720-734 Amsterdam Avenue (New York City, New York)

 Romanesque (architecture), apartment building, 1889_construction

A group of eight 5-story Romanesque-revival residential buildings completed together in 1889. They are all clad in dark-red brick, except for No. 724, which has been resurfaced in beige stucco. Along the avenue the grounds floors are all lined with various metal, stone, and glass storefronts.

No. 720 at the south end officially uses the address 201 West 95th Street, as its entrance is centered on the south facade. Three stone steps with brick risers approach the round-arched entry with a glass door, sidelight, and transom framed in grey granite, with beige stucco around the arch. To the west the ground floor has a restaurant space with three joined bays of red-painted French windows and doors. To the east is a storefront space clad in rusticated, grey cast-stone with three windows on the left, a smaller window set high up to the right, and a glass door at the end. Above the ground floor, the southeast corner is rounded, with tripartite windows arrayed around the curve. They are divided by terra-cotta pilasters and have eared terra-cotta lintels with egg-and-dart moldings and small, square panels of acanthus leaves. In between the 2nd & 3rd floors are red terra-cotta panels with garlands and egg-and-dart borders. Between the 3rd & 4th floors is a red terra-cotta band of floral squares below the brownstone sill course of the 4th floor, and there is a grey band of floral terra-cotta below the 5th floor. A rustic-red metal exhaust vent runs up the facade to the left of the rounded corner bay. The rest of the upper floors on the south facade have, from east to west, two bays of single-windows, a bay of paired windows, another single-window, and two more single-windows more loosely paired together. There are slightly-projecting brick piers beginning at the 2nd floor that separate each bay, with a wider pier separating the west end bay. The 2nd-floor windows are round-arched, with thin, staggered lintels that resemble bead moldings. The 3rd-floor windows are segmental-arched, and there are red terra-cotta arches above the 5th-floor windows. The decorative terra-cotta bands continue across the facade from the rounded corner, and there are also stone sill courses between the piers on the other floors. At the west end of the top floor is a projecting, cylindrical pillar. The roof line has a brick parapet with recessed panels, some with floral terra-cotta ornament, and corbels along the top edge. A black metal fire escape runs down the two of the bays east of center. A small penthouse level has been added to the roof, near the west side, also clad in red brick. The east facade has a continuation of the ground-floor storefront, and the upper floors, north of the rounded corner, have two bays of single-windows. The ornament and trim matches that on the south facade.

Nos. 722 & 724 Amsterdam share a round-arched entrance with a glass door, sidelights, and fanlight, set in a grey stone surround with foliate panels at the sides and elongated brackets carrying a cornice. There is a storefront on either side of this entrance. The upper floors of both facades have two bays of paired windows. While No. 722 matches the ornament and trim of No. 720, No. 724's has been shaved off, although the projecting piers remain in the center and at the ends. No. 722 has a black metal fire escape running down the middle.

No. 726 matches No. 722, with its entrance at the north end having a glass door and transom in a dark-brown metal surround, and another fire escape running down the middle of the facade.

No. 728 is set slightly lower, but has another matching design, with its entrance in the middle of two smaller storefronts. Nos. 730 & 732 also share an entrance, matching the one between Nos. 722 & 724, but painted reddish-brown and with a small stoop with metal handrails. These facades also match the established design, but with a black metal cornice below the top floor that has been removed from the three buildings to the south.

No. 734 is a mirror-image of the south building (with a different storefront), and goes by the official address of 200 East 96th Street. The north facade has some differences, with the small storefronts framing the central entrance that is set behind a gate flanked by paneled pilasters with scrolled brackets carrying a black metal cornice. The upper floors are painted a dark-red, and the wide pier near the west end has three vertical grooves at the 2nd & 3rd floors, with a decorative brown terra-cotta panel between them. The trim is all painted dark-brown, and there is a black metal fire escape above the entry bay.

The ground floors are occupied by Buceo 95 Tapas bar, The Halal Guys restaurant, Opai Thai restaurant, Lincoln Square Pawnbrokers, Roma Wine & Liquors, Jet's Pizza, David's Check Cashing, Futonland furniture store, Dive Bar, Famous Famiglia pizzeria, Corner Lucky Lotto & Smoke Shop, Diamond Rush jewelry, and The Color Room hair salon.