Location: 2109 Broadway between 73rd and 74th
Streets, New York, New York
Architect: Graves and Doboy
Date Completed: 1904
The Ansonia is typical of the standard of luxury applied to turn of the century apartment
buildings on Manhattan's Upper West Side.
With seventeen stories and 300 suites, the Ansonia is covered with ornament and balconies,
marked by beautifully scaled corner towers, and topped by mansards in the very best French
tradition.
Despite the proliferation of ornamentation, the effect of the whole is one of lightness,
grace and elegance. The tiers of windows, recessed courts and rounded towers establish a
sense of the vertical, while a series of balconies emphasize the horizontal.
The extensive ornamentation and lacy ironwork combined with the smooth panels of the brick
work creates a dramatically elegant surface.
The Ansonia was constructed with heavy, all masonry fireproof materials with heavy
interior partitions to separate the individual apartments, thus making them virtually
soundproof as well.
Ansonia
Apartment Hotel
