Shelton Towers, Take 2 – New York Marriott Hotel, Lexington Avenue near 48th Street, New York, New York

The New York Marriott East Side (formerly The Halloran House) was originally known as the Shelton Towers Hotel. Erected in 1924, it was one of the first major buildings to comply with the setback requirements of the city’s first Zoning Resolution of 1916, this building, shown above, was highly influential in its massing, but was still mired in historical allusions, as evidenced by its abundant and delightful gargoyles and scattered exterior decorative elements, and is a transitional precursor to the explosion of Art Deco skyscrapers that came shortly thereafter.

The architect was Arthur Loomis Harmon, who later was to design the iconic Empire State Building. The 34-story, 1,200-room hotel was the world’s tallest when it was built and Harmon received a gold medal from the Architectural League of New York and the American Institute of Architects. The building gained added celebrity by being depicted in some of the works of two of its most legendary tenants, Alfred Steiglitz, the photographer, and Georgia O’Keefe, the painter.