The Copley Condominium (New York City, New York)

 condominiums, high-rise, Streamline Moderne (architecture), apartments, 1987_construction

285-foot, 28-story postmodern-Art Deco residential building completed in 1987. Designed by Davis, Brody & Associates, it is clad in alternating bands of tan brick spandrels (lined at the top and bottom by rounded stone courses) and ribbon bands of windows with mostly tripartite windows of reflective glass separated by darker panes of glass. The building has notable rounded corners.

The ground floor is clad in rusticated pre-cast beige stone, with a grey granite water table and a wide, tan-brick band along the top; this band is crested by a thinner band of beige stone, lined with three rounded, projecting courses. The main entrance is at the north end on Broadway, with bronze-and-glass double-doors set in a paneled bronze-and-glass wall and covered by a bronze marquee that recedes back in two steps to the south. The south half of the ground floor has a 4-bay storefront, with paired plate-glass windows, and glass-and-metal double-doors in the 2nd of these bays from the south. The far south end has another storefront bay that is recessed under a black metal canopy where it meets the rounded southwest corner. The south facade on 68th Street has six square bays of plate-glass show-windows, a storefront entrance with glass-and-metal sliding doors below a black metal canopy, and then three more bays of show-windows. At the east end there is a grey metal service door, an entrance to the underground parking garage, and a freight entrance with a roll-down metal gate. The tan brick band atop the ground floor is replaced at the east end by a wide row of metal vents. There is a large roof deck on top of the ground floor at the east end, enclosed by metal railings. The tower is also set back somewhat from the north end of the ground floor.

Along Broadway both the north and south corners of the tower are rounded, and there is a setback above the 9th floor. On the north facade, the alternating window and spandrel bands continue around the rounded corner and extend a short ways back where they run into a short, flat section extending north; this section has a bay of tripartite windows with glass spandrels between floors. The rest of the west facade extends up to a final setback below the top floor; the north end section (containing the building core) rises straight up to above the main roof line, where it merges with the trapezoid-shaped rooftop enclosure (also brick-clad and with rounded corners) for the mechanical equipment. There are no openings on the north facade of the brick-clad core.

The setback above the 9th floor wraps around the southwest corner, ending about a third of the way along the south facade in another rounded corner. The set-back floors above and to the east rise up to the top setback at the west end, to a lower setback above the 22nd floor in the middle, and to a setback above the 11th floor at the east. These setbacks end about two-thirds of the way across the south facade, but with angled ends instead of rounded corners. The east end of the south facade continues to a rounded southeast corner, with the east half of this section setting back above the 6th floor. There are two additional setbacks at the east end above the 15th & 25th floors.

The most interesting aspect of the building is on the east facade. It is symmetrical with the same rounded corners and setbacks above the 6th, 15th, & 25th floor on both the north and south ends, while the middle section projects forward and breaks the banding that envelops most of the rest of the tower. It has a curtain wall of grey metal and glass, two bays wide, with sloped 2-story sections at each setback, giving it the appearance of a cascading waterfall. The north facade continues the banded pattern, with a rounded section joining the east part of the facade to the brick core the projects to the north.

The building contains 160 condominium units.