175 West 79th Street

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177-foot, 16-story Renaissance-revival residential building completed in 1927. Designed by George F. Pelham, it is clad in tan brick above a 2-story limestone base with a grey granite water table. The main entrance is centered on the south facade, with glass-and-black-wood double-doors and a transom recessed within a stone molding framed by pilasters decorated with varied Renaissance ornament and topped by stylized capitals featuring lions heads, supporting an entablature with crowns, garlands, and rosettes, surmounted by a dentiled cornice. On either side is a high-set, narrow window covered by an iron grille, above which are small lanterns. To the west there are four single-windows with sloped, dark-red canvas awnings, and a plate-glass storefront at the end, with a wider awning. To the east there are four single-windows, with a wood-and-glass door in the middle, atop a few stone steps. The 2nd floor a center bay with a single-window, flanked by a paired-window bay, then a bay of three single-windows, and end bays with single-windows; this pattern is repeated on all the upper floors. Framing the center window at the 2nd floor are scrolls flanked by urns, and there is a small shield flanked by rosettes in top. A very thin dentil course extends to either side, and the base is capped by a modillioned stone band course.

The upper floors have stone sills at each window, with those at the 3rd floor having beveled terra-cotta surrounds with small shields at the tops. The end bays at the 3rd floor have larger surrounds, topped by tall lintels with larger shields, which are surmounted by dentiled cornices and curving pediments broken by the bases of the 4th-floor end bay windows. At the 7th floor the bays of three windows are fronted by projecting terra-cotta balconies, both carried on four console brackets and with the front walls decorated with Renaissance ornament. The 10th floor has a similar but shorter balcony at the center bay (with paired end brackets), and the end bays at the 4th floors has even shorter balconies at the 14th floor, which is set off by a terra-cotta band course. Above these end-bay balconies are full surrounds at the windows, topped by shields and broken pediments surrounding the bases of the 15th-floor windows; these match the ones seen at the 3rr floor. The lower roof line at the 15th floor is marked by a terra-cotta cornice with modillions, an egg-and-dart molding, and cresting along the top. A penthouse level is set back above the roof cornice, faced in white stone.

The ground floor along the avenue is lined with varied metal-and-glass storefronts between the piers. The upper floors are not quite symmetrical, with wider single-windows at the end bays, and eight single-windows in the middle, the southern three grouped closer together, and the rest unevenly spaced. All of the ornament matches the south facade.

The north facade is clad in plain brick, and has a bay of single-windows at the west edge. The east facade, facing a narrow alleyway, is clad in lighter brick and has numerous bays of single-windows and smaller bathroom windows.

The building contains 74 apartment units. The ground floor along the avenue is occupied by Amsterdam Gourmet grocery store, Saba's Pizza, The Great Burrito, and Insomnia Cookies.