Edna Court

 apartment building  Add category

155-foot, 14-story Italian-Renaissance cooperative-apartment building completed in 1925. Designed by Emery Roth, it is clad in reddish-brown brick with multi-colored glazed terra-cotta ornament above a rusticated limestone ground floor and basement. There is a matching twin building to the south called Chester Court.

The main entrance in centered on the north facade on 90th Street, with black wood-and-glass double-doors below a rounded, red canvas canopy extending out over the sidewalk, set in a round-arch edged in a floral pattern. To the right are 10 bays of single-windows and a wider one at the end. As the street slopes down toward the west, the basement level becomes exposed, with grated openings below five of the window bays. At the west end is a gated service entrance. To the left is a small double-window with a wrought-iron grate, followed by two small, square openings set up high, and a plate-glass storefront at the east end. The ground floor along the avenue is lined with metal-and-glass storefronts below varied canvas awnings. The ground floor is capped by a band course with a row of rosettes and dentils.

The upper floors on the north facade span 21 bays of single-windows, the end bays spaced wider apart and with wider windows. The 3rd floor is a flourish of color, with projecting terra-cotta on the piers and in arches above the windows, in blues, oranges, and pale greens. Vases, leaves, and other ornament decorates the piers, with rosettes between the arches and cowskulls and garlands over the arches. There are balustrades on fields of blue below each window, with panels of more ornament below each pier, with scroll-like forms below them. The 4th floor has surrounds with rope moldings at the windows.

The 11th floor is set off by an ornamented band course and has 2-story terra-cotta surrounds ending in round arches at the 12th floor, except at the end bays. There are roundels within the arches, and elaborate, multi-colored spandrel panels between the two floors. Another band course sets off the 14th floor. The roof cornice that crowns the building to the south is missing from this one.

The east facade on the avenue spans 12 bays, with the end bays again wider and spaced farther apart. There is the same ornament as seen on the south facade. The south facade lacks the ornament of the two main facades. There is a light well in the middle.

The buildng was converted to a co-op in 1981, with 108 apartments. The ground floor along the avenue is occupied by Uncle Luoyang restaurant, Mido restaurant, West Side Conveniences, Amsterdam Cleaners, Edible Arrangements, and Chick Chick restaurants.