Hotel Des Artistes

Love this building in a great part of town. Love having a five star restaurant in the lobby

Despite its name, this is an apartment building, with a "coop" form of ownership (apartment residents own shares in the corporation that owns the building which in turn entitles them to live in the apartment - ownership form that is primarily known in New York City). In recent years, apartments in the building have been offered for sale for as much as $24 million.

Designed by George Mort Pollard, the building is a 1918 architectural masterpiece characterized by a Gothic-style facade. According to the AIA Guide To New York City (by Elliot Willensky and Norval White, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 3rd Ed. 1988), "The fanciful facade clearly shows the balconied studios behind it." On the ground floor, the famed Cafe Des Artistes restaurant, known for its beautiful decor and romantic ambiance, expensive yet unremarkable fare, and entirely unreliable service. According to the AIA Guide, among the privileged residents of the "elaborate (and lavish) spaces" were Isadora Duncan, Norman Rockwell, Noel Coward, and former New York mayor John Lindsay.