Editor: Why shouldn't I put my one cent's worth in on this one, too? Actually I think our esteemed colleague, the Gentleman from BBBBBBB&B, AKA Rev Jim is probably right, and said most of what I would've said, only better and more succinctly. I don't see that a cornice is going to offer much beyond very localized protection for the upper part of the wall. However ... removal of a cornice would very likely expose all sorts of non-finished conditions which were never meant to be exposed to the elements; anybody rectal (or misguidedly frugal) enough to remove a cornice would very likely do an equally bad repair job, which would allow for water penetration into the wall from the top (by omitting a coping, or doing a bad job of one) and from the front (stuccoing over backup brick that had been hidden behind the cornice. Bad detailing in either a repair or new construction is not unheard of, to say the least, so there again leakage could be blamed on lack of a cornice. As to The Right Honourable Gentleman's comments about Cornice Chickens, I can personally attest to some piss-poor conditions--particularly in terra cotta, which is in the running for shittiest material before EIFS-- revealed by swingstage inspections, for which a lot of people owe Local Law 10 their lives, and some of us our livelihoods. So there. I must remember to send one of my coachmen, or perhaps the valet, around to have a look at those eroded colonettes on West 72nd Street to which you recently referred. Ralph