FDR Drive, north of 78th Street, ca. 1979. The City and Suburban Homes Company was a firm established in 1896 whose goal was to create humanely designed tenements that produce a substantial profit. In 1901 they began filling the block between 78th and 79th and York and First Avenue. The block would eventually include 13 model tenements. The one outlier on the block was the building at the northwest corner of 78th Street and the East River. Constructed in 1910-1912 as a joint project with the Junior League of New York, the building was called the Junior League Hotel for Working Women, and was a residence specifically for single women. Designed by Philip Ohm, in a simple style with neo-Renaissance features. The original entrance was facing the water on what was then quiet Exterior Street (now elevated and noisy FDR Drive). In 1913, there were 317 residents including 40 stenographers, 32 dressmakers, 18 librarians, 14 milliners and 5 telegraphers. In 1978-1980 the building was converted into apartments and after threats of demolition in the 1980s, the building was lanmarked in 1990. Today the building remains residential, though the entrance now sits , safely, on East 78th Street.

Octagon Tower, ca. 1970. The Blackwell's Island Asylum opened in 1839. The first lunatic asylum in the city of New York and the first municipal mental hospital in the country, the facility on Blackwell's Island (later Welfare, now Roosevelt Island) was designed by Alexander Jackson Davis. Nearly from its opening the institution was plagued by overcrowding, under-funding, and scandals. In 1887 Nellie Bly, a reporter, entered the hospital under the guise of insanity on assignment from newspaperman Joseph Pulitzer. Her resulting report, later published as "Ten Days in a Mad-House," exposed and embarrassed the institution and was a major factor in its closure. Beginning in 1894, the institution slowly emptied, continuing until the final patients were moved to new facilities in 1901. The building was then taken over by Metropolitan Hospital, which remained on the island through 1955. The Octagon Tower is the only surviving structure of the original building. It was the main entrance to the Asylum. After the Metropolitan Hospital vacated the building in the 1950s it remained vacant and was left to deteriorate. The wings of the structure were demolished and the Octagon Tower was in rough shape (seen here) when it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. In the early 2000s the building was restored and opened as the entrance to a pair of large adjacent apartment buildings.

10 Gracie Square ca. 1945 One of the most exclusive and prestigious addresses in New York 10 Gracie Square on 84th street and the east river overlooking Carl Schurz Park was designed by Pennington and Lewis in 1930. Vincent Astor the developer of Gracie Square wanted to create a new upper class residential district. Gloria Vanderbuilt, conductor Andre Kostelanetz, critic Alexander Woolcott, publishers John Fairchild and Horace Havemayer III were a few of the residents of the 42 large duplex apartments. The exterior is red brick except for the main façade in limestone with an "asymmetrical fenestration" pattern. The intriguing rooftop loggia made from square columns and chimneys sets it apart as the grandest and most desirable residence.