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About 108 Fifth Avenue
Lower Fifth Avenue is one of the city's great stretches of architectural history and the section between 14th and 23rd Street one of the richest in elegant commercial structures from the start of the 20th Century.
It is, therefore, perhaps understandable that the developers of this building, Douglas B. Gardner, Martin M. Berger and Fred Levinson, opted for a "Post-Modern" design for this 19-story, condominium apartment building.
The architects, Rothzeid, Kaiserman, Thompson & Bee, settled on a four-story mansard roof as the keynote to their design and such a choice was not altogether inappropriate for this Parisian-boulevard stretch of Fifth Avenue.
Unfortunately, they also set the building back in a small plaza on both the avenue and the sidestreet, breaking the building-wall line to create a gap in the avenue's continuity and to create open space where none was needed. Furthermore, the mansard roof is made less visible by the building's setback in the plaza.
Grand gestures do not necessarily make good design!
The building has 51 units, and the base of the building is fairly elegant.
There are balconies at the corners of the east and north facades.
The building opened in late 1986 just as the Flatiron District was beginning to hit its stride as the city's center of chic restaurants and establishments catering to the advertising and photographic communities.
The building has a sundeck as well as a concierge and doorman, but no garage and no health club.
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