219 East 49th Street

The building standing before you at two hundred nineteen East forty-ninth Street is a radical departure from its neighbors. While the surrounding street is lined with traditional brownstones, this five-story structure appears as a modernist rebel, finished in striking blue glazed brick. Completed in nineteen thirty-five by architect Morris B. Sanders, it was the first completely new residential building in New York City to fully embrace the experimental design principles of European modernists like Le Corbusier. Its facade intentionally avoids the decorative carvings of the era, opting instead for a bold, industrial aesthetic.