Alwyn Court Apartments

History and architecture

Alwyn court is a unique example of an apartment house of the type utilizing Terra- cotta. This is the finest building of its type in New York City. Most high apartment structures at the turn of the century followed a general pattern having limestone base for the lower stories, a relatively plain shaft of regularly spaced windows for the central portion, and a top story or two treated in some special manner crowned by a projecting cornice. Decoration as such was limited to main entrances, occasional balconies, belt courses and cornices.

Here at Alwyn Court, instead of limiting the decoration, the architects went to the other extreme, leaving hardly any surface undecorated. Such detail would have been out of the question in stone, but by taking advantage of a material in vogue at that time, 1907-08, the architects were able to produce the entire commission for less than a million dollars. This material was terra-cotta, a cast clay product glazed and fired. Since each mold could be used repeatedly the amount of decoration desire'. was only limited to the number of motifs the budget allowed.

The architects for Alwyn Court in designing this French Renaissance apartment house, decided to depart from the prevailing design formula of that day by con-stituting the first four floors the base, the next five as the shaft and the final three as the crown. These three parts are separated horizontally by strong pro-jecting decorative bands between which pilasters with Corinthian caps divide the Seventh Avenue elevation into four bays and the 58th Street elevation into five.

The corner is a rounded bay in the best Parisian tradition. The shafts of the pilasters, treated as Renaissance panels, have a profusion of details. The tri-partite windows at each floor are separated by richly decorated mullions and spindles; the spandrels between floors are divided into three panels each heavily decorated. The decoration consists of French Renaissance detail, including the crowned salamander, symbol of Francis the First, King of France.

This richly ornamented building is unique and a joy to the City, contrasting with the stark simplicity of contemporary buildings. Few buildings like this have ever been built; there will never be another.