NYU 29 Washington Square West Apartments (New York City, New York)

 university, apartment building

150-foot, 15-story Neo-Gothic residential building completed in 1927. Designed by Gronenberg & Leuchtag, it spans eight bays across the east facade (two of the bays with three windows each and the rest with double-windows), and six bays on the north facade (one single-window bay, and one triple-window bay, with the rest having paired windows). Aside from the front door and balconies at the center of the eleventh floor, the brown brick walls are unrelieved except for horizontal band courses and stone quoins at the corners. At the top floor the central group of windows is surmounted by blind Gothic arches, above which a classical cornice terminates the front wall at the 15th floor.

The main entrance is at the center of the Washington Square West facade, spanning two bays with limestone and marble. A metal awning extends out over the sidewalk, suspended by four cables attached to the 2nd floor by sculpted iron lion's heads. Above the awning, both bays at the 2nd floor have a trio of Gothic arches, framed by Corinthian columns and having pineapple urns extending above the band course at he base of the 3rd floor.

Eleanor Roosevelt took an apartment here in 1942; it was her main residence from FDR's death in 1945 until 1949. NYU enjoyed a long and fruitful friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt, who departed the White House in 1942. Roosevelt delivered lectures and speeches to NYU students from 1930-50, speaking on subjects from racial equality on campus to military preparedness and the importance of the United Nations. She helped community members in their efforts to close Washington Square Park to traffic, all while hosting dinner parties for her fellow U.N. delegates at her apartment.

The building was purchased in September 2017 by New York University.

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www.nyu.edu/content/dam/nyu/facultyHousing/documents/Fo...