamb & Rich | 1891
  • 349 WEA | Lamb & Rich | 1891
  • 351 WEA | Lamb & Rich | 1891
  • 353 WEA | Lamb & Rich | 1891
  • 355 WEA | Lamb & Rich | 1891
  • 357 WEA | Lamb & Rich | 1891
  • 340 WEA | Edward L. Angell | 1890
  • 342 WEA | Edward L. Angell | 1890
  • 344 WEA | Edward L. Angell | 1890
  • 346 WEA | Edward L. Angell | 1890
  • 348 WEA | Edward L. Angell | 1890
  • 350 WEA | Clarence True | 1892
  • 352 WEA | Clarence True | 1892
  • 354 WEA | Clarence True | 1892
  • 356 WEA | Clarence True | 1892
  • 358 WEA | Clarence True | 1892
  • W 77th – W 78th Streets
  • 365 WEA | Sugarman, Hess & Berger | 1924
  • 375 WEA | Schwartz & Gross | 1911
  • 360 WEA – West End Collegiate Church | Robert W. Gibson | 1892
  • 378 WEA | Schwartz & Gross | 1915
  • W 78th – W 79th Streets
  • 380-390 WEA – Apthorp Apartments | Clinton & Russell | 1908
  • W 79th – W 80th Streets
  • 411 WEA | George F. Pelham, Jr. | 1936
  • 400 WEA – Wexford | Margon & Holder | 1931
  • W 80th – W 81st Streets
  • 425 WEA | Townsend & Harde | 1900
  • 431 WEA – Calhoun School | Costas Machlouzarides | 1975
  • 420 WEA | Schwartz & Gross | 1916
  • W 81st – W 82nd Streets
  • 441-451 WEA | George F. Pelham | 1926
  • 440 WEA | Schwartz & Gross | 1928
  • 450 WEA | Boak & Paris | 1931
  • W 82nd – W 83rd Streets
  • 460 WEA – Mickey Mantle School (Public School 9) | C.B.J. Snyder | 1896
  • W 83rd – W 84th Streets
  • 483 WEA | Schwartz & Gross | 1915
  • 495 WEA – Hohenzollern | George F. Pelham | 1907
  • 490 WEA | Neville & Bagge | 1913
  • W 84th – W 85th Streets
  • W 85th – W 86th Streets
  • W 86th – W 87th Streets
  • 263 W 86th Street – Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew | R.H. Robertson | 1897
West End Avenue Recommended Reading

Google Map

Prospect Park South Historic District

Brooklyn, Collections, , , ,

Prospect Park South Historic District is a neighborhood with a mission: To “illustrate how much of rural beauty can be incorporated within the rectangular limits of the conventional city block.” The myriad home styles were the vision of a single developer: Dean Alvord.

According to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, “The most important event in the progress of suburbanization in Flatbush was the purchase in 1899 of approximately fifty acres of land by the real estate developer Dean Alvord for $280,000. Most of this land had been owned by the Dutch Reformed Church and the Bergen family. Alvord intended to lay out a ‘high-class’ suburban community to be called Prospect Park South.

“…Alvord’s objective in Prospect Park South was, in his own words, ‘to create a rural park within the limitations of the conventional city block and city street.'”

Alvord laid out the utilities, put up brick gateposts, and planned lawns and malls. He hired a landscape gardener, and hired architect John J. Petit to design large comfortable houses in a variety of styles. The LPC notes examples of Colonial Revival, neo-Tudor, Queen Anne, Swiss chalet, and even Japanese pagoda.

“The architecture of Prospect Park South is representative of a phenomenon common among the suburbs that were built up in America at the turn of the 20th century. The buildings erected in these developments represent an eclectic mix with houses of many different styles placed next to each other on each street. Each house at Prospect Park South was designed as a separate entity with no consideration given to the style of the surrounding structures or to the appropriateness of the use of a certain stylistic variant for a specific site…. At Prospect Park South houses with Colonial, Queen Anne, Italianate, French Renaissance, Japanese, Elizabethan, Jacobean and other stylistic details were freely juxtaposed. This free mixture of stylistic forms often resulted in such seeming incongruities as the placement of a stucco Spanish Mission style home beside a frame Swiss Chalet.” [LPC Designation Report]

