Portfolios > Buildings of Origin

No. 29 is a five-story brick and brownstone apartment house, originally built in 1889-90, located on the north side of West 12th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It is within the boundaries of the Greenwich Village Historic District, which was designated on April 29, 1969 and is therefore a landmark building. The Greenwich Village Historic District Designation Report describes 29 West 12th Street as the Ardsley House, a hotel that was originally built as a single family dwelling for Louis Adams.

The window fenestrations include three bays of masonry window openings and one-over-one wooden sash, ornamented with stone lintels and sills. The original turned-wood molded window frames are enhanced on the first floor with extended turned brownstone moldings around each window and are reflected around the building entrance. The original wood sash windows on No. 29 are square-shouldered in design in a one-over-one configuration and glazed in the period fashion of polished plate glass. The original façade sash are double strength (¼ inch thickness), suggesting a concern for sound insulation from West 12th Street, while the remaining sash from the rear of the house are single thickness, cylinder glass, in a two-over-two configuration. The window pattern of No. 29 is symmetrical as seen in similarly scaled rowhouses with three bays of double-hung wooden sash.

In the fall of 2008, over 30 original wooden sash from the rear facade were retrieved from demolition and replaced with insulated glass aluminum window units. By January of 2009, the remaining 32 original window sash from the entire 12th Street facade were approved by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission to be replaced with insulated glass aluminum replacement window units. At that time, 28 of the original facade sash were retrieved from demolition and added to the Window Installation Collection.
Catherine Albert