Kitano New York (New York City, New York)

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160-foot, 18-story hotel completed in 1926 as the Murray Apartments. Designed by Feldman Misthopoulos Associates, it is clad in red brick above a 2-story limestone base, capped with a limestone 15th floor and enormous 2-story mansard. The building was sold in 1973 and converted into the city's only Japanese-owned hotel.

The main entrance is centered on the east facade. It is slightly recessed between a pair of pier framed by grey granite supporting a broken triangular pediment above the doorway; a green marble disc fills the circular space at the pediment break. Just below the pediment, a green-and-gold metal canopy extends out over the sidewalk. On either side of the entrance, above the grey granite water table, is a large multi-paned window with grey metal framing and small gold accents patterns. The north facade on 38th Street has four of the same large multi-paned windows, with a small service door built into the left half of the westernmost bay. The two middle bays are grouped closer together, a pattern which is followed on the upper floors. The east facade's four bays are evenly spaced. The 2nd floor has smaller, almost-square paired windows, and the base is capped by a band course.

The upper floors also have almost-square paired windows with stone sills, and small limestone accents on each floor at the piers between the window pairs. The 15th floor is clad in limestone, with a band course at the top and bottom, and a setback to the 3-story crown. The crown consists of a recessed limestone 16th floor, and a towering green copper 2-story mansard. The 16th floor has four large windows with stone surrounds on each facade. The steep mansard has four bays of peaked stone dormers on the east and west facades of the 17th floor, while the top floor has three pairs of smaller copper dormers on the east and west, and two pairs on the north and south.

Above the neighboring townhouses, the west facade matches the east; the south facade is a blank red-brick wall with no setbacks. The adjoining, 5-story former townhouse at the west end contains the Jazz Lounge. The building was originally completed in 1865 as a 4-story brownstone townhouse. In the early 1890s, it was occupied by Mary Dimmock, who would marry former president Benjamin Harrison in 1896. She subsequently moved out, and in 1901 the owner, Fannie J. Byrnes, sold the property to A.B. Emmons, who the firm of Parrish & Schroeder to transform the stern high-stooped Victorian house to an up-to-date Beaux Arts palace. Construction was completed in 1902.

No trace of the former building where Benjamin Harrison courted Mary Dimmock survived. The old stoop was gone and the Emmons family had a limestone-faced, American basement house fit for upper Fifth Avenue. A 2-story bowed bay rose above the entrance and a full-story, steep mansard roof completed the French design. The central entrance on the ground floor is flanked by a pair of segmental-arched windows with keystones and iron grilles. In front, two areaways with landscaping are surrounded by iron railings with rounded corners, bordering the walkway to the entrance. There is a cartouche with the street address above the door, and two large console brackets support the rounded, projecting 2-story bay above. The 2nd-3rd floors have banded limestone at the sides, and tripartite windows in the rounded bay. There are low iron railings at the 2nd floor, which also has transoms, and carved spandrels in between the two floors, with swags and ribbons. A rounded egg-and-dart molding and cornice with a row of small cartouches joined by swags caps the projecting bay. The 4th floor has a narrow double-window in the center, flanked by single-windows. Four pairs of scrolled brackets support a modillioned cornice, which is surmounted by the slate mansard roof of the top floor. The mansard is pierced by a central, elaborate dormer with paneled stone piers and a rounded pediment on top. It is flanked by two simpler, flat dormers.

Emmons only lived in the house for two years, after which it has several different owners. In the late 1940s it was divided into apartments, but only for a few years - in 1950 it was bought by the United States Golf Association to house its museum and headquarters. The former mansion became known as “Golf House,” and would continue its quiet operations here for over two decades until selling in 1972. The house was acquired by The Kitano in 1991, and a restaurant was built into the lower floors, originally called the The Garden Cafe. It was more recently converted into the live music venue Jazz Lounge.

www.kitano.com/