Carnegie Plaza

 condominium, 1925_construction, Renaissance Revival (architecture)

166-foot, 16-story Renaissance-revival residential building completed in 1925. Designed by Robert T. Lyons, it is clad in dark-red brick above a 2-story limestone base. The ground floor along the avenue is lined with various metal, glass, and stone storefronts. On the north facade on 56th Street, next to the storefront at the west end, there are two bays of display-windows. The east side of the ground floor has the main entrance with wood-and-glass double-doors with many small panes framed by an elaborate stone molding with carved garlands and urns across the top, and floral themes along the sides. The doors are covered by a rounded, grey canvas canopy. Immediately to the left is a glass double-door to a commercial suite, and a window, both covered by another rounded, grey canvas canopy. The east end is painted white and has a large many-paned window with blue wooden framing, next to a small 1-story extension that has a gated stairway entrance to a restaurant space, next to a small, high-set window with blue wooden shutters.

The upper floors on the north facade, including the top floor of the base, have six main bays of windows, with a bay of small bathroom windows inserted between the 2nd & 3rd bays from the east. The end bays have narrow double-windows, and the middle bays have paired windows. There is a projecting band course above the 2nd-floor windows. At the 3rd floor each of the main bays has a stone surround, edged with rope moldings. There are stone spandrel panels with carved griffins flanking shields between the 4th & 5th floors at the middle bays, and at the end bays between each floor are fields of projecting bricks. Some of the windows have protruding air-conditioning units, and others have vents cut below them. The windows at the 13th-14th floors are set in double-height stone arches, with round-arched windows at the 14th floor, and spandrels each with rows of three carved arches. Engaged, round columns divide the paired windows at these floors. Projecting stone balconies front the 13th-floor windows at the middle bays. The 15th floor is topped by a stone cornice with a row of joined arches. The penthouse level at the 16th floor is setback on all sides and not visible from the street.

The west facade on the avenue matches the north facade, except for the lack of the bay of small bathroom windows. The east facade is also clad in brick and has two bays of single-windows at the north end, followed by four bays of double-windows. A black metal fire escape runs down the single-window bays.

The buildng was converted from rental apartments to condominiums in 1987, with 65 units. The ground floor is occupied by Souvlaki GR restaurant, a few medical offices in the Professional Suites, Cafe Metro, Dean Leather & Luggage, Cleo Nicci Eyewear, and a Subway sandwiches.