Let the Light Shine In: Skylight Art and Drama

The ideal art studio is north-facing, with high ceilings and large, angled windows that provide plenty of natural light without allowing in the burning rays that can alter pigments and fade furniture.

The double-wide brownstone at 20 W. 10th St. has two such apartments; the great architectural draftsman Hugh Ferriss once occupied one, and the great Art Deco painter Guy Pène du Bois called the other home.

The key to the beautiful light is the skylights, and there are several similar skylights in the low-rise buildings on the south side of 8th Street between Fifth Avenue and University Place. Another building notable for skylights is the former Whitney Museum of American Art building on West 8th Street, as well as other, isolated examples scattered throughout Greenwich Village.

Some of the most visible skylights can be found atop the west roof of Cooper Union, while probably the greatest assembly of skylights is atop Carnegie Hall, which recently evicted most of the artists who had lived and worked in the building.

Large skylights, of course, provide considerable illumination during the day, but in cold weather insulation can be a problem.

The city's newest spectacular skylight can be found atop Diane von Furstenberg's emporium at 874 Washington St., between 13th and 14th streets. The large, prismatic skylight is at the southeast corner of the building, the culmination of a four-story, high-tech staircase. It was completed less than a year ago by Work Architecture Co., of which Amale Andraos and Dan Wood are principals.

Another building with a skylight is a five-story townhouse at 14 E. 78th St. designed by Charles Graham & Sons in 1887 and remodeled in 1917 by Harry Allen Jacobs. In 1964, Doris Duke, Robert Lehman, Andre Meyer, and Charles Wrightsman helped New York University acquire the building. In the 1970s, NYU converted it for use by the conservation center of its famous Institute of Fine Arts, and commissioned Michael Forstl to preserve the neo-Italian façade while creating a new multilevel interior structure with an atrium featuring a dome skylight and three stepped-back skylights. The building is under renovation.

One of the city's most famous skylights was at the Palm Court, in the lobby of the Plaza Hotel, designed by Henry Hardenbergh. When Conrad Hilton owned the hotel, between 1943 and 1953, the skylight was removed; the newest owner, Elad Properties, has replicated the skylight and restored much of its original elegance and drama.

Mr. Horsley is the editor of CityRealty.com.