We really try to stay away from becoming another real estate site, with more homes for sale, in point of fact that kind of goes against what Brick and Cornice is all about. However, occasionally we come across some pretty fantastic homes, that we might even describe as being unique? that we feel are worth more than a passing fancy – to note, we have recently started covering new developments such as those from Zaha Hadid et al so maybe moving on to specific homes isn’t too much a stretch. For our opener, a home that’s been on and off the market for the past few years in Miami – 2999 Brickell Avenue, an almost 13,000 square foot home built in 1990 on the bay, just south of the Rickenbacker Casueway. The architecture firm is / was De la Guardia Victoria Architects & Urbanists – in their own words: “emblematic Venetian urban pattern with a residence in the Palladian manner and a great loggia defining a central quadrangular plaza paved in keystone. The building is a concrete block shell finished with lime integral stucco. The floors are Venetian terrazzo and the windows are bronze casements manufactured in the Veneto.” We would describe it as “Spanish Mediterranean and modern purist”.
15 East 81st Street
What can be termed a “double wide” in New York parlance, 15 East 81st Street was completed in 1921 for Grenville Lindall Winthrop, the architect was Julius Gayler. A little more than 16,000 square feet in size, built in the Neo-Federal style – reserved red brick facade, entryway framed by an ionic portico, windows with simple white marble lintels. Really one of the better executed and more beautiful homes in the style. What is obviously from almost any photos to be found online, the rear garden has been covered by a greenhouse and has a large swimming pool protected yet open to the sunshine, a very rare commodity in NYC homes.
3 East 75th Street
3 East 75th Street The Stuart Duncan House built by CPH Gilbert in 1904. It was converted into apartments during the Great Depression and has been up until recently a rental building, converted to condo’s in 2004.
4 East 75th Street
“Designed by Trowbridge, Colt & Livingston this French-Renaissance mansion was originally constructed in 1896 for shipping magnate Nathaniel McCready”
828 Fifth Avenue
828 Fifth Avenue – built for coal baron Joseph Berwind – Built in 1886, this French Renaissance-style – designed by Nathan Clark Mellen in a Victorian/Edwardian-like style and Horace Trumbauer added dormers in 1902. Originally the Berwind residence, it became the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences before being converted in 1978 to condominium apartments when a modern glass penthouse was added.