A Soft Touch and Some Shade

Most pre-war apartment buildings did not have air-conditioning when they were erected, so window awnings were often employed to cast shade on apartment windows and reduce heat. The cloth awnings added soft touches to the hard masonry façades.

Early photographs indicate that in many luxury buildings, the awnings were widely employed, adding a deeper dimensionality to their façades and, in many cases, more color.

In Andrew Alpern's excellent New York's Fabulous Luxury Apartments: With Original Floor Plans from the Dakota, River House, Olympic Tower and Other Great Buildings, there are old photographs showing many awnings at such prestigious buildings as the Dorilton at 171 West 71st Street, the Ansonia at 2108 Broadway, the Langham at 135 Central Park West, the Hendrik Hudson at 380 Riverside Drive, and the Apthorp at 2207 Broadway.

Nowadays, of course, window awnings above the retail level -- where they are used to reduce glare for passing window shoppers and protect them from the elements -- are quite rare. Window air-conditioning units, both protruding and discrete, and central air-conditioning are better at cooling and require less maintenance.

There are a few exceptions, however. The penthouse facing Central Park at 960 Fifth Avenue, one of the city's most luxurious apartment buildings, has green awnings over its many windows. On the terraces of the penthouse at 47 East 87th Street, larger awnings are used to shade guests when entertaining. An elegant example of awnings can be found at 29 East 69th Street, where they decorate four floors of the five-story mansion.

Storefront awnings provide retailers with extra signage space, and in recent years some apartment buildings have begun to impose uniform design standards for their storefront awnings, rendering them more attractive than the buildings that allow visual mayhem to assault passersby. Some commercial buildings such as Cartier Inc. and Versace, at 651 and 647 Fifth Avenue, respectively, have awnings over all their windows.

At 35 East 72nd Street, a handsome former townhouse now occupied by Chase Bank, has bright blue awnings over all of its windows, each with the bank's name on the front edge. Chase has one of the more conservative and attractive street presences in the city, in dramatic contrast to some newer banks that are quite garish. Still, I would have found it preferable if the bank's name were used only on the first-floor awnings at this location.