The Dorilton

Built in 1902, 50 residences across 12 floors.

171 West 71st Street, 10023

The Dorilton was designed by Janes and Leo and erected by the builder Hamilton Weed between 1900 and 1902. It is twelve stories of brick and limestone in French Beaux Arts dress, arranged as base, shaft and capital. The base is two stories of rusticated limestone with a floor of alternating brick and limestone above it, and the top is a high mansard of two and a half stories with copper crestings over three corner pavilions.

The entrance is the set piece. A deep courtyard opens off 71st Street through a triple gateway of four limestone columns, the side openings once serving a U shaped carriage drive and the low centre gate taking pedestrians. At the ninth floor a flying three centred arch spans the courtyard and ties the two wings together. On the Broadway side a metal bay window runs from the fourth floor to the eighth.

For anyone working inside, the designation report records the two conditions that have always defined the apartments here: large rooms and soundproof construction. That combination is why the building has been a musicians' and artists' address since it opened, and it is the reason sound is rarely the constraint that shapes a plan in this building.

Within walking distance

Building facts

New York City Primary Land Use Tax Lot Output, version 26v1. Tax lot 1011430001.