Dorilton Apartments ARCHITECT: Janes & Leo DATE: 1900-02 STYLE: Beaux-Arts Architecturally the Dorilton is one of the finest Beaux-Arts buildings in Manhattan and displays exceptionally handsome detail. It is twelve stories high, built of brick and limestone, and expresses the theme, popular at that time, of base, shaft, and capital, reminiscent of the column. The base consists of two stories of rusticated limestone surmounted by one floor of alternating bands of brick and limestone, crowned by a balustrade carried on heavy brackets which are paired for vertical emphasis at certain points, above which rises the higher shaft portion of brick trimmed with limestone cornerstones, or quoins, thus establishing three vertical pavilions expressed by the greater height of their roof lines. This portion is, in turn, crowned by the ninth floor which repeats the horizontal banding of brick and limestone which is also found directly beneath it. Above this a transitional floor, emphasizing the vertical, forms a base for the capital, or top portion of the building, a very high two-and-a-half story convex mansard roof replete with copper crestings at the tops of the three corner pavilion section

Dorilton Apartments, ca. 1975. This 1902 apartment building, designed by Janes & Leo, is an opulent Beaux-Arts structure. Prominent architectural features include a limestone and brick facade, decorative terra cotta, richly balustraded balconies, and a three-story, copper and slate mansard roof. The 71st Street entrance is monumental; the large gated opening leads into a courtyard that is bridged by an arch at the ninth story. Architectural historian Andrew Alpern remarked on its "overblown ostentation" in his 1996 book, Historic Manhattan Apartment Houses. When the building was completed one critic complained of the "detestable spirit that reigns throughout...\[and] sets the sensitive spectator's teeth on edge."

Take a walk in the beautiful Upper West Side. Start at Columbus Circle and discover the cultural and religious landmarks and the extravagant apartment buildings of this affluent neighborhood.