Upper West Side

Stumbled on an evocative photo-blog called NYC Facades documenting and discussing exterior detailing on vintage buildings throughout New York City. The site is searchable by neighborhood or architectural period or any of several other categories, but on this first encounter I found myself concentrating on the Upper West Side, a neighborhood I lived in for several months (in a vast gloomy apartment on Riverside Drive) in the late 1980s. I haven't been back in twenty years but the samples below look just as ponderous & sinister & glamorous as I remember them.

230 Amsterdam

230 Amsterdam Entrance


2180 Broadway


172 West 77th Street


2350 Broadway


488 Amsterdam

150 West 71st Street


234 West 92nd Street


291 Amsterdam

175 West 85th Street

About this last building NYC Facades comments: "One thing that has caught my attention about buildings is the extensions. This is a good example,and an easy one to spot; they clearly added an extra three stories in a different color without extending the stone lintel patterns. However, it also seems they added an extra story before that; why else is there a thick white line ringing the building but the remnant of the original cornice?"