It doesn’t get any lovelier than Lenox Hill’s East 71st Street, between Second and Third Avenues, a quiet, tidy block mostly of turn-of-the-century brownstones.
And then there’s the bubble brownstone at number 251.
How else to describe this facade wiped clean of its circa-1899 decorative elements, its windows replaced by plastic-looking pods?
A search of the building’s history turned up this, from the May 9, 1976 New York Times, in an article on innovative window design:
“An interesting variation of the bay window can be found at 251 East 71st Street, where the architect Maurice Medcalfe used large oval glass bubbles for his windows.”
Strange as it first seems, it actually grows on you and sort of works with the scale of the rest of the street.
Tags: 71st Street brownstone, bubble-window brownstone, Lenox Hill neighborhood, Lenox Hill street, Maurice Medcalfe, New York brownstone, New York street
Ephemeral New York 
February 23, 2012 at 1:34 pm |
Wow! Ugly at first, but it does interact in an interesting way with the neighboring buildings.
February 23, 2012 at 3:23 pm |
Yeah, that’s what I thought, after visiting the block a few times. There’s a certain symmetry and balance to it.
February 23, 2012 at 3:24 pm |
i love it!
February 23, 2012 at 7:19 pm |
Wonder what the windows do to the view from the inside. Maybe there’s a reason (other than to be different) that is not apparent from the outside.
February 24, 2012 at 12:59 am |
I have seen the building many times, I hate it. But at least it was not torn down.
February 24, 2012 at 4:40 pm |
Minority voice: ugly, dumb, pretentious. Ugh…
February 27, 2012 at 12:23 am |
[…] York City. According to the guide the house was altered around 1975. And according to this recent article, the architect was named Maurice Medcalfe. I wasn’t able to find anything out about him. […]
September 5, 2012 at 10:40 am |
It has yet to grow on me. All I think of are the eyes of insects when I walk by… and I feel oddly stared at.
November 4, 2013 at 6:35 am |
[…] hardly the only untraditional-looking residence on a brownstone block in New York. The “bubble brownstone” on East 71st Street is in a class by […]
November 4, 2013 at 2:58 pm |
It was ugly in 1975 and it is still the ugliest brownstone in the city. The architect would have done the block a favor if he had gone with a less pretentious rehab. It is an eyesore that ruins the feel for the whole block.
April 7, 2014 at 4:17 am |
[…] There’s this Modernist example in Turtle Bay, the concrete grill townhouse in the East 60s, and the futuristic bubble-window brownstone in the East 70s. […]
April 16, 2014 at 7:25 am |
I lived across the street from what you are calling the Bubble Brownstone in another townhouse. The “bubble” windows were actually designed by the person who created the original Esso (now Exxon) sign. The house also had a skylight in the bathroom on the top floor (same bubble shape, but clear) providing a sky view from the tub!
December 17, 2014 at 10:47 pm |
An ugly mess as far as I can see. If you’re going to do something this bold, at least work over something of little existing architectural value and have more than one line to your poem !
February 24, 2016 at 12:53 pm |
Why do I imagine the Popcorn was recorded there? Bet there’s a Moog synthesizer in their basement studio…
December 18, 2017 at 6:41 am |
[…] East 71st Street is a building I like to call the bubble brownstone. As far as I know, this is the only brownstone in the city with glass oval pods for […]
December 18, 2017 at 7:02 am |
[…] East 71st Street is a building I like to call the bubble brownstone. As far as I know, this is the only brownstone in the city with glass oval pods for […]
December 18, 2017 at 7:20 am |
[…] East 71st Street is a building I like to call the bubble brownstone. As far as I know, this is the only brownstone in the city with glass oval pods for […]
February 20, 2018 at 3:22 pm |
Here is a cover of New York magazine from 1969 showing the conversion of this brownstone: