Radio City Extended-Stay Apartments (New York City, New York)

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135-foot, 13-story Renaissance-revival hotel completed in 1903. Designed by Neville & Bagge as an apartment building, it opened as the Cambridge Court Apartments. It was later converted to a hotel, and named (in rapid succession) the Cambridge Court Hotel (1905-1907), Hotel Rand (1907-1908), Bayard Hotel (1908-1910), and St. Charles Hotel (1909), and then finally the Van Cortlandt Hotel from 1910. Faded lettering for the Van Cortlandt can still be seen on the west facade. It became the Radio City Apartments in the late 1970s.

The building is clad in red brick with limestone trim above a 2-story rusticated limestone base, painted white. The ground floor has four modernized storefronts, separated by piers with black granite bases, and a central entrance recessed within a vestibule. The glass doors of the entrance are reached by a set of grey stone steps leading up into the vestibule, which is lined with cream-colored marble. A metal-and-glass canopy, angling upward, covers the entry, and the piers on either side have modern light fixtures. The two end bays have segmental-arches filled in at the tops, and the east bay has a rounded black canvas canopy extending out over the sidewalk. Large, projecting keystones cap both arches, and the next bays in have smaller, arch-like forms in the rustication above the storefronts, also with keystones. The end bays and center bay project out slightly from the other two.

At the upper floors there are four bays of single-windows in the middle (the center two projecting slightly), and tripartite windows in the end bays; are all topped by keystones at the 2nd floor. The tripartite windows have angled side panes that recess back into the facade. The two non-projecting bays have projecting stone sills carried on pairs of scrolled brackets framing a cartouche, and the end bays have wider sills with matching brackets. The east end bays also has a wrought-iron balcony carried on two iron brackets, with a decorative railing. The 2nd floor is capped by a stone cornice, with a pair of large console brackets at both end bays. These support the projections of the cornice above, forming stone balconies at the end bays of the 3rd floor, which are fronted by stone balustrades.

The 3rd floor has limestone banding, and the end bays of the remaining floors are also banded. The four middle bays at the 3rd floor have large, splayed stone lintels with scrolled keystones (longer at the middle two that, along with paired scrolled brackets, support a stone balcony at the 4th floor's two middle bays). The balcony has a decorative wrought-iron railing. The end bays also have oversized splayed stone lintels with keystones, and a narrow cornice frames the central balcony.

The 4th & 5th floors have quoins around the two center windows; both have scrolled keystones, and the 4th-floor windows have small cornices with end brackets. There are paneled stone spandrels between the floors in these two bays. The other two single-window bays have smaller splayed lintels with keystones. The end bays at the 4th floor have larger splayed lintels with keystones, and carved spandrel panels above, and the 5th-floor end bays are topped by cartouches and rounded pediments. A narrow cornice caps the 5th floor.

The rest of the upper floors have simple splayed lintels with keystones at the four middle bays, and larger keystones at the projecting, tripartite end bays. A broad, black metal, modillioned cornice supported by scrolled limestone brackets sets off the 11th floor. The cornice forms a balcony with a metal railing. The 11th & 12th floors continue the pattern of the 6th-10th floors. Another large, black metal cornice crowns the 12th floor, with modillions, and triangular pediments at the end bays that have large cartouches. A recessed penthouse level is not visible from the street. There is a vertical sign mounted at the east edge of the facade, at the 3rd and part of the 2nd floors.

The east facade is clad in plain red brick, with patches of beige brick. There is a central light well above the base, with the north- and south-facing walls each having a bay of single-windows and a bay of smaller bathroom windows. The rear (south) part of this facade has a bay of single-windows, and the front (north) part has another, beginning at the 7th floor.

The west elevation is also clad in red brick, with a shallower light well. There is one bay of single-windows on the north- and south-facing walls of the light well, and a bay of single-windows on both the north and south parts of the facade on either side of the light well, starting at the 7th floor. The rear wall of the light well has two bays of single-window openings (both of which have been bricked-in) and a bay of smaller bathroom windows. A round water tank is visible on the roof.

The hotel contains 120 extended-stay guest rooms. The ground floor is occupied by Pasta Lovers restaurant, and Radio City Pizza.

www.radiocityapartments.com/