The Towers

33-15 80th Street | also 33-16 81st Street | Jackson Heights | built 1925

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

1923
Andrew J. Thomas gives 33-15 80th Street a corner tower at the end of the Towers
Filed as permit NB 3133-1923, No. 33-15 80th Street is one of the two outer buildings in the Towers' 80th Street row, which follows an A-B-B-A pattern. The outer buildings are massed off-center and carry tall corner towers that mark the ends of the complex. Andrew J. Thomas, working for the Queensboro Corp., added arcaded loggias on the sixth story, tower belvederes, round attic windows and keyed stone entrance arches under red tile roofs.
“…the outer buildings ("A") are asymmetrically massed and have corner towers marking the ends of the complex…”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1923
Queens Borough Magazine links the Towers' design to Central Italy
In October 1923, as the Towers were rising, Queens Borough Magazine described the complex as inspired by "Central Italy at its best period," according to the Landmarks Commission's report. The Commission ranks the Towers and Andrew J. Thomas's neighboring Chateau among the grandest garden apartment groups in Jackson Heights, with cornices, arched entrances and tile roofs that carry on the Mediterranean style Thomas first used at Linden Court.
“Described in a contemporary account as being inspired by "Central Italy at its best period…”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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