The Cardinal

 apartment building, Renaissance Revival (architecture)

Apartment building designed by Emery Roth and built in 1925 in a Renaissance Revival style with Spanish Colonial detail elements. Known as “The Cardinal” at the time of its construction, was an apartment hotel marketed as “complete one-room apartments” providing “the comfort of a spacious apartment in a single room, foyer, serving pantry and bath.” Advertisements noted the units as “perfect one-room homes.” Some two-room suites were also available. Matching terra cotta ornament can be seen at 52 Riverside Drive, designed by Deutsch & Schneider.

The building’s significant features are: primarily burned red brick with terra-cotta and masonry details including rectangular blocks at outer edges of first and second stories, molded window and door surrounds at first, second, 14th and 15th stories, molded sills on small brackets at second story, and round-arched lintels with small corbels and slightly projecting balconettes at outer bays at 15th story; continuous, elaborate polychrome terra-cotta enframements at the central bays of the third and 13th stories, featuring pilasters, figures, helmets, finials, shields, bracketed balconettes, and other motifs; polychrome terra-cotta panels with floral details between 14th- and 15th-story window openings; heads set into roundels between first and second stories and fourth and fifth stories; winged figures at outer edges between second and third stories and at 15th story; ogee arched main entry surround featuring ogee-shaped spandrel panel with stylized details; granite base trim capped by molded masonry water table.