East 26th St, Madison Square

East 26th in Madison Square is a pretty commercial run of the street that just happens to have a lovely park. It's hard to justify paying the park kind of rent in the few buildings you can actually live in in Madison Square because it's just so corporate, busy and and crowded. Oh, and it's pretty dead at night outside of the park and the Danny Meyer restaurants so it's definitely not a hip and happening spot to hang after dark.
As promised, 26th starts off at Park Avenue with a bunch of massive commercial buildings. The New York Life Building is on the north side of the block and it has a cool kind of pyramid dome thing on top despite just boring offices throughout. It replaced the Stanford White building that he was killed in: shot by his lover's husband on the roof garden. Across 26th there's a gross looking modern building that houses a big mart for china, crystal and the like. Most of the buildings in this area are from the early 20th century so this building is a bit of an eyesore; and, I can't imagine a more boring day than hovering over 6 million different china lines.
The next block runs directly against the northern part of Madison Square Park. The north section is usually the most crowded but it's great for people watching and enjoying the sun during the months that there actually is sun. It's one of my favorite parks despite having so much noise surrounding it. The north side of the street has big commercial buildings that house things like the Vietnamese-American Chamber of Commerce, Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, a couple of showrooms for furniture . . . boring, boring boring. There is a cool looking brick building on the west corner that used to a popular hotel called the Brunswick. It still looks like a hotel despite being offices. And, there's one lovely relic from the past that looks totally out of place on this corner: a townhouse. This street used to be lined with them and this particular one served as the address for Myra in My Mortal Enemy. Now, it's an advertising agency but at least it's still there. This area is known for its advertising agency saturation (Mad Men - Madison Avenue) and I think that having one in a townhouse makes it the coolest if nothing else.