Louis Sullivan / Lyndon P. Smith · 1899 · New York
Louis Sullivan's only building in New York.
Bayard–Condict Building, 65 Bleecker St (the cream terracotta tower). This is Louis Sullivan's only building in New York, designed with Lyndon P. Smith and built 1897 to 1899. Sullivan is the Chicago architect behind "form follows function," and this was one of the city's first true steel-frame skyscrapers.
The Buildings Department filed 35 objections to the plans because the code was written for buildings with load-bearing walls. Six winged angels hold up the cornice. A popular story says owner Silas Condict demanded them over Sullivan's objection, but historians doubt it, because the angels appeared in a June 1898 magazine illustration before the Condicts owned the building.
The photo was taken from Crosby Street, which ends right at its front door, so it is the classic view.