Columbus Townhouses (New York City, New York)

 condominiums, townhouses, 1989_construction

6-story Postmodern residential building completed in 1989. Designed by Joseph Wasserman, it is clad in the same materials as the highrise facing Columbus Avenue, and the corresponding low-rise condos across the block on 90th Street. The facade is alternately clad in red brick and six projecting sections (with angled ends) of beige stone tiling, each corresponding to a separate entrance, giving the building to impression of a long row of townhouses.

The six stone sections each extend from the ground floor to the 4th, where they are capped by balconies with red metal railings between stone posts. To the right of each section is a 2nd-floor entrance and a right-angled box stoop, also clad in beige stone. The entrances, fronted by landings at the tops of the stoops, are recessed, and numbered 103-113, with paneled wooden doors between sidelights and narrow transoms framed in red metal. There is red grout in the scoring between the stone tiles of the stoop, and each has red metal railings on the sidewalls, with the posts topped by stone orbs. There are also gated, ground-level entrances in the side of each stoop. The projecting stone sections each have a wide window on the front, and narrower single-windows on the angled ends (except for the east ends on the lower two floors, where the stoop and entrances abut).

The non-projecting red-brick sections have single-windows above the entrances, and paired windows to the right on the lower two floors, with three windows on the 3rd-5th floors. Some of these have metal vents below them (as do the wide windows in the stone sections), and all of the ground-floor windows have red metal grilles. A grey stone band course caps the 5th floor, dropping down to a cutout with red metal railings above each projecting section and above the window trios in the brick sections. The 6th floor is set back above, faced in light-grey stone with bays of triple-windows and single-windows in projecting dormers. There are roof terraces on top. There is also one stone projecting section on the west facade facing the adjoining garden.