Windsor Tower (New York City, New York)

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259-foot, 25-story Tudor/Neo-Gothic cooperative-apartment building completed in 1928. Designed by H. Douglas Ives and the Fred F. French Company, it is the grandest building in the famous Tudor City complex across from the United Nations at the far east end of 42nd Street. It is the southernmost 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. Windsor Tower, however, is much deeper than the other two, extending farther to the east.

Because the street level of Tudor City Place is set higher than First Avenue on the east side, there are only 22 floors on the west facade, opposed to 25 on the east. At the west facade the outer pavilions have four large bays of segmental-arched windows across the ground floor, with service doors incorporated into two of them. Two more matching window bays run across the ground floor in front of the south light court. The middle pavilion has three much smaller bays of narrow, paired Tudor-arch windows of leaded-glass, below drip moldings. The main entrance is in the ground floor below the north light court, and has an arched doorway with a bronze-and-glass door below a rounded, green canvas canopy extending out over the sidewalk. Carved Gothic lettering above reads "Windsor Tower", flanked by figures of hunters. The entry is flanked by a smaller bay on either side, each with a secondary door. Projecting stone piers separate these three bays, extending up to frame an open-arched stone screen at the 2nd floor; here the two pillars have niches and end in elaborate finials. The north pavilion has another four wide bays of segmental-arched windows.

The upper floors of each pavilion have two middle bays of paired windows, and end bays of single-windows, each multi-paned casements. The middle bays are completely enframed by terra-cotta surrounds with slender colonnettes and arcaded spandrels at the 2nd-4th floors of the north and south pavilions, and large quatrefoils in the center pavilion's spandrels. The end bays have keyed terra-cotta frames at the 2nd-4th floors, and also at the 5th floor of the center pavilion. The north and south pavilions have arcaded pointed-arches across the tops of the terra-cotta area at the 4th floors (carrying a projecting cornice with three squat finials), with smaller terra-cotta surrounds at the middle bays of the 5th floor. The center pavilion has thinner terra-cotta surrounds at the middle bays of the 5th-6th floors, with stars in the spandrels between these floors, and ogees and finials at the top of the 6th floor. A terra-cotta string course tops the 4th floor, with some quoin blocks at the corners.

The rear walls of the light courts have three bays of large casement windows, and the side walls have two bays of narrower casements, with a bay of small bathroom windows in between. The terra-cotta ornament is continued on the 2nd-4th floors. An additional string course tops the 14th floor, with a broader band course above the 18th floor that marks the beginning of the ornament at the upper levels.

The 7-story top of the brown-brick building is festooned with terra-cotta finials, projecting, rounded piers and multi-pane casement windows - some triple-height - giving the appearance of a Tudor palace on steroids, or at least stilts. The center pavilion has four large projecting piers, each ending in a tall finial above the roof line, where there is a quatrefoil band and an oversized central cartouche. The north and south pavilions both have three central, projecting piers, and a corner pier at each end, also with finials; the end bays set back above the 21st floor. The triple-height windows are at the 22nd floor. Crowning the center of the roof is a mechanical penthouse pavilion with gables, a slate roof, and a central cupola with a weathervane.

The base of the east facade facing First Avenue has a double-height, limestone pointed-arch arcade, with the lower halves of the arches open to the arcade and the upper halves having metal pointed-arch tripartite windows above metal spandrels. There are 14 total arches, with an additional end bay on each end having a segmental-arched opening at the ground floor, and a window above with a molded surround. The piers between each bay have granite plinths and brick panels, and between each arch at the 2nd floor is a white, round terra-cotta medallion with a spiral trefoil. In place of a metal spandrel, one of the bays at the center has a stone panel with red terra-cotta dragons and lettering reading "Windsor Tower - Designed * Constructed * Financed * and ** Managed by * The Fred * F * French * Company".

The upper floors are set off by a thin string course and have two bays of paired casement windows at the 3rd-5th floors, followed to either side by a wider casement window, two more such bays that have keyed stone surrounds (as well as stone spandrels between the 3rd & 4th floors), two more plain casement window bays, another paired window bay, and an end bay of narrower casement windows. Another string course caps the 5th floor, above which two light wells divide the facade into (nearly) three sections. The middle one has two paired window bays in the center, with single casement window end bays. The outer sections are similar, but with an additional set of small bathroom windows next to one of the paired windows. The rear walls of the two light wells have one wide casement window, and end bay that are not quite as wide. The sidewalls of the light wells each have one bay of casement windows.

Limestone window enframements are repeated along the top, along with setbacks and details resembling the treatment at the front.

The north and south facades have four middle bays of paired windows (shifted slightly to the west), and end bays of single casement windows, with small bathroom windows in between. The south facade's base, to the west of the arcaded, covered passageway, has five bays of double-height pointed-arches like those on the east facade, but with glass infill instead of openings at the ground floor (one has a set of service doors instead).

Windsor Tower is the largest (although not the tallest) Tudor City unit, with 787 apartments. The north end of the ground floor along Tudor City Place is occupied by Tudor City Cafe, and Gatherings Floral Design. This building served at the setting for Harry Osborn's Penthouse from the "Spiderman" films.

usmodernist.org/AF/AF-1930-09-1.pdf