Rebirth of an Icon
At No. 95, the massive Emmet Building of 1912 is an 18-story fortress of delicate Loire Valley detailing, enough doodads for a block’s worth of Vanderbilt town houses. Thomas Addis Emmet, a gynecologist, art collector and inventor, had lived on the site for decades...Christopher Gray
The New York Times
Library of Congress, 1913
University of Virginia Special Collections
The Gilded Age Masterpiece
Standing sentinel on Madison Avenue, the Emmet Building has witnessed over a century of New York’s evolution. This 1912 masterpiece marked the first collaboration between John Stewart Barney and Stockton B. Colt, Columbia-trained architects who had worked under the legendary George B. Post. Commissioned by pioneering surgeon and Americana collector Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet, it exemplifies Manhattan’s architectural Golden Age, when terra-cotta craftsmanship and Neo-Renaissance design reached their zenith. Its limestone base, adorned with green marble columns and elaborate Gothic ornamentation, speaks to an era when buildings were conceived not merely as structures, but as enduring works of art. That significance was affirmed in 2018, when the building was unanimously designated a New York City Landmark.
A Storied Revival
The Emmet Building’s restoration, led by FXCollaborative, is an act of reinvention and preservation in equal measure.
At the building’s crown, the mansard reclaims its place on the skyline. Its stepped dormers, copper cresting, and grand portals compose one of Madison Avenue’s most distinctive silhouettes, a soaring expression of terra-cotta artistry that has defined the building’s profile since 1912 and once again rises in full splendor above the avenue.
The façade was restored with a passionate devotion to craft: century-old terra-cotta replaced not with facsimile but with authentic terra-cotta, and the copper storefronts and intricate cast-iron detailing returned to their original grandeur, accentuating the soaring verticality that has distinguished the building since 1912.
A Discreet Arrival
The private residential entrance, attended by a full-time doorman, is thoughtfully positioned on tranquil East 29th Street. An AD100 luminary, Paris Forino has created an intimate jewel-box lobby where the exquisitely curated, layered palette of marble, handcrafted metalwork, and glass is complemented by the sublime botanically inspired vintage silkscreen—an homage to the building’s silk craftsmen, the historic rooftop gardens, and the adjacent Madison Square Park.