Manhill Apartments (New York City, New York)

 high-rise, apartment building, 1924_construction, Renaissance Revival (architecture)

180-foot, 15-story Italian Renaissance-revival residential building completed in 1924. Designed Emery Roth, it has a near-twin building to the south that was built a year earlier. Both are clad in buff-colored brick above 2-story painted limestone bases with granite water tables. Both buildings have nearly identical massing and materials, with slight variations in the arrangement of the windows and facade details, most notably the switching of the order of the types of window bays. The north building was originally called The Jerome Palace.

The Manhill's main entrance is at the center of the north facade on 83rd Street. It has recessed bronze-and-glass double-doors set in a surround of floral ornament around a rope molding, with a panel of two garlands and the address of 222 across the top. A black metal canopy, suspended from the mouths of a pair of lions' heads, with garlands around the perimeter, covers the entry. There is also a cartouche above the entry at the top of the 2nd floor. The entrance bay, as well as the paired window bay on the west and storefront entrance on the east, are flanked by slightly-projecting, 2-story pilasters with stylized capitals at the 2nd floor. To the west, the ground floor has only a small vent, and then a stone-and-plate-glass storefront at the end. To the east, a storefront has been added, with a glass door and window next to the main entrance, followed by a small display window and a larger, wide one, all covered by a black canvas box awning. Farther east is a tripartite window, a narrow single-window, and a wider single-window paired with a black metal service door.

The upper floors are organized as three bays of paired windows in the center, flanked by a single-window, two tripartite windows bays, and two single-windows at each end, the outer ones wider. The paired windows and tripartite windows have brick mullions separating them. The three center bays have brick lintels and terra-cotta spandrels with heraldic shields within circles in the centers, surrounded by foliate ornament. At the 11th floor the four tripartite bays are more recessed and separated by rounded columns, and fronted by projecting stone balconies. A band course sets off the 12th floor, where the middle three bays are fronted by a larger stone balcony on scrolled brackets. These three bays have double-height round-arches with terra-cotta pilasters at the edges and a column in the center, and the 13th-floor windows are round-arched. The tripartite bays also have round-arched 13th-floor windows, with 2-story columns dividing them, and spandrels adorned with terra-cotta shields. The end bays at the 12th floor have patterned terra-cotta surrounds. A narrow string course sets off the 14th floor, where there is terra-cotta paneling on the piers between bays. A terra-cotta cornice marks the main roof line at the 14th floor, with a penthouse level set back from each facade. The building wraps around the light court on the south side, and the west wing is crowned by a 2-story mechanical penthouse that looms above the main roof line on the western side. It is clad in the same brick and have a triple-opening on all four faces, round-arched at the top level, with short columns in between. The tower is capped by an Italian tile coping.

The west facade facing the avenue is lined by metal-and-glass storefronts on the ground floor. The upper floors are organized as two bays of paired windows in the center, flanked by single-windows, tripartite windows, and end bays with wider single-windows. The ornament matches that seen on the south facade at each respective floor.

The south facade is also brick, with a 1-story storefront bridging the gap between this building and the complementary building to the south. The west wing has a bay of single-windows at the west edge, with two smaller single-windows near the center, and two larger single-windows at the east edge, with a metal fire escape covering them. The east wing is set farther back, and has double-windows in the center with single-window end bays. The inner walls of the light well are also lined with double- and single-windows. The east facade closest to 83rd Street has one bay of single-windows. There is a shallow light well near the center, and the north side of the east facade has single-windows in a variety of sizes

The building contains 98 units. The storefront on 83rd Street next to the main entrance is occupied by Oxford Cleaners/Tailors, while the ground floor along Broadway is occupied by a Chipotle Mexican Grill.

120 apartment units.