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This building is featured in the video The Paterno Monograms: Art of Personalizing Apartment Buildings
1910 Luxor at 2931 Broadway
aka 600 West 115th Street (source) – confirmed Dolkart page 350
Located in the Morningside Heights Historic District designated 21 February 2017
Two years later, the Paterno Brothers. completed the development of West 116th Street with the erection of the Renaissance Revival style Rexor at the corner of Broadway (Gaetan Ajello, 1911-12) which had been preceded by the Luxor at Broadway and West 115th Street (Gaetan Ajello, 1910-11). Ajello’s designs for both buildings incorporated Renaissance inspired window sills, lintels and surrounds and metal balconies on a stone and light tan brick facade. (source)
Plans for three luxury buildings on Broadway near the Columbia campus – the Luxor, the Regnor, and the Rexor – were the brainchild of Ajello, a young Sicilian architect who had emigrated and was virtually adopted by Charles and his brothers. These three buildings were for high-class customers and were built unsparingly and with the all-Italian touch of Renaissance facades decorated in delicate pastel colors. Ajello’s signature was also expressed through the generous use of metal finishes on the facades, the oversized entrances with large glass doors, the elegant lobbies, the broad staircases concealing elevators, the spacious dining rooms, mahogany doors, large closets, and numerous electric lighting point. (Renato Cantore)
Luxor, Regnor, and Rexor on Broadway at 115th and 116th Streets
– Morningside Heights Historic District Designation Report February 21, 2017
– Luxor 1910-11 Gaetan Ajello
– Paterno Brothers (or just Joseph Paterno?)
– 12 story Renaissance Revival
– Rexor 1911-12
– STREETSCAPES A Law and the Face of the City (Grace Gold death)
600 West 115th Street (aka 2931-2939 Broadway) ( Luxor )
Borough of Manhattan Tax Map Block 1896, Lot 7501
Date(s): 1910-11 (NB 749-1910)
Architect(s) / Builder(s): Gaetan Ajello
Owner(s) / Developer(s): Paterno Brothers
Type: Apartment with commercial ground floor
Style(s): Renaissance Revival
Stories: 12
Material(s): White brick; limestone; terra-cotta
Status: Contributing
History, Significance and Notable Characteristics
The Luxor on the corner of West 115th Street and Broadway, and the Rexor on the corner of West 116th Street and Broadway, were designed by Gaetan Ajello and built in 1911 and 1912 for the Paterno Brothers, prolific apartment house builders in Morningside Heights between 1898 and 1924. Stylistic features associated with the 12-story Luxor’s Renaissance Revival design include its rusticated limestone base, wide granite stoop with curved cheek walls, central entrance with carved stone enframements, and historic metal canopy, ornately decorated terracotta window enframements with decorative lintels, bracketed sills—some with iron railings— and cartouches, terra-cotta and molded stone band courses, decorative spandrel panels, and an attic story with windows grouped in two-story expressions with molded surrounds. A nonoriginal fiberglass cornice recalls the historic cornice. Originally a rental building, it is now a condominium (condo lots 1001-1002).
Alterations
West 115th Street Facade: Windows replaced; non-historic metal louvers and HVAC vent-hood at first-story window; brass address plaque at main entrance; brass railings at stoop; non-historic electrical conduit at main entrance and basement facade; terra-cotta balconettes removed at fourth and 11th stories; cornice removed (recently replaced in fiberglass) Broadway Facade: Windows replaced; terra-cotta balconettes removed at fourth and 11th stories; facade repointed in several locations; non-historic storefronts, signage, light fixtures, and security cameras; cornice removed (recently replaced in fiberglass) South (rear) Facade: Windows replaced, facade repointed and parged in several locations; windows replaced
Site
Two areaways enclosed by stone curb and cast-iron railings and gate; western
areaway sunken with stairs and cast-iron railings on West 116th Street; two metal access hatches on Broadway
Sidewalk / Curb Materials
Concrete sidewalk and metal curb
References
Christopher Gray, “Streetscapes: The Paterno Brothers’ Apartment Houses; On Broadway,” New York Times, October 15, 1995, R7; Andrew S. Dolkart, Morningside Heights: A History of Its Architecture and Development, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998)
Morningside Heights Historic District Designation Report February 21, 2017
1910
749
$375,000.00
BROADWAY, s w cor 115th st 12-sty brick and stone apartment house, 75˙90.11
OWNER / OWNER ADDRESS
(o) Paterno Bros / (o) 445 Riverside Drive COMMENTS
ARCHITECT / ARCHITECT ADDRESS
(a) Gaetan Ajello / (a) 1 West 34 (source)
Architect Gaetan Ajello designed some of the best planned simplex (one story) apartments on Morningside Heights. For example, the four apartments on each floor of the Luxor at 600 West 115th Street, on the southwest corner of Broadway, may not be as expansive as those at the Colosseum, but they are well laid out, with clearly separated [public, private, and service] zones and well-lit and well-appointed rooms. Dolkart page 310
Living It Up (published 1984) page 215 THE LUXOR, 600 West 115th Street (southwest corner Broadway) A 12-stories-and-basement building of the 1920s. An elaborate metal canopy carries the initial BD [correction PD], which also are chiseled on a cartouche above the door. Luxor is the town on the Nile in upper Egypt, noted for its ancient ruins.
