Alwyn Court

The Alwyn Court is a 12-story apartment building located at 180 West 58th Street on the corner of Seventh Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, one block south of Central Park. It was built between 1907 and 1909, and was designed by Harde & Short in French Renaissance style, with elaborate terra-cotta ornamentation in the Francis I style covering the entire facade. The interior courtyard has a painted architectural facade by artist Richard Haas.The building was constructed with 14-room, 5-bathroom apartments which were subdivided during the Depression. Although the interior has changed over time, the exterior, with its intricate terra-cotta decoration, has largely remained unchanged. The facade was cleaned and restored in 1980-81 by Beyer Blinder Belle.The Alwyn Court was designated a New York landmark in 1966, and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.In popular cultureIn 2012, the Alwyn Court was prominently featured as the background to a GEICO commercial, in which a semi-naked bodybuilder was shown directing traffic on Seventh Avenue in front of the building.