The Dorilton
Encyclopedia
The Dorilton is a luxury residential housing cooperative
Housing cooperative
A housing cooperative is a legal entity—usually a corporation—that owns real estate, consisting of one or more residential buildings. Each shareholder in the legal entity is granted the right to occupy one housing unit, sometimes subject to an occupancy agreement, which is similar to a lease. ...

 in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. Construction began in 1900 and was completed by 1902.

Architecture

The building was designed by Janes & Leo
Janes & Leo
The New York-based architectural firm of Elisha Harris Janes and Richard Leopold Leo , working as Janes & Leo from 1898 to 1911, designed and built numerous Beaux-Arts residential structures in New York City, both richly detailed row houses and luxury apartment blocks during the building boom that...

, the New York-based
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 architectural firm of Elisha Harris Janes and Richard Leopold Leo for real estate developer Hamilton M. Weed. It is located at 171 West 71st Street, at Broadway (New York City)
Broadway (New York City)
Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...

.

The building is noted for its opulent Beaux-Arts style limestone and brick exterior, featuring monumental sculptures, richly balustraded balconies, and a three-story, copper and slate mansard roof. The exterior masonry, decorative terra-cotta work and chimneys and roof were expertly restored in 1998 by the Walter B. Melvin architectural firm.

Architecture historian Andrew Dolkart
Andrew Dolkart
Andrew Scott Dolkart is the James Marston Fitch Associate Professor of Historic Preservation at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and Director of the school's Historic Preservation Program...

 thinks it may be "the most flamboyant apartment house in New York," with its striking, "French-inspired" sculpted figures and an enormous iron gate "reminiscent of those that guard French palaces."

Architecture historian Francis Morrone
Francis Morrone
Francis Morrone is an American architectural historian noted for his work on the built history of New York City.Morrone's essays on architecture have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, City Journal, American Arts Quarterly, the New Criterion and the New York Times. He was a columnist for the New...

 regards it as one of the city's great apartment buildings.

The building was designated a New York City landmark in 1974. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

in 1983.

External links

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