Mondrian Condominiums

 skyscraper, condominium, 1992_construction

440-foot, 43-story modernist residential building completed in 1992. Designed by Fox & Fowle, it is named after the great modernist painter famed for his "Broadway Boogie Woogie" designs of colored grids. The aluminum and glass curtail wall of this tower sports red bands every four floors and the rest of the tower’s facades are bright white and dark blue, over a 3-story base.

Fronting the avenue, the lower two floors of the south end of the base project out and are clad in black granite blocks with a single, small, square window next to a narrow, blue-painted recessed area. To the right the base has glass-and-metal cladding (with a thin frame in black granite), with a stainless-steel canopy at the ground floor extending from the small square window over to glass double-doors into the commercial space. The north end of the base sets back to the main building line, clad in beige stone panels, metal, and glass; there are smaller windows on the 2nd floor than the large show-windows at the ground floor, continuing the commercial space from the south. The 3rd floor has a row of square vent openings, with black metal louvers overlaid by red metal squares. There is a small return of the first two floors' metal-framed show-windows at the east end of the north facade; the rest is clad in grey granite panels (above a low, black granite water table) with black granite squared of two sizes in a geometric pattern. The vent pattern on the 3rd floor continues from the east facade. The main entrance is near the west end, with glass doors framed in black granite, covered by a colorful metal canopy of red, blue, and black, with small bits of yellow. There is a black metal service door at the far west end.

The tower above is set back from the base on the north side, where it consists of a glass curtain wall (with red and blue stripes) that is rounded at the northeast corner. There are short, blue panes of glass above each regular window, with clear glass panes, just below the colored glass stripes. On the east facade the southern two-thirds projects out slightly from the glass curtain wall at the north, and consists of light-colored metal with a grid of windows. The blue glass upper window panes repeat, and the red stripes continue from the curved glass curtain wall section of the tower. Projecting balconies are grouped into threes (with non-balcony floors between each 3-story group) at the north edge of the metal cladding, serving to blend the curtain wall and south sections of the east facade. The metal-clad section ends at the 37th floor. The glass curtain wall continues on above it, extending to the roof line on all four facades.

The south elevation matches the southern part of the east facade, continuing the grid pattern of windows and the red stripes, except at the east end, where there is a triple-window with thin aluminum mullions and a narrow center pane. The west facade consists of the glass curtain wall pattern, with a setback above the 37th floor.

The building contains 173 condominium units. The lower two levels of the base are occupied by an Equinox gym, and Juice Press.