Contextual Zoning
"Contextual zoning" has been a buzzword in the city planning community for about two decades. It regulates new building to fit the existing buildings in the area.…
Crown Jewel of Park Slope (Montauk Club)
The Montauk Club (a private club at 25 Eighth Avenue on the corner of Lincoln Place) was founded in 1889 and is considered Brooklyn's "crown jewel of Park Slope." The Venetian Gothic…
Crown Jewel of the Bronx (New York Botanical Garden)
The New York Botanical Garden (established in 1891) has been described as the "crown jewel of the Bronx." The NYBG's Enid Haupt Conservatory is sometimes called the "crown jewel…
Crown Jewel of Wall Street (40 Wall Street)
40 Wall Street (The Trump Building) is a 72-floor building that was the tallest building in the world when it opened in 1930; it is the tallest mid-block building in New York City. The building had…
Dakota
The "Dakota" apartment house, at West 72nd Street and Central Park West, is probably most famous today as the last residence of Beatle John Lennon. The building was finished in 1884. It…
Darth Vader Building (Family Court)
The Family Court Building in lower Manhattan has been called the Darth Vader Building by some. It's a gloomy building. http://www.downtownexpress.com/DE_11/talkingpoint.htmlMore darkness comes…
Destructoporn
"Destructoporn" (or "destructo-porn") is the filming or photographing of the destruction of a building. The building might have had some historic community or personal value, or…
Devil’s Playhouse (Webster Hall)
Webster Hall, at 125 East 11th Street in Manhattan, was built in 1886 and has held some notorious events. "WEBSTER HALL -- The Devil's Playhouse" was advertised in the January 1918…
DisAster Place or DisAstor Place (Astor Place Opera House)
Manhattan's Astor Place is named after John Jacob Astor (July 17, 1763 – March 29, 1848), then New York City's wealthiest resident. THe Astor Place Opera House was opened on November…
Dormandie Court or Dormandy Court (Normandie Court)
The Normandie Court (sometimes misspelled as "Normandy") is an apartment complex at 225 East 95th Street in Manhattan. The Normandie was built in the mid-1980s and almost immediately…
Edifice Complex
"Edifice Complex" (a pun on "Oedipus Complex") has long been associated with New York City and State. Governor Nelson Rockefeller's complex of state office buildings in…
Elephant’s Foot (450 W. 33rd Street, or 5 Manhattan West)
The building at 450 West 33rd Street in Manhattan was completed in 1970. It was renovated and painted beige in the 1980s. The massive 16-story structure was nicknamed "elephant's…
Empty State Building (Empire State Building’s 1930s nickname)
The Empire State Building opened in 1931, during the Great Depression. It had a problem finding tenants and was soon derided as the "Empty State Building." This nickname is not used…
Finger Building
The "Finger Building" is the large condo building at North 7th Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Why "Finger Building"? Because the building looks like a finger? Because the…
Fish Building (1150 Grand Concourse)
The "Fish Building" the the Art Deco building with the aquarium mosaic at 1150 Grand Concourse in the Bronx. http://www.brorson.com/BronxWeb/GrandConcourse3.htmlOne of the most…
Fixer-upper
"Fixer upper" was frequently used in the 1930s to mean a person who fixes things up. In the 1940s, houses that needed work were advertised -- at presumed lower prices -- for these…
Flip Tax
The "flip tax" is also called the "transfer tax." It started in the 1970s, with the co-op apartment boom. People who sold or "flipped" their co-ops would have to pay a…
Freedom Tower (or, Pataki’s Pit)
"Freedom Tower" was coined by New York Governor George Pataki in April 2003. It's the building that is planned to replace the World Trade Center towers, destroyed on September 11,…
Fryscraper (fry + skyscraper)
A "fryscraper" (fry + skyscraper) is a tall building that reflects the sun's heat, "frying" objects at a certain distance away from it. In 2013, the building under…
Garden Apartment
The Queensboro Corporation developed the country's first "garden apartments" in Jackson Heights in the 1910s. The corporation's founder and director was E. A. MacDougall. A…