(Photo: From left: NYC Municipal Archives; courtesy of Edward Caruso )

9. 45 Park Avenue
At 37th Street
At ten stories, the solid Sheraton Russell Hotel from 1923 was a waste of air, and so it was doomed. Its replacement, a condo tower by Costas Kondylis, is neither ostentatious nor shoddy, neither short nor overbearing—a 21st-century version of the Sheraton Russell.

(Photo: From left: NYC Municipal Archives; Rebecca Sahn )

10. 170 East End Avenue
Near 88th Street
Across from Gracie Mansion, in place of the solemn brick mass of Doctor’s Hospital, Peter Marino is dressing up the classic East Side home in well-tailored, sleekly conservative garb: floor-to-ceiling windows and double-height masonry frames. The neighbors will love it.

(Photo: Courtesy of Gluckman Mayner Architects; Harry Zernike)

11. Gagosian Gallery
554 West 24th Street
Gagosian has to accommodate the steel monoliths of Richard Serra, so architect Richard Gluckman left the former warehouse concrete-floored and bare, confining glamour to the translucent light box on top that hints at mysterious treasure inside. A nifty adaptive reuse.