Looking like a cliff face on a bright day out west, 525 Lexington, at 49th St.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' grandfather built it in 1924 as the Shelton Hotel, a "1,200-room bachelor hotel" -- with its own infirmary! It is now the NY Marriott East Side Hotel.
Built with brick "roughened as if centuries old," critics were impressed that it recalled "no definite architectural style" and with the way it responded to zoning laws that required setbacks "to ensure light and air to the street." The critic Lewis Mumford called it "buoyant, mobile, serene, like a Zeppelin under a clear sky." [ NYT via NY Songlines ]
The reflections on the windows across the street, closeup below left, aren't bad either.
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