Carter B. Horsley, New York Sun, Jan. 10, 2008
Gates are intimidating portals usually meant to keep out hoi polloi (the masses) and keep in the pit bulls.
Occasionally, they can be grand, befitting hoi oligoi (the few), and in this deluxe era it is not surprising that such gates are rising in Manhattan.
Two vaulted entrances to the courtyard of the Belnord apartment building, which occupies a full block between 86th and 87th streets, Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway, feature new gates.
The black metal gates, designed by Page Ayres Cowley Architects, are topped by spikes and large italic, gilded Bs. In approving the new gates in August 2006, the Landmarks Preservation Commission noted that the “form, details, and finishes of the gates” and a new security guard booth at the eastern entrance “will relate well to the arched entranceways and their decorative elements.” The Belnord, which was designed by Hiss and Weekes and built in 1909, boasts a rusticated limestone base and is one of the city’s most spectacular “courtyard” buildings.
The black metal gates, designed by Page Ayres Cowley Architects, are topped by spikes and large italic, gilded Bs. In approving the new gates in August 2006, the Landmarks Preservation Commission noted that the “form, details, and finishes of the gates” and a new security guard booth at the eastern entrance “will relate well to the arched entranceways and their decorative elements.”
