One of the city's most famous and illustrious buildings, the Hotel Des Artistes is the largest "studio" building in the city and was designed as an artist's cooperative apartment building.

The 18-story building has 115 apartments, most duplexes with double-height living rooms and balcony bedrooms. It is one of several such "studio" buildings on the block between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue designed by George Mort Pollard.

The building was developed by Walter Russell several years after a group of artists, included famed Impressionist Childe Hassam, built a "studio" building at 27 West 67th Street.

The base of the building's façade is decorated with many figures of artists and many of the apartments have English Renaissance-style paneling, beamed ceilings and fireplaces.

Among the building's many famous residents have been Isadora Duncan, the dancer, Noel Coward, the playwright, writer Fannie Hurst, who had a very large triplex penthouse, New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay, writer Alexander Woollcott, and Norman Rockwell, the artist. Artist Howard Chandler Christy, an early resident, painted murals for the building's famous restaurant, Café des Artistes.

Despite its name, the building was never a hotel although its amenities were and are very impressive. The building had a communal restaurant, squash courts, a swimming pool, a theater and a ballroom as well as its own telephone switchboard. The theater and ballroom have been converted to other uses, but the building and most apartments now have their own kitchens. The neo-Gothic-style building, which has a canopied entrance and large lobby, has a concierge and elevator person.