It has a couple of stringcourses that break up its large facades, but is now missing its cornice decoration, a sad fact that has befallen too many buildings in the city largely because of landlords wanting to reduce their maintenance costs and liability exposures and the failure of the city to come up with an incentive program to encourage the preservation of the architectural integrity of older and notable properties. Cornices have been shorn off many fine buildings and were often the most important architectural flourish on a building other than its entrance. Here, the cornice was not really a major projecting element as most are, but a decorative frieze that nonetheless served as an important transition signal.

This building, which has some corner windows, is three blocks south of subway stations and cross-town buses but is close to the many fashionable restaurants and boutiques of the nearby Flatiron District.

The residential building, which was designed by Emery Roth, one of the city’s greatest residential architects, was the first in the city to take advantage of a change in the building code that permitted the use of welded rather than riveted steel frames.

In his superb book on the architect, "Mansions in the Clouds, the Skyscraper Palazzi of Emery Roth," (Balsam Press, 1986), Steven Ruttenbaum noted that Roth and many others had associated "riveting with construction activity": "It has been the melody of this industry. The silence of welding in this case has been strange, and we had a feeling that there is no activity at the job, even at the height of the work."

The building, he continued, was designed for people of "modest means" and originally contained 195 small apartments. "To add a distinctive flair to these small, compact units, living rooms were sunken below the foyer level. In addition," according to Mr. Ruttenbaum, "many unusual recreational features were offered to tenants, including a darkroom and pint exhibition room for photography enthusiasts. And on the roof there were handball courts, ping-pong tables, a deck tennis court, a shuttle board court and garden furniture."