This 30-story tower is credited with ushering in "the transformation of its parkside neighborhood into one of the most architecturally distinctive areas in the city...It is one of Manhattan's finest free-standing towers of the 1920's."

That assessment was made, correctly, by Steven Ruttenbaum in his book, "Mansions in the Clouds, the Skyscraper Palazzi of Emery Roth," (Balsam Press, Inc., 1986).

What is surprising is the location of such a magnificent tower. It is not fronting on a park, or even a corner. The building almost seems too extravagant for its mid-block setting. The building's entrance is a two-story arch and it and the façade detailing "contribute a majestic and powerful quality to the building," Ruttenbaum wrote.

The tower, which was completed in 1927, has a buff brick façade above a rusticated, three-story stone base and terra-cotta window surrounds in Italian Renaissance fashion at the fourth, fifth, sixth, 15th, and 26th through the 29th stories.

The building has setbacks at the 16th, 19th, 20th, 21st 27th, and 29th floors.

The symmetrical design by Emery Roth culminates in a pointed green-glazed terra-cotta lantern on an octagonal drum.

"In the wintertime, it is possible to see steam escaping through the arched openings of the lantern, trailing off into the heavens. It is an inspirational sight to behold," according to Ruttenbaum.

"The first-floor public spaces of the Oliver Cromwell," he continued, "originally were richly...