William Lescaze Modernist Townhouse

William Lescaze Modernist Townhouse for Dorothy Morgan ,on East 70th Street, Manhattan

Swiss American modernist architect William Lescaze is best known in New York for the three off-white townhouses he designed in Manhattan, all of which have huge expanses of glass blocks on the facade.

Built between 1940 - 1941 this home was Lescaze’s last townhouse in the city, commissioned by the photographer, writer, and activist Dorothy Norman. While the first two townhouses have facades of white stucco, this third one is fronted by gray brick. The use of glass blocks here is also a bit more nuanced. Instead of floor-to-ceiling glass blocks, here they’re more like accents that frame (or break up) tall casement windows. Another distinction to this design: a one-story studio (with a landscaped roof deck) connected to the back of the house by a covered walkway. The elevatored house measures nearly 6,300 square feet across four stories (plus a finished basement) and has over-ten-foot ceilings on the second and third floors, both of which have angled walls of glass in the back overlooking the courtyard. Compared to the other two Lescaze townhouses the Norman House has stayed the most true to Lescaze’s original vision.

Photo via curbed