Essex House (New York City, New York)

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121-foot, 11-story Tudor/Gothic-style cooperative-apartment building completed in 199. Designed by H. Douglas Ives, it is part of the Tudor City complex. It has a limestone ground floor, topped by two 10-story blocks separated by a light court in the middle. The upper floors are clad in red brick and limestone and terra-cotta.

At the center, the 1-story entrance porch that connects the two wings of the building has two segmental-arches lined with Tudor rosettes; the wood-and-leaded-glass double-doors are deeply recessed behind the arches, in front of which are three interesting light fixtures on iron stands that spring from granite plinths. There is flagstone paving within the entry porch, and a stone bench built into one side. The top of the entry section has a band of ribbons, a pair of swans at the ends, a shield in the middle flanked by Gothic lettering spelling "ESSEX HOUSE", as well as two griffins, and three smaller shields on either side of the central one.

The ground floor of the west wing has a bay of Tudor-arched triple-windows, followed by a single-window, two bays of Tudor-arched quadruple-windows, another single-window, and an end bay of Tudor-arched triple-windows. All of the multiple window groups have drip moldings. The 2nd & 3rd floors have two paired window bays in the middle (with many small panes), followed by a small single-window, and end bays with square openings with casement windows. The 4th-8th floors have wide casement windows in the middle bays, similar single-windows, and tripartite windows at the end bays. The top two floors resemble the 2nd-3rd floors, except with a continuation of tripartite windows at the ends, rounded at the top floor.

The ground floor of the east wing has a triple-window bay, two quadruple-window bays, and two more triple-windows, all Tudor-arched and with drip moldings. The 2nd-3rd floors have three bays of paired windows in the middle; to the west is an end bay of square casement windows, and to the east is a small single-window and another squared opening. The 4th-8th floors have wide openings in the middle three bays, and triple-windows in the end bays, while the top two floors resemble the 2nd-3rd, but with triple-windows at the ends.

At both wings, the end bays are clad in terra-cotta and have thin, projecting mullions dividing the triple-windows at the 4th-10th floors, with wider, angled, projecting bands framing these windows. These vertical bands are supported by corbels in the form of winged grotesques at the top of the 3rd floor. In the end bays, the spandrels between the 4th-7th floors are metal, adorned with various floral imagery and medallions. The middle bays at the 2nd-3rd floors and 9th-10th floors are edges in terra-cotta quoins, and they have terra-cotta spandrels. Thin cornices separate the 4th-8th floors from those below and above. The roof line is marked by a decorative balustrade.

The inner-facing side walls of both wings are clad in brick, and both have a variety of window sizes. The cornices and balustrades also cross these facades. The end facade are similar and dotted with protruding air-conditioning units.

The building contains 94 apartments.