By Carter B. Horsley

This elegant 16-story apartment house has only one apartment per floor and is one of the most attractive in the very desirable and pleasant Carnegie Hill neighborhood.

Erected in 1925, the building, which has a very elegant lobby, was converted to a cooperative in 1951.

Above its rusticated limestone base, the building’s facade is dark brick except for the next to the top floor which is also limestone. The penthouse has balustraded walls above the building’s cornice and beneath its handsome and large watertank enclosure which has Italian Renaissance-style window surrounds and three arched designs in brick on each facade.

The Fifth Avenue facade and the longer sidestreet facade are finely detailed, symmetrical compositions highlighted by limestone pilasters. While facades that are clad entirely in limestone are generally thought to be more impressive than brick facades, this building demonstrates that deft handling of the composition can be very appealing, indeed.

Here, the "mixed" facade is especially appealing because it is contextual with the building directly across 94th Street, the International Center of Photography building, one of the finest Georgian-style mansions ever erected in the city. The mansion was designed by Delano & Aldrich and completed in 1913 for Willard Straight, a founder of the New Republic magazine whose wife, Dorothy, was a leading suffragette, a founder of the Junior League of New York and a member of the Whitney family. Before it was converted into the photography center, the mansion served for many years as the headquarters for the National Audubon Society after 1952. In 2001, the building began to be converted back to a single-family residence for a new owner.

Although far uptown, this quiet neighborhood is extremely desirable because of its many private schools, religious institutions and museums. It also has many attractive restaurants nearby along Madison Avenue and cross-town bus service is nearby at 96th and 97th Streets. The building has a doorman, a very handsome lobby, but no garage, no balconies and no health club.