Some say that cost is an issue in developing more contextual townhouses or brownstones but the ones on West 117th Street by FDB/8th Avenue do a pretty good job without going over the top with the details. Artisan cast iron or carved stone was very common a century ago because the craftsman labor was readily available from Italian immigrants and an established brownstone industry but today that is not the case. The modern townhouses in the above photo have been designed around the grand classic stoop and all of the cornices are simple cast stone but it somehow all looks clean an inviting. There seems to have been more of an effort over a decade ago in Central Harlem to restore some of the abandoned lots with homes that work in this vernacular but some of the new ones today are just pretty much square brick boxes without any details.
I like that
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