[Dorilton Apartments, 171 West 71st Street.]
1975
[Dorilton Apartments, 171 West 71st Street.]
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."