Posh Portals

“First impressions count” has been the watchword since the first luxury apartment house opened in 1884. Entrance doors and their embellishment set the mood of an apartment building and form the dividing line between public and private space, serving multiple functions: to welcome yet protect; attract yet repel; impress yet be reticent.

Andrew Alpern’s latest book, Posh Portals, highlights the best of the city’s most impressive entrances. Discover over 100 years of entryways, both celebrated and overlooked, from Gothic revival to Art Deco—and the stories behind them.

Alpern is an architectural historian, an architect, attorney, native Manhattanite, and an expert on historic apartment houses.