Surviving Old Tenement ( Gentrified) on East 57th Street

Before the early 1920's, when they rushed to build the big apartment buildings that now line East 57th Street near the East River, most of this area was buildings like this one..

Today it is what I believe they call a "taxpayer"-- a building that makes just enough money to pay the taxes on it and a way of holding on to the property it is on.

Of course, with the new laws coming into effect, the whole question of the "air rights" for this building may be changing too.

It could be the present owners of this building ( or co-op board maybe) is quite happy with the way things are now. Zoning laws probably prevent speculators from doing what they would love to do, to tear this place down and build a tower narrow Trump-like tower there...