I was scouting around the West 70’s over by Riverside Drive when I saw this really, really interesting building ornamented in an incredible dragon motif (map link):
It’s literally covered in dragons, starting with these lining the balcony, each with its own shield:
These two look like they’re sharing a joke:
Then, beautifully nestled in the fauna is this dragon above the second floor window:
This flowing relief above the first floor window feels like it could have been a title page centerpiece in a book on mythology:
Finally, above the front door…
…are these cute little guys. I think they’re different, which is pretty impressive when they could’ve just used the same design.
I would love to know what inspired this – maybe the medieval castle-ish turret/balcony?
Finally, this is a great example of what idiots with zero sense of taste do to amazing buildings like this. See the original roof line on the left? Nice fucking addition.
It looks like they removed what was probably once a beautiful roof, lopped off a piece of the balcony, and built an addition, complete with US-government-building-style yellow brick. Compare the pathetic decorative blocks at the top with the craftsmanship below; if you shuddered, you’re one of the good guys.
-SCOUT