Over the span of his illustrious career, Rosario Candela designed or co-designed seventy-five apartment buildings that would become the most desirable addresses in New York City. Candela was a Sicilian immigrant who came to the United States around 1910. After graduating from Columbia University with a degree in architecture in 1915, he would go on to play a major role in defining luxury living in early 20th-century New York City.

The first exhibit devoted to him, Elegance in the Sky: The Architecture of Rosario Candela at the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY), highlights Candela’s distinctive “prewar” apartment buildings, specifically those that shaped the streetscapes of Park and Fifth Avenues and Sutton Place. Elegance in the Sky, revisits the setback terraces and neo-Georgian and Art Deco ornament of Candela-designed high-rise apartments that lured the wealthy out of their houses and into apartment buildings. His work established new standards of chic urban living and still ranks among the most prized in the city, almost a century later. 

With Untapped Cities’ special partnership with the Museum of the City of New York, we are offering a special curator-led walkthrough of Elegance in the Sky on August 22nd. If you are or become an Untapped Cities Insider, you can join this tour for free!

See our full list of Untapped Cities Insiders Tours and our upcoming Public Tours.