121 Madison Avenue

 apartment building  Add category

150-foot, 12-story Queen Anne-style residential building completed in 1883. Designed by Hubert & Pirrson, it owns the distinction of being the first co-op building in Manhattan, and towered over the adjacent brownstones at the time. It has a distinctive red brick and brownstone exterior, and was formerly known as the Hubert Home Club Apartments.

It was converted to rental apartments in 1917 and shorn of much of the original ornament. In 1940 the upper floors were rebuilt by architects Mayers, Murray & Philip, replacing the original gables, new moderne-style storefronts were installed, and the balconies were removed. The storefront were updated again in 1989, with tan-painted smooth stucco, and green diamond shapes framed in white between each storefront.

On Madison Avenue, the main entrance is near the center, recessed under a round-arch framed in grey stone. It has double-doors, a fanlight, and a hanging light fixture. Both main facades have one projecting bay with angled sides - at the 4th bay from the north on Madison Avenue, and the westernmost bay on 30th Street. On both bays, the angled sides have narrow windows. On the Madison Avenue elevation, the other bays consist of, from the north: a bay of paired windows, two bays of single-windows, the projecting bay, a bay of single-windows, a bay of triple-windows, and two bays of single-windows at the south end. The triple-windows are quite narrow, and divided by dark-grey iron mullions. A single mullion also splits the 2nd bay from the north into two unequal sides.

To the east of the projecting bay on 30th Street, there is a bay of staggered, small bathroom windows, a bay of narrow double-windows, a bay of medium-sized narrow windows only at alternating floors, three bays of narrow double-windows, a bay of paired windows, and a bay of single-windows at the east end. The bay of paired windows near the east end projects outward from the 3rd-8th floors, with beveled edges and a rough-faced stone band at the base. The 2nd-floor windows at this bay also extend down farther and break the band course capping the ground floor. All of the 2nd-floor windows have flat brownstone lintels, and a patterned brownstone band course at shoulder level runs across this floor, continuing onto the facade of the neighboring building to the east.

All of the 3rd-floor windows are segmental-arched and rest on a continuous brownstone sill course (except the small bathroom window on the south facade). On the west side, the window in the bay to the south of the projecting bay is cut lower and has a wrought-iron grille over its base. At the top of the 2nd floor is a corbelled brick band course, surmounted by a stone sill course for the 3rd floor's windows.

The single-window bays at the 5th, 6th & 7th floors have corbelled brick spandrels below the window sills. At the top of the 7th floor the piers have stylized capitals and the bays have shallow segmental-arches. Another continuous stone sill course runs below the 8th-floor windows, which are topped by a very thick brownstone band course. Another brownstone band course tops the 9th floor, above which the rebuilt floors are faced in tan brick; the projecting bays also end here.

There are setbacks above the 10th floor on either side of the projecting bay on Madison Avenue, which is topped at the 10th & 11th floors by a slightly-projecting but flat section of five window openings (the northern of which has been filled in). The 12th floor is further set back, but the pier closest to the southwest corner extends up past the roof line. The south facade is mostly similar, but there is a small penthouse level at the east end, a tall dividing wall above the 11th floor in the center, and no extending pier.

The building now serves as a luxury rental apartment building, with 127 units. The ground floor is occupied Paradise Hair Salon, Blank Slate Cafe, Quick Stop convenience store, Dyanna Spa and Waxing, and Truman's Gentlemen's Groomers.