La Premiere Apartments | high-rise, apartment building, 1979_construction, Modern (architecture)

 high-rise, apartment building, 1979_construction, Modern (architecture)

279-foot, 31-story modernist residential building completed in 1979. Designed by Philip Birnbaum & Associates, it is clad in light-brown brick. The 2-story base is angled to follow the line of Broadway and lined with storefronts at the ground floor, as well as an entrance to the underground parking garage at the south end. The 2nd floor has a band of reflective windows and is topped by a broad band of pre-cast concrete. On the north facade on 55th Street there are three bays of plain brick at the east end, also topped by reflective windows at the 2nd floor; the concrete band continues across the full facade. To the west the base is clad in grey granite and has glass double-doors for a small commercial space. There are landscaping areas in front of this facade, enclosed by low brick walls, with a gap leading up to this door. The lobby is at the west end, with double-height glass walls and the main entrance at the chamfered corner, where a single large pier supports the floors above. The lobby's glass walls on the west side look onto a small plaza area with additional landscaping.

The upper floors on the north facade have, from east to west, a bay of double-windows, two bays of single-windows, another bay of double-windows, a wider bay of double-windows with one narrow pane and one wide pane, another bay of double-windows, another wide bay, and a final bay of double-windows. These all have black metal framing, and the five western bays have air-conditioning vents below them. The 2nd bay from the west, a wide one, has projecting concrete balconies with metal railings, beginning at the 4th floor and running up to the roof line.

The east facade on the avenue is set back from the base. It has a north end-bay of double-windows and three wider bays that are angled to follow the base along Broadway. To the south are two more wide bays and an end bay of double-windows that angle back to follow the regular street grid. All of the bays have vents below them, except for the wide bays nearest the end bays, which both have columns of projecting balconies like those on the north facade.

The west elevation has five bays of single-windows, but no balconies. The building contains 230 apartment units. The ground floor along Broadway is occupied by Applejack Diner, 99-Cents Fresh Pizza, Carnegie Hill Pharmacy, and Dunkin', and on 55th Street by Schweiger Dermatology.