Image via Complex Original
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On the corner of Broadway and 90th Street you'll find one of the more impressive cornices in New York. The building, known as the Cornwall, was designed in 1909 by the architecture firm of Neville & Bagge, one of the most prolific firms of that period; the firm focused primarily on the then booming Upper West Side of Manhattan. Working with Schwartz and Gross, who created the Ghostbusters building, and the firm of George F. Pelham, they designed over half the apartments in Morningside.
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The 12-storey building uses a typical H-shaped floor plan to allow for natural light to penetrate deep into the interior rooms.
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The façade is divided into three parts. The three-storey base is made of limestone. Then there is a six-floor red brick mid-section that is only pierced on the 8th floor by one balcony per side. The last three floors are terra cotta.
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The building is crowned with a spectacularly ornate Art Nouveau-styled cornice. The cornice behaves like a screen to block out the otherwise unremarkable façade of the penthouse on the roof. However, there is also an impressively large terrace, over 2,000 square-feet, that is hidden behind that cornice as well. In 1991, the residents of the building invested over half a million dollars to have the cornice restored.
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A closer look at the cornice.
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The cornice as glimpsed from a different angle.
