University Club Tower

A tall, narrow tower in the Renaissance Revival mode, its slab-like massing rising from a limestone-trimmed base through a tan-brown brick shaft to a colonnaded crown. The uppermost stories open in a loggia of freestanding Corinthian columns set behind a metal balustrade, sheltered by a boldly projecting bracketed cornice of green copper — the building's signature profile on the Midtown skyline. Round-arched windows with fanlight tracery mark the upper floors, and a mid-height band carries oval cartouche medallions between the openings. A carved stone panel above the entrance reads "UNIVERSITY CLUB BUILDING · ERECTED ANNO DOMINI MCMXVII." A later penthouse caps the roof.

The University Club, a private club for university-educated men, built this tower at Grand Boulevard and Washington Avenue to designs by Eames & Young. Its cornerstone records erection in 1917; the building opened in 1918. The club occupied the tower until 1974. The lower floors, first leased as offices, were later converted to apartments, and the building fell into difficulty — in 1990 HUD took it over from its owners. After renovation it reopened as University Plaza and returned to full residential use.