... is the rusticated limestone south facade of the 1908 Apthorp apartment
house, covering  a full block 78th/79th/Broadway/West End.  Although the
facade is unusual in that the building is all-stone, it is not the intrinsic
design of the stone, but the thick, velvety, charcoal-grey coating of soot
which has been deposited on the stone over a century.  This facade receives
very little weather, so the deposits are deep and rich - the urban equivalent
of the humus of a forest floor.

The sidewalk shed is going up - it's all going to be cleaned off in August.
Go soon.

Christopher Gray