Tiffany House, ca. 1900. This stunning house on the northwest corner of East 72nd Street and Madison Avenue was commission by Charles Lewis Tiffany, the founder and owner of jewelry store,Tiffany & Co. in 1882. Tiffany hired the firm of McKim, Mead and White, who ended up working closely with Tiffany's son, Louis Comfort Tiffany (LCT) on the design and logistics of the massive 57-room home. Designed in a number of styles, the largely Romanesque and Queen Anne architecture suggested it was one single structure, when it was, in fact, four buildings stacked on top of each other around a courtyard. Different family members, such as LCT, his sisters and their families resided in the different "apartments" within the complex. Unsurprisingly the home was extravagantly decorated with stained glass, antique lacquerware, collections of porcelain, decorative metalwork, and exotic ornamentation. The home featured decoration created and designed by not only Tiffany, but his associates: Lockwood de Forest, who directed the production of architectural woodwork; glass worker John La Farge; and the sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The same group had recently finished work on the interiors of the Seventh Regiment Armory on Park Avenue. By the 1890s financial issues resulted in a number of the "apartments" being rented out by non-Tiffany family (though still upper class family friends). Louis Comfort Tiffany died in this home in 1933 and the house was demolished in 1936.

Rosario Candela played a major role in shaping the architectural legacy of 20th-century Manhattan: the distinctive "prewar apartment buildings that define the cityscapes of streets like Park and Fifth Avenues and Sutton Place." Even today, almost a century after they were built, Candela's buildings rank among the most prized in the city.

19 East 72nd Street, 1937. The subtle Art Moderne apartment house that now stands on the lot of the former Tiffany mansion was designed by Mott B. Schmidt and Rosario Candela. Built immediately upon the razing of the old mansion (1936-1937) in the middle of the Great Depression, the limestone upper facade of the apartment house creates simple, clean lines, described by the AIA Guide to New York City as "succulent." The only highly decorative feature is the sculptural stonework around the main entrance, designed and carved by C. P. Jennewien and featuring classical figures and animals.

Empty lot at the northwest corner of Madison Avenue and East 72nd Street, 1936. The Tiffany mansion had recently been demolished.

Rosario Candela played a major role in shaping the architectural legacy of 20th-century Manhattan. Candela's elegant yet understated high rises created the look of New York urbanism between the world wars. This walking tour takes you through some of Candela's iconic buildings on the Upper East Side.

Replacing the ornate home of Charles Lewis Tiffany at the corner of Madison Avenue and 72nd Street, 19 East 72nd Street was one of the few apartment buildings Candela completed during the Great Depression. Stripped down to simple, stone surfaces with minimal ornamentation, the structure showed the rising influence of Modernism on American architecture and design. The curved profile of the building's lower three floors copied the Austrian Pavilion that Viennese architect and designer Josef Hoffmann had designed for the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris.