Designed by Emery Roth, one of the city’s foremost architects of luxury apartment buildings who would later design the San Remo and Beresford apartment buildings on Central Park West among many others, this building was developed by the George Backer Construction Company. According to James Trager, the author of "Park Avenue, Street of Dreams," (Atheneum, 1990), Backer was married to a granddaughter of Jacob J. Schiff, the celebrated investment banker. The building "stands out today," Trager maintained, "because of its brass mailbox and the evergreen hedge planted inside the low iron fence that lines its Park Avenue frontage; for more than half the yea a profusion of bright flowers brightens the hedgerow."

The building has a one story rusticated limestone base and the second and third story facades are mostly covered with handsome limestone pilasters. The building has new windows on all but the top floor where the older, multi-paned windows are separated by handsome decorative cartouches. This is one of the few older buildings in which the new single-pane picture windows look good. The treatment, in fact, is excellent and gives the building a quite strong appearance.

The building has a prime Carnegie Hill location diagonally across the avenue from the handsome Georgian-style former George Baker mansion.

There are many fine private schools in this neighborhood as well as many cultural and religious institutions. This is one of the city’s most desirable neighborhoods for families and there are several charming restaurants and boutiques nearby on Madison Avenue.