Prospect Park South Historic District Vital Statistics
  • Location: South of Prospect Park; the area between Church Avenue and Beverley Road, from Stratford Road to Buckingham Road.
  • Year completed: 1900-1930
  • Architect: John J. Petit, lead architect; many others designed homes in the development.
  • Style: Mixed
  • New York City Landmark: 1979
Prospect Park South Historic District Recommended Reading

WikiMapia Map

Forest Hills Gardens

Collections, Queens, , , , , , , ,

Forest Hills Gardens is a New York City fantasyland – a pricey, exclusive community that takes its privacy (and rules!) very seriously, yet began with the idea of providing affordable housing.

The Russell Sage Foundation bought 142 acres from Cord Meyer Development Company in 1909 to create a “Garden Cities” community for the working poor. Alas, “affordable housing” soon became a myth. Although architect Grosvenor Atterbury used prefabrication techniques to reduce costs, home prices skyrocketed. It’s fair to say that the only working poor you’ll spot in Forest Hills Gardens are the groundskeepers.

While the working class aspirations of the Russell Sage Foundation have slipped away, the architectural vision, at least, persists. Forest Hills Gardens is beautiful.

Some 800 houses and 11 apartment buildings are precisely laid out on what is now 175 acres, following architectural standards set by Atterbury and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. To this day, Forest Hills Gardens Corporation enforces those architectural standards – right down to the paint colors that homeowners are allowed to use – to preserve the residential, garden community atmosphere.

The West Side Tennis Club moved to Forest Hills in 1913, but became a victim of its own success. The Forest Hills Tennis Stadium drew so many tennis fans (and later, concert-goers) that it became a persona non grata because the crowds brought more traffic and trash than prestige. Closed for 20 years, Forest Hills Stadium is trying to make a comeback as a concert venue.

(Also see Forest Hills Inn, one of the apartment buildings – originally a hotel – located on Station Square.)

Forest Hills Gardens Vital Statistics
  • Location: Forest Hills
  • Year completed: 1909-1960s
  • Architect: Grosvenor Atterbury
  • Landscape Architect: Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.
  • Style: English Garden, Tudor, Georgian
Forest Hills Gardens Recommended Reading

Google Map

Sunnyside Gardens

Collections, Queens, , , , , , , , , , ,

Sunnyside Gardens is among America’s first planned communities. (Forest Hills Gardens began development in 1909.) Although the architecture itself is not extraordinary, the integration of green spaces and enforced uniformity creates a distinctly suburban ambience. Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in New York City anymore.

The 600-building development by City Housing Corporation was created under guidelines of the Regional Planning Association of America, according to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, and based on the English Garden City concept. It was built in stages, from 1924 through 1935. Two architects – Clarence Stein and Henry Wright – designed the buildings; landscaping was designed by Marjorie Sewell Cautley.

The entire 16-block area was planned as affordable housing for working-class families. Economies of scale, the use of common brick throughout, and innovative financing schemes made good on the “affordable” promise. (Forest Hills Gardens, another planned community four-and-a-half miles to the southeast, began as “affordable housing” but wound up as anything but.)

Although the majority of the units are semi-detached two-story homes built around common garden courtyards, there are also a few four-story apartment buildings and two super-block six-story complexes (Phipps Garden Apartments and Sunnyside Garden Apartments).

The developers tried to protect the community’s shared green spaces by including 40-year easements in the deeds. As these easements expired in the 1960s, some homeowners began fencing and building. In response, in 1974 the Department of City Planning designated Sunnyside Gardens a special planned community preservation district. In 2007 the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission conferred landmark status.

Sunnyside Gardens Vital Statistics
  • Location: Sunnyside, Queens – area bounded by 38th (Barnett) Ave on the north to Skillman Avenue on the south; 43rd Street on the west to 52nd Street on the east – plus a finger extending two blocks south along 47th and 48th Streets.
  • Year completed: 1927, 1932, 1935
  • Architect: Clarence Stein, Henry Wright (principal architects)
  • Floors: 2-6
  • Style: Colonial Revival
  • New York City Landmark: 2007
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1984
Sunnyside Gardens Recommended Reading

Google Map