Sited at the top of a steeply sloped street, the house is essentially built into the side of a hill. There is a two car garage under the house and living spaces above with the private space at the back of the property. The entrance is tucked away into the corner L of the building. The entire exterior is covered in natural redwood with some stone veneer at the base.
Located just across the street from the Rockaway Beach boardwalk, originally these buildings were clad in white brick and probably looked more similar to the Kesslers’ most prominent design, Washington Square Village. Today the buildings have been resurfaced in tan stucco with some dark red horizontal areas and dark red slab balconies which give the buildings a more drab, utilitarian appearance. The five buildings only occupy 11% of the total land but the site is minimally landscaped. The awards program description also states that houses of worship were included in the design, which could possibly refer to the pre-existing St. Rose of Lima Church and Temple of Israel on Beach 84th Street.
The Felixon Residence is sited on an extremely narrow corner lot coming to its narrowest where the driveway enters the property and leads to the garage under the house. The shape of the lot allows for an expansive frontage at the street with a wall of windows to the right of the entrance and a trellis running along the length of the facade to the right of the entrance. The central entrance hall opens into a living room with cathedral ceiling and sloping roof above. As with other Perlstein-designed projects, the exterior includes several materials, primarily wood but also stone veneer, brick, a shingle roof, and a large stone fireplace. The gently sloping front yard is covered in elaborately shaped plantings which add another element of unusualness to the design.
The architecture of this apartment building speaks much more to architect Jack Brown rather than his co-designer Jerome Perlstein. Whereas Brown, the LeFrak’s in-house architect, was largely responsible for large commercial and residential towers in brick or metal, Perlstein’s designs tended toward showy facade materials such as stone veneer, decorative screens, and enamel panels. The site here is a steep slope so that the front includes private concrete slab balconies whereas the back includes a communal patio space overlooking an athletic field below.
Cathedral Prep expanded into Queens from Brooklyn, previously located in a Gothic Revival building complete with gargoyles in Clinton Hill. The L-shaped school was meant to accommodate the growing population of students for the seminary and along with the later Cathedral College of 1968 in Douglaston, represented the Brooklyn Diocese’s continued efforts to rapidly expand its facilities. However unlike the later Cathedral College, Cathedra Prep is a much more traditional take in terms of its design aesthetics. By this time, the firm of Beatty & Berlenbach was dwindling down, having had their heyday earlier in the century. The materials here are red brick, limestone, and granite and the details are restrained with only window surrounds and some limestone and granite framing. Overall a much more traditional look that speaks more to the 1950s than 60s.