17-21 West 68th Street (New York City, New York)

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A trio of 5-story Renaissance-revival residential buildings joined behind a unified facade, completed in 1894. Designed by George F. Pelham, they have separate ground-floor entrances. The facades are clad in pale-orange brick with light-grey terra-cotta ornament, above a light-grey limestone ground floor.

The base's three entrances are all approached by low, curving stoops with grey stone sidewalls; a short section of balusters fronts the low wall between the eastern two. The westernmost entrance, for No. 21, has a glass door with two narrow sidelights. No. 19's entrance has wooden double-doors with small glass panes, and No. 17's, where the facade projects slightly forward, has a wood-framed leaded-glass door and sidelight on the right. The entrances are framed by narrow, delicately carved moldings, and each is paired with a square opening for a double-window, behind iron grilles. These are to the right of No. 17 & 21's entries, and to the left of No. 19's. The ground floor is capped by a broad band with a dentil course along its lower edge, and several areas of stone balusters filling it.

The upper floors are identical at Nos. 19 & 21, with a curved, projecting bay from the 2nd-4th floors; No. 17 differs in having a curve at the west end and then running flat across to the east. It is split into a double-window on the flat, east side, and a single-window at the western curve. Nos. 19 & 21 have three windows at the 2nd & 3rd floors, and two at the 4th floor. The three windows are separated by grey stone pilasters with elaborate foliate designs, and the grey stone lintels crowning the window bays have a small, central cartouche at the 2nd floor. The 4th floor, like the 3rd, has splayed lintels over the windows, each adorned by a small, keystone-shaped form with delicate foliate carving. Rough-faced, narrow sill course line the bottoms of these bays. No. 17's windows, conversely, are framed by grey stone surrounds with foliate patterns. The double-window at the 2nd floor is divided by an engaged Corinthian column with fluting at its lower half, and there is a cartouche above it. Those on the 3rd & 4th floors have the same decorated pilasters, although only the 4th floor has the lintels on top of its windows.

Curving, black metal cornices with dentils cap the 4th floor across the full facade, and the 5th floor is set back above the projecting bays, with a pair of large, circular windows at each address. These round windows have square, grey stone surrounds with foliate patterns. The roof line is marked by a larger black metal cornice with modillions and dentils.

James Dean once lived here, in one of the small 5th-floor apartments.