This is one of the city’s most elegant and distinguished apartment buildings.

Not only is it entirely clad in limestone, but its many unusual and notable design elements predate Art Deco flourishes with a quite bold, yet restrained composition.

The building was erected in 1915 and converted to a cooperative in 1978.

The building’s façade is nicely modeled to accent its verticality, but is punctuated by a very large wrought-iron entrance marquee and large balconies on the fourth, fifth and twelvth floors. The 13th floor has arched windows below the building’s simple cornice.

The 13-story building, which has no doorman and no concierge, has only 26 apartments.

It was designed by Bing & Bing by Emery Roth, the architect would later design such masterpieces as the San Remo and Beresford apartment towers on Central Park West and the Ritz on Park Avenue and 57th Street.

In his fine book, "Mansions in the Sky, the Skyscraper Palazzi of Emery Roth," (Balsam Press, Inc., 1986), Steven Ruttenbaum observes that 601 West End Avenue "exhibits an eclectic mixture of neo-classicism and the Vienna Secession" and is "notable for its discipline and sobriety." The building, he wrote, originally had only one apartment per floor.

According to Peter Salwen, the author, Jesse L. Lasky, the theatrical and burlesque producer, lived here. In his fine book, "Upper West Side Story, A History and Guide" (Abbeville Press, 1989)," Salwen wrote that Lasky had been convinced by his brother-in-law, Samuel...