H. I. Feldman's New York Buildings -- page 4

New York Buildings Designed by H. I. Feldman -- page 4
666 W. 188th St. -- Wadsworth Towers, an Art Deco apartment building in Washington Heights

Click on any image to get the full sized view.

666 W. 188th Street is also called "Wadsworth Towers". The building is (mistakenly) identified as "Fort Wadsworth Towers" in "Art Deco Architecture: Design, Decoration, and Detail from the Twenties and Thirties", by Patricia Bayer (Thames & Hudson, London, 1992). It was built in 1928.

The building is situated in the Fort George section of Washington Heights. Topographically, this part of Manhattan is composed of two high ridges running north-south, with a valley laying in between them. On the west ridge is Fort Tryon -- a.k.a. "Hudson Heights", on the east side is Fort George. Between the two ridges, Brodaway runs through the valley from the Battery to the Bronx.

The building is built onto the side of the cliff, high above the valley below, as can be seen in this photo taken from Broadway. Wadsworth Towers is the yellow brick building floating high above the street in the background.

The building is composed of four connected wings; sections of all wings are visible in the photograph here. The building displays several Art Deco flourishes typical for the period, including deocrative horizontal and vertical bands on the windows, as well as a stylized roof treatment. The building entrance lies on W. 181st St., and is very secluded -- there is only one way to drive to the building since the streets in the area are constrained by the hilly topography, and many of them are one-way. An interesting architectural feature are the diagonal chamfers on the roof corners.

The doorway is flanked by an appealing brick structure. The modern aluminum door probably replaced a more attractive brass or wooden door. This photograph was taken on July 22nd, one week after my original photgraph of July 18th. Interestingly, during the intervening week the building had replaced the paper address signs with the nice "Wadsworth Towers" label. The roof decorations are interesting asymmetrical brick ornaments. The asymmetry is unusual for Art Deco.

The brickwork surrounding the windows is very detailed. The roofline shows several Art Deco touches, including the crenelations, and the horizontal banding along the windows.

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The building is composed of four connected wings; sections of all wings are visible in the photograph here. The building displays several Art Deco flourishes typical for the period, including deocrative horizontal and vertical bands on the windows, as well as a stylized roof treatment.	The building entrance lies on W. 181st St., and is very secluded -- there is only one way to drive to the building since the streets in the area are constrained by the hilly topography, and many of them are one-way. An interesting architectural feature are the diagonal chamfers on the roof corners.


The doorway is flanked by an appealing brick structure. The modern aluminum door probably replaced a more attractive brass or wooden door. This photograph was taken on July 22nd, one week after my original photgraph of July 18th. Interestingly, during the intervening week the building had replaced the paper address signs with the nice "Wadsworth Towers" label.	The roof decorations are interesting asymmetrical brick ornaments. The asymmetry is unusual for Art Deco.


The brickwork surrounding the windows is very detailed.	The roofline shows several Art Deco touches, including the crenelations, and the horizontal banding along the windows.