The Briarcliffe Condominium

 condominium, Neoclassical (architecture), 1923_construction

164-foot, 13-story Neo-Classical residential building completed in 1923. Designed by Warren & Wetmore for developer Charles K. Eagle, it was converted to a condominium in 1999. Eagle shot himself in the penthouse apartment in 1928, a month after selling the building. It has a 2-story limestone base and a brown-brick façade framed with limestone quoins.

The main entrance is at the center of the south facade on 57th Street, with glass double-doors topped by a green marble panel, with a rounded black canvas canopy extending out over the sidewalk. Pilasters flank the doorway, with brass light sconces, and are topped by capitals with rosettes surmounted by ovals with carved female heads on profile, cradled by carved acanthus leaves. Above the marble panel a decorative garland connects the two pilasters. At the 2nd floor, above the garland and between the ovals is a single-window is a stone enframement, topped by a cartouche that breaks the dentiled band course running across the 2nd floor. To the right of the entrance there are three bays of plate-glass storefronts on the ground floor, and to the left there are two storefronts separated by a bronze-and-glass display box, above which is a carving of a paper scroll, staff, and acanthus leaves. The 2nd floor has triple-windows in the end bays, followed by two bays of single-windows, and a bay of double-windows on either side of the center bay.

The west facade has more storefront bays lining the avenue on the ground floor. The floor above has wide single-windows in the end bays, between which are three sets of paired single-windows (the northern windows in the south pair being wider than the others), and small bathroom windows between the northern two pairs. The windows all have simple stone sills.

The south facade has a balustraded limestone balcony across the three middle bays at the 5th floor, and stone panels with garlands below the two 4th-floor windows that flank the center bay. The 12th floor is set off by stone band courses; there are stone surrounds at the end bays and the two bays flanking the center bay, with carved swags and rosettes in stone panels below. On the west facade, the 12th floor has stone surrounds at the end bays, both of the middle paired windows, and the inner window of the other two pairs. A balustraded railing runs above the 12th floor, with the penthouse level set back on the south side. The penthouse extends to the building line at the northern bays on the west facade, where it has two tripartite windows flanking two large single-windows; the edges of the penthouse have smaller quoins.

The building's penthouse is one of the most famous in the city. Originally a triplex of more than 20 rooms that for many years belonged to a publisher who was also the bridge columnist for The New York Times, it had an enormous ballroom with extensive terraces that would later be used for many lavish parties by the next tenant who was the publisher of "The Celebrity Register". In 2007, it sold reportedly for almost $19 million after being featured in an issue of "Architecture Digest".

The building contains a total of 35 condominium units. The ground floor is occupied by a Chase Bank branch, Oak & Steel Fine Wines and Spirits, and a T-Mobile wireless store.