Building: 505 West End Avenue

505 West End Avenue was completed in 1922 and designed by architect Gaetano Ajello. Ajello was an unusual architect who designed scores of apartments buildings, most of which are located on the Upper West Side. While he began his professional life as an architect, his active practice spanned only 15 years (1909 to 1924), after which he gave up architectural design in favor of a career as an inventor.

Like other architects who practiced in those times, Ajello’s building built before World War I had more flamboyant facades reminiscent of the Beaux Arts period, while those built in the 1920’s were more sedately detailed. However, unlike other architects who could build in any architectural style dictated by the building’s developer, Ajello’s buildings share a similarity in design that make them easily recognizable to the eye.

Read more in Deanna Kory’s “Architectural Histories” series on DeannaKory.com.