New York Academy of Medicine

You are approaching the New York Academy of Medicine, a building that looks less like a modern medical facility and more like a fortress of knowledge from a bygone era. Completed in nineteen twenty-six, its striking limestone and sandstone facade was designed by the architectural firm York and Sawyer to channel the spirit of eleventh-century Lombardy rather than the then-popular Art Deco style. If you look closely at the main entrance on one hundred and third street, you will see two dogs carved in stone sitting atop the columns. These figures are there to symbolize vigilance, standing watch to keep death and illness at bay.