Tudor Tower (New York City, New York)

 Tudor (architecture), apartment building

259-foot, 22-story Tudor/Neo-Gothic cooperative-apartment building completed in 1928. Designed by H. Douglas Ives and the Fred F. French Company, it is part of the famous Tudor City complex across from the United Nations at the far east end of 42nd Street. It is the middle building of the three large towers that create a backdrop for the entire development. The towers resemble each other to a high degree: each is arranged with three large brown-brick pavilions encrusted at the top and bottom with white stone and terra-cotta ornament; these pavilions are separated by entrance courts (or an equivalent) and lined with shops and services on the ground floor. The terra-cotta at Tudor Tower is white, in contrast to the more pale-yellow hue at Prospect Tower to the north.

Because the street level of Tudor City Place is set higher than First Avenue on the east side, the building officially has 22 floors on the west facade, while the corresponding "ground floor" on the east side begins atop a 3-story retaining wall base. The east facade lacks the elaborate ornament of the west side and has fewer, smaller windows, since at the time of its construction it faced an undesirable area of slaughterhouses and glue factories.

The middle pavilion of the west facade on Tudor City Place has two deeply-recessed center bays in pointed-arches framed by slender colonnettes. The main entrance is at the rear of the northern of these two, with a bronze-and-glass revolving door; the other bay has a stained-glass and bronze wall. A rounded, green canvas canopy extends out over the sidewalk from the entry bay, and above both are elaborate carvings of Gothic lettering and dragons. The outer two bays in the middle pavilion have matching pointed-arches, these filled by tripartite stained-glass windows with stone tracery. Above them are pairs of shields and ribbons, surmounted by floral bands flanked by dragons. All four bays are separated by buttresses - the outer two extend up to the 3rd floor, while the inner two frame a frontispiece that reaches the 5th floor. The middle two bays have tripartite casement windows at the 2nd-4th floors and paired windows at the 5th floor. The stone mullions separating the tripartite windows narrow and are capped by finials at the stone spandrels below the 5th floor. The buttresses have niches at the 4th floor, with the center one capped by an ornate carved aedicule at the 5th floor, with crocketed finials. The paired windows continue on the upper floors of these two bays. The upper floors of the outer two bays have single casement windows, with quoined stone surrounds at the 2nd-4th floors, and stone spandrels between the 2nd & 3rd floors.

Like Windsor Tower to the south, the outer pavilions have four large segmental-arched bays at the ground floor. Those in the north pavilion are filled by stained-glass, and the south pavilion has storefronts, with doors incorporated into the northern and southernmost bays. The lower floors above the ground floor are more subdued than at the center pavilion, but still have stone and terra-cotta surrounds and ornament. The middle two bays of both outer pavilions have double-windows, with narrow colonnettes framing the bays from the 2nd-4th floors, and the outer bays have single casement windows outlined by quoins. There are also surrounds at the 5th floor's middle bays.

Between the southern two pavilions is a light court with a round brick planter in the middle. The rear wall has three bays of casement windows, and the side walls have two with a small bathroom window bay in between. The ground floor within the light court is stone, and there are terra-cotta surrounds on the windows at the 2nd-4th floors. There is a matching light court to the north, but with a 1-story projection at the ground floor continues the stone facade. It has a recessed secondary entrance with a wooden door; the recesses area has angled side walls and a segmental-arch across the top. To either side is a paired stained-glass window with upper transoms panes, also stained-glass, and there are narrow stained-glass windows in the angled side walls.

Narrow string courses cross the entire facade, including the light wells, above the 14th, 18th, and 20th floors. Within the light wells, the middle bay on the rear wall has terra-cotta surrounds at the 19th & 20th floors, and all three bays at the 21st. The north and south pavilions also have similar surrounds at the middle bays on the 19th-21st floors, with projecting stone parapets with central gables topped by finials. To either side are brick parapets around the 21st-floor roof lines. The center pavilion rises higher. It has terra-cotta cladding at the outer bays of the 19th-21st floors (where they change from single- to double-windows. The 22nd floor has triple-height casement windows in two triple-window configurations in the middle and double-windows at the ends. The front edge of the side elevations of the center pavilion have the same cladding at these floors (with a single-window and small bathroom window at the 19th-20th floors, and triple-windows at the triple-height 22nd floor). A colonnade tops the 22nd floor, with large finials rising up from the piers. Behind this, at the rear of the tower, is a mechanical penthouse and water tower enclosure, clad in brick, with a double-height window at the front, and a pitched roof with finials and crenelations.

The rear facade looming over First Avenue rises above a plain, 3-story stone base built up to the level of Tudor City Place. The brick facade above has a center bay of paired windows; widely spaced to either side are two bays of double-windows and end bays of single-windows. The only ornament are a few string courses at the top floors.

The north facade above 42nd Street also rises from the stone retaining wall of the base. The west end of the "ground floor" (which is at the level of Tudor City Place, but several floors above 42nd Street, which crosses below a bridge) has two wide segmental-arched bays, and the east side has a paired-window bay and a small segmental-arched bay, all with stained-glass. The upper floors have three bays of paired windows at the east side, and a single-window next to a smaller bathroom window at the west end. There are quoined terra-cotta surrounds at the 2nd-4th floors, and at the top (21st) floor - except for at the small window bay.

The south facade is the same on the upper floors. The ground floor has three segmental-arched bays on the left, widest at the west end, and each one narrower, with the eastern two having black metal infill. The east end has a metal service door paired with a window.

The south end of the ground floor is occupied by Conrad's Bike Shop, and Tudor Garden Nail Salon. The building contains 439 apartments.