Prospect Towers (New York City, New York)

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258-foot, 22-story Tudor/Neo-Gothic cooperative-apartment building completed in 1928. Designed by H. Douglas Ives and the Fred F. French Company, it is part of the famous Tudor City complex across from the United Nations at the far east end of 42nd Street. It is the northernmost of the three large towers that create a backdrop for the entire development. The towers resemble each other to a high degree: each is arranged with three large brown-brick pavilions encrusted at the top and bottom with stone and terra-cotta ornament; these pavilions are separated by entrance courts (or an equivalent) and lined with shops and services on the ground floor. The terra-cotta at Prospect Tower is a pale-yellow hue, in contrast to the white color at Tudor Tower to the south.

Because the street level of Tudor City Place is set higher than First Avenue on the east side, the building officially has 22 floors on the west facade, while the corresponding "ground floor" on the east side begins atop a 2-story retaining wall base. The east facade lacks the elaborate ornament of the west side and has fewer, smaller windows, since at the time of its construction it faced an undesirable area of slaughterhouses and glue factories.

The middle pavilion of the west facade on Tudor City Place has two deeply-recessed center bays in pointed-arches. The main entrance is at the rear of the southern of these two, with a bronze-and-glass revolving door; the other bay has an arched stained-glass triple-window and stone tracery above brick. A rounded, green canvas canopy extends out over the sidewalk from the entry bay, and both bays are topped by drip moldings that join between the bays in a pointed-arch above a vertical terra-cotta panel. The spandrels below the moldings and above the arches are filled with floral and other carvings. The outer two bays of the center pavilion have narrow, paired pointed-arch windows at the ground floor, with shields above them, and three pairs of iron lanterns are mounted on the walls of the ground floor. A band course with Tudor roses caps the ground floor. The 2nd-4th floors have triple casement windows in the middle two bays, and single-casements in the end bays, with the stone cladding extending to the top of the 4th floor. Thin stone mullions divide the triple-windows, and the spandrels between floors at the middle bays have repeating quatrefoil designs. A pair of shell cartouches cap both of these bays at the 4th floor. The triple-windows change to paired casement windows at the 5th floor, with simpler, quoined terra-cotta surrounds at all four bays on the 5th-6th floors.

The ground floor at the south pavilion has a recessed, wooden commercial door, and then two bays of multi-pane commercial windows, the southern end bay not as wide as the middle bay. The ground floor at the north pavilion has a central, wide, segmental-arched storefront bay with a recessed glass door set between show-windows. To the north is a narrower, segmental-arched show-window, and to the south is a similar bay, but with a glass door inserted next to a window pane. At both the north and south pavilions the upper floors have five bays of casement windows, with the middle three grouped closer together, and set in terra-cotta surrounds with slender colonnettes from the 2nd-4th floors, along with arcaded spandrels. The outer bays have simpler, quoined surrounds, joined from the 2nd-3rd floors, with quatrefoil spandrels arranged in a cloverleaf shape. At the base of the 5th floor the four pairs of colonnettes have small capitals that carry a band of small, pointed-arches and a cornice, above which there is a somewhat smaller terra-cotta surround for the middle three bays topped by a drip molding, with half-octagonal pillars framing the bays - the two in the middle are taller, topped by finials that reach the tops of the windows. The simpler terra-cotta surrounds continue at the outer bays of the 5th floor.

The three main pavilions are separated by a pair of light courts. The northern one has a central, quatrefoil-shaped brick planter, and the southern one has a 1-story secondary entrance set not quite as far back, with a doorway flanked by two set of four narrow stained-glass windows with upper transom panes. A short, angled roof tops this section, with the rear wall of the light court rising above. Both rear walls have three bays of casement windows, and the side walls have two casement windows on the inner-facing walls, with a paired-window bay, smaller bathroom window bay, and a single-window bay on the outer-facing walls. These also have simple terra-cotta, quoined surrounds at the lower floors.

Narrow string courses cross the entire facade, including the light wells, above the 14th, 18th, and 20th floors. Within the light wells, the middle bay on the rear wall has terra-cotta surrounds at the 19th & 20th floors, and all three bays at the 21st. The north and south pavilions also have similar surrounds at the middle bays on the 19th-21st floors, with projecting stone parapets with central gables topped by finials. To either side are brick parapets around the 21st-floor roof lines. The center pavilion rises higher. It has terra-cotta cladding at the outer bays of the 19th-21st floors (where they change from single- to double-windows. The 22nd floor has triple-height casement windows in two triple-window configurations in the middle and double-windows at the ends. The front edge of the side elevations of the center pavilion have the same cladding at these floors (with a single-window and small bathroom window at the 19th-20th floors, and triple-windows at the triple-height 22nd floor). A colonnade tops the 22nd floor, with large finials rising up from the piers, and an enormous cartouche at the center, depicting a windmill on a checkerboard field framed with lions, an eagle, and the word "Veritas". Behind this, at the rear of the tower, is a narrow mechanical penthouse, clad in brick, with a double-height window at the front, and a pitched roof with finials and crenelations. A very large neon sign reading "TUDOR CITY', installed early in the project and visible from far to the west on 42nd Street, remains on the south roof.

The rear facade looming over First Avenue rises above a plain, 3-story stone base built up to the level of Tudor City Place. The brick facade above has three widely-spaced bays of casement windows in the middle with two widely-spaced bays of narrower casement at either end. The only ornament are a few string courses at the top floors.

The south facade above 42nd Street is also placed atop a retaining wall, with the sandstone "ground floor" starting at the level of Tudor City Place. It has four large bays of multi-pane windows. The upper floors have four bays of paired casement windows, with the west bay separated by a bay of small bathroom windows, and the middle two bays placed closer together. The main bays all have quoined, stone surrounds at the 2nd-5th floors, and again at the 21st.

The north facade has a matching design, but the ground floor has unequal-width bays, and a metal service door at the east end. The ground floor is occupied by Tudor Farm Inc. market and deli, & Tudor Cleaners at the north side, and Tudor City Steakhouse at the south side. The building contains 403 apartments.