Washington Court

 condominium  Add category

6-story postmodern residential building completed in 1984. Designed by James Stewart Polshek & Partners, it occupies the entire blockfront on the Avenue of the Americas between Waverly Place and Washington Place. The facade is clad in red brick, with limestone storefronts, and stone and terra-cotta trim. The storefronts have paired doors separated by fat columns, both painted pale green.

The massing of the long Sixth Avenue facade breaks the building into three "houses" between the two corners, each of which is defined by a tower. The taller end sections are both separated by a narrow recessed bay. The facade has both 3-over-3 and 3-over-2 windows, grouped into alternating pairs. At the 4th & 5th floors the 3-over-3 windows are framed and united in scored concrete, with a green-painted square between the two floors. Slightly smaller green squares decorate the 2nd & 3rd floors between the main bays.

The 3-over-3 bays terminate at the 5th floor with a stone coping and triangular metal pediment. The rest of the central facade has brick parapets rising slightly higher, with stone copings. The 6th floor is set-back, faced in pre-cast concrete, except for at the end bays, which continue the towers up to a higher brick parapet with stone coping, broken by a notch in the middle. A row of six chimneys line the roof line and are visible from the street.

The sides wings of the building wrap around a large courtyard that has pyramidal skylights and gardens over the subway line running beneath. The ground-floor storefronts are occupied by a CVS Pharmacy, Radio Shack, and Urban Outfitters.