REAL ESTATE at "THE GOTHAM"

The Gotham is an architectural presence reminiscent of the Grand Buildings of New York City in the 1920's, although it has all the amenities and advantages of new construction in the 1990's. The Gotham is situated in one of Manhattan's most desirable Upper East Side location. A true neighborhood life surrounds the Gotham. Everything's within walking distance. Central Park is very accessible and convenient, you are close to shops, cinemas, restaurants and a wide variety of transportation options. A large number of the city's finest schools are nearby.

The Gothams builders and developers have received industry plaudits and worldwide acclaim for their distinguished series of additions to the Manhattan residential scene. Their credits include such celebrated accomplishments as Zeckendorf Towers, 515 Park Avenue, Worldwide Plaza, Central Park Place, Park Belvedere, The Copley, The Belaire and The Alexandria. The Gotham is a fitting addition to this much lauded series of New York City Architectural success stories.

When you enter The Gotham the first thing you will see is a magnificent marble entranceway that leads you to a gracious mahogany paneled.

double-height lobby that's topped by a dramatic domed ceiling. Rich furnishings add to the aura of elegance and quality. A doorman and concierge are on hand to attend to your comings and goings and to meet and direct all visitors. There are also such important extras as optional valet and housekeeping services available.

The rich details of the Condominiums include American pecan-wood floors hand laid in a herringbone pattern, granite floor kitchens with state of the art equipment, marbled bathrooms and large sliding windows that emphasize light and views.

The Gotham has a private health club with the finest state-of-the-art equipment, including an 82 foot swimming pool. There is also a 4000 square foot landscaped terrace that invites you to take a mini vacation whenever you feel like it. There is a spacious child's playroom and an expansive and elegant party room with superb facilities for your own special occasion use

Hotel Grand Chancellor Adelaide

quick overview

class: ****
hotel address: 18 Currie Street, 5000 Adelaide
geographical location: 34° 55' 27" South, 138° 35' 55" East
region: Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
number of rooms: 64

hotel description

The Hotel Grand Chancellor Adelaide is a beautiful building at the time neo-Georgian renovated near Rundle Street, just steps from the central business district.

Grand Place

ounds like Grand Palace, but it is the name of the square (previously market place) in the heart of the city. It is surrounded by historical buildings (guild houses, the city's Town Hall and the Bread House). City's Town Hall was built in Gothic style, but other guild houses around the square are in Baroque style. Especially this square could be the highlight of the Brussels for its beautiful buildings and medieval look.

The Grand Concourse -- The Champs Elysee of the Bronx

The Grand Concourse was constructed to be the premier thoroughfare in the Bronx. According to Lloyd Ultan, Bronx Historian, it was designed and constructed in the late 1800's to provide access from the densely populated sections of New York in Manhattan to the parkland in the northern Bronx. The 1967 "AIA Guide to New York City" (American Institute of Architects, MacMillan, 1967) describes its history in the following way:

The Grand Concourse, one of the grand boulevards of New York, was designed in 1892 by Louis Risse as the "Speedway Concourse," to provide access from Manhattan to the large parks of the Bronx. The original design provided separate paths for horse-drawn vehicles, cyclists, and pedestrians, and for grade separation through bridges at all major intersections.

The Concourse soon began to become lined with fashionable apartment buildings designed to accomodate members of the middle class who were leaving the crowded tenements in Manhattan on the way up the ladder of material success. The "New York City Guide" (Works Progress Administration, Random House, 1939) says

The Grand Boulevard and Concourse (commonly called the Grand Concourse) runs about four and a half miles through the center of the West Bronx from Mott Avenue and 138th Street northe to Mosholu Parkway near Van Cortlande Park. The Grand Concourse is the Park Avenue of middle-class Bronx residents, and a lease to an apartment in one of its many large buildings is considered evidence fo at least moderate business success. The thoroughfare, 180 feet wide, is the principal parade street of the borough, as well as a through motor route. Along the center the American Legion has planted maple trees in memory of Bronx men who died in the World War.

Of the maple trees, no evidence remains today. The Concourse, like much of the rest of the Bronx, experienced decay and decline during the 1970s and the 1980s. However, the decline of the neighborhood may have had one salutary effect: almost no buildings were razed to make way for "progress". (Contrast the Grand Concourse to Park Avenue north of Grand Central, which is a ghetto of glass and steel boxes which might as well be located along the freeway in any American city!) Therefore, the Concourse remains lined with many signature Art Deco apartment buildings.

Today, accompanying the fledgling revitalization of the Bronx is a growing awareness that the Grand Concourse is an architectural treasure, and could someday fulfill its original vision: a boulevard of grand apartment buildings lining a tree-lined park.

Because I enjoy exploring cities, and am always interested in discovering lost and forgotten beauty, this spring I took a car-load of friends through the Bronx for a photo trip of the Grand Concourse: the Champs-Elysees of the Bronx.

We started at the top of the Concourse near the Mosholu Parkway IRT station, and slowly traveled southward looking for cool Art Deco buildings. At 206th street, we took a detour east because we saw the lefthand building on a sidestreet. As I was positioning the camera to take the photo, a man walked out of the building and noticed me taking pictures. "It's a shithole!", he shouted to me from across the street. "No, it's beautiful!", I replied, whereupon he shook his head in disagreement and walked away.

The building on the right is not an Art Deco style building. Instead, the style is referred to as "Moorish Style", since it incorporates decorations and adornments designed to evoke the spirit of Moorish architecture in Spain. This building style is also very common in New York, as well as in Westchester County.

The building on the left is near the corner of Concourse and 197th. The horizontal stripes on the window lines and vertical bands are distinctly Deco, as are the castle-like crenelations along the roofline of the building. Pictured on the right is a smaller building on the corner of Concourse and 182nd. Like the building on the left, it has strong vertical lines formed by brickwork, as well as a castle-like roofline.

The vertical lines on the lefthand building break horizontally below the roofline. There is also interesting detailing around the front window area. Notice the windows set into the building's corners. Corner windows are a innovation of the Art Deco period.

The front facade on the right-hand building is staggered to conform to the curvature of the street -- also an Art Deco innovation. The windows are again set into corners.