New York Apartment Buildings Coming Full Circle

Architectural styles in NYC have gone from lavish to bland and back again.

1 minute read

April 4, 2004, 11:00 AM PDT

By Peter Christiansen


The luxury apartment was invented in New York City. Beautiful, flourishing buildings like the Asonia and the Dakota caused the shift in upper class dwellings from townhomes to apartments between the 1870s to the 1930s. But recently, due to costs, construction techniques, and lack of creativity on the part of developers, glorious architecture is conspicuously absent from many new apartments. Most new buildings are drab rectangular boxes with little to entice on the outside, despite luxuroius decorations inside. However, some new buildings with more extravagant architecture are selling out at above average prices, which may inspire more developers to put more into their buildings and improve the face of the city.

Thanks to Peter Christensen

Tuesday, March 16, 2004 in Slate

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