This very large, pre-war, rental apartment building occupies about half the block bounded by Madison and Fifth Avenues and 86th and 85th Streets. The beige-brick building has light wells along the avenue and a mid-block mid-rise wing on 86th Street. It has a very large entrance marquee and a very large but bland lobby.
The pre-war building was originally the Croydon Hotel. This 15-story building, which has a doorman and a garage, has good retail along the avenue, easy sidewalk access, and decorative spandrels. It was built in 1923 and designed by Schwartz & Gross
This neighborhood at the south end of the Carnegie Hill District became very attractive in the late 1980s and the 1990s with the opening of many boutiques and several restaurants and the upgrading of a nearby supermarket. There is excellent neighborhood shopping and many excellent schools and religious institutions nearby as well as many of the city's most important cultural institutions like the American Irish Historical Society, Goethe House, NYC Institute of Fine Arts, Lincoln School, Steiner School and New York Society Library. There is excellent west-bound cross-town bus service on the street, and the east-bound service has a stop across the avenue. An express subway station is at Lexington Avenue. There is considerable traffic along the avenue and especially on 85th Street, which is the approach to a Central Park cross drive.