23 Beekman Place

The five-story brownstone at twenty-three Beekman Place was built in eighteen sixty-nine, but its most striking transformation arrived over a century later. The building served as a living laboratory for the influential Modernist architect Paul Rudolph, who lived here from the nineteen sixties until his death in nineteen ninety-seven. After purchasing the entire structure in nineteen seventy-six, Rudolph added a four-story, steel-framed penthouse that cantilevers dramatically over the sidewalk. This unconventional rooftop addition turned an aging row house into a complex piece of experimental architecture, featuring twenty-seven distinct floor levels within his own private living space.