10. The Madison-Belmont Building

The Madison-Belmont Building (Art Deco)
The entrance of the Madison-Belmont Building.

Edgar Brandt designed the entryway for this building in collaboration with Cheney Brothers, a prominent silk mill company when the Madison Avenue area was known as the Silk District. Brandt designed the entrance and exhibition hall of Cheney Brothers’ Madison Avenue headquarters in September of 1924. Although its design was primarily Neoclassical, the Madison-Belmont was one of the first buildings in New York to incorporate Art Deco motifs.

Located at 183 Madison Avenue, the building is characterized by the looming iron and bronze framework that Brandt designed to surround its entrance. Innovative for the time — the web of interlaced domes, colored black and gold and strewn with curlicues and chunky floral carvings — would soon be imitated all over the city.

For more, check out this list of the top 10 postmodern buildings of the Bronx and this list of 14 beautiful vintage Art Deco mailboxes in NYC.