Midtown, Park Avenue at 56th Street

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… …….........…………….. click to enlarge

This is Park Avenue from 56th Street, looking south.  Boy, aren't you glad you don't live on Park Avenue?  And if you do live on Park Avenue, I guess you have a fabulous apartment, but is it really worth it?  Not a Korean deli to be seen.  Where do you get your coffee?

Upper East Side, Park Avenue Between 89th and 90th Streets

Mary Sargent © 2008 …….. click to enlarge

Another break in the wall.


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Upper East Side, Park Avenue Between 88th and 89th Streets

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Isn't that a pretty little apartment building, second one in? The AIA guide mentions it, but says only: "Tuscany in terra-cotta." and "Altered, ca. 1927." If they moved it to some other street, I'd live there.

Notice the stores at street level. Shocking. At least it's a Boghen Pharmacy and not Duane Reade.

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Upper East Side, Park Avenue Between 86th and 96th Streets

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

What did I tell you? These are four different blocks on Park Avenue between 86th and 96th and you'd almost think I was showing you the same block four times.

But there are a few breaks in the uniformity and you will see them soon.

By the way, I was able to discover that the very first building at the top of the page (on the northwest corner of 86th Street) was built in 1923-24 and that Condé Nast lived in the penthouse and gave great parties.

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Midtown, Park Avenue between 53rd and 52nd Streets

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

One block down and across the street from the Lever House, another famous modernist building. Not modernist, you say? Well, you're right; the Racquet and Tennis Club across the street is not modernist by a long shot (it was built in 1918 by McKim Mead & White), but I'm referring to the Seagram Building which I'm standing in front of in order to photograph this Calder mobile, dated 1969.

You can actually see the building by following the above link to the New York Architecture Images site. You may notice that sometimes this building looks bronze and sometimes it looks black. I can't explain that.

Other photos: Calder sculpture with Seagram Building as background, Seagram Building with Sabrett Umbrella

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Midtown, Park Avenue Between 54th and 53rd Streets

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Well, see? Just turn the corner onto Park Avenue and right off the bat, here's the Lever House. And a bunch of other tall glassy buildings I can't identify. The Lever House, though, is one of the early important Modernist buildings, "a seminal work of Modernist architecture," according to Carter B. Horsley, who writes a spirited and interesting article about it. And please go here to see a photograph that shows clearly how breathtaking it was when built in 1951 (and still is).

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