The Crown Building, at 730 Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, has one of midtown Manhattan’s finest roofs. When seen at night, its illuminated, striking 416-foot high crown with gilded details truly gives it a regal quality, befitting of its name. The French Renaissance octagonal tower section is very striking, with stone/terra cotta, dormers, parapets, and a huge chimney stack. An original weathervane in the form of a rooster was removed in 1942 and melted down as part of the war effort. The best unobstructed view is from the north, where this photo was taken.

Designed by Warren and Wetmore and built in 1921, it was one of the first buildings to go up after the setback provisions of the 1916 Zoning Resolution. It was originally called the Heckscher Building after its developer August Heckscher, a German immigrant (1867) who made his wealth from mining operations. In 1929, the Museum of Modern Art opened its first gallery here in rented rooms on the 12th floor. In the 1960s, it was known as the Genesco Building, was again renamed in 1983 as the Crown Building, and in the 1980s became one of the properties of the Marcos of the Philippines.

One of the early commercial developments on the Vanderbilt’s former turf, Heckscher’s vision was quite prescient: “In the last analysis, whoever will not shop on Fifth Avenue and 57th Street will not shop anywhere.”

The New York Life Insurance Building has been described as limestone renaissance at the bottom and birthday cake at the top. This 1928, 40-story structure, which towers over Madison Square Park at 51 Madison Avenue, was designed by Cass Gilbert, who had a love of pyramidal tops on his buildings, which you see in his Woolworth Building. The design is a fusion of Gothic (there are 72 gargoyles at the roof line) with more modern elements.

The New York Life Insurance was founded in 1845 and is the largest mutual life insurance company in the U.S. The famed gold top was built in 1967 and has been illuminated since 1985 on the company’s 140th anniversary. In 1995, on the 150th anniversary, new gold leaf ceramic tiles were installed. The lit top is one of the major nighttime NYC icons which can be seen and easily identified from afar, along with the Empire State Building, the Con Ed Tower, the Met Life Tower, the Citicorp Building, and a handful of others.
BTW, the site for this building has a fascinating history – Union Depot, Gilmore’s Garden, P.T. Barnum’s Hippodrome, and the original location for Madison Square Garden…

This is the Carlton Hotel at 88 Madison Avenue at 29th Street. I had no plans to photograph this building, had never seen it before, and knew nothing about it. But walking by it at night, I found the lighting on this Beaux-Arts building quite spectacular.

My research, both on and offline returned very little, so I really had to dig. I learned the most from the recent press – click here for the hotel’s website with these articles. Built as the Seville Hotel in 1904, it was in steady decline until it recently underwent a 5-year, $60 million renovation led by starchitect David Rockwell.
One of the high points of the renovation was the discovery of a stained glass skylight dome (believed to have Tiffany glass) hidden above a dropped ceiling above an old barroom and severely blackened. This dome was restored and installed over the new restaurant Country, with chef Geoffrey Zakarian – a lot of positive buzz on this place. A new 3-story annex serves as entrance (click here for photo), with a limestone balcony, a turn-of-the-century curved staircase, and a waterfall. One of these days, I need to get in there and see that dome…

This is the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower at One Madison Avenue and 23rd Street. Click here for closeup. Designed by Napoleon LeBrun & Sons and completed in 1909, it reigned as the world’s tallest building (700 feet) until 1913, when the Woolworth Building surpassed it (792 feet). The building was modeled after the St. Mark’s Campanile in Venice, Italy, and is a National Historic Landmark. The tower itself was an add-on to the 1893 building, which encompasses a full city block. Click here for article.

The tower lit at night is one of NYC’s most prominent and recognizable sights, along with the Empire State Building, the New York Life Insurance Building, and a handful of others. It can be seen from around the city and outer boroughs; one of the most spectacular views is coming into Manhattan from Brooklyn via one of the bridges. As part of a 3-year restoration completed in 2002, a computerized colored lighting system was installed – the system allows them to achieve any colors in the spectrum. The color schemes can be changed for holidays or special events…