On Bond Street next to Lafayette, you'll see lots of cutting-edge, flashy new buildings. But this one has been around for awhile. The first story seems normal, but if you look up there's a balcony with intricate gold figures winding around it and up the side of the building.

I think this is just a beautiful combination of tree and building. This is between 2nd and 3rd avenues. I've never seen that balcony in use (Is it considered a balcony if it doesn't stick out from the building? It's more of just a room with no windows.) but I've imagined the view from it to be quite beautiful.

Passed this building randomly on a side street while walking up Broadway. The light hitting it made it look even brighter than its already-bright paint job, and especially when compared to the "normal" buildings next to it.

I can only imagine what this apartment must cost ... you can't see it in the photo, but this balcony is on the beautiful Brooklyn Promenade, with a view of the lower Manhattan skyline and Statue of Liberty. The balcony itself (actually two) is beautiful, as is the spiral staircase leading up to it.

All of Bond Street is quite nice, with its cobblestones, and if you approach it from the north along Lafayette, the view of this building is great. It's just enormous, with lots of detail. The inside, if you go into Blick Art, is nice, too.

I have no idea what this building is, but it's next to the Scholastic building on Broadway. We passed it while walking downtown and it struck me. The green with red is such an interesting combination, and the detail in the arches and railings are great.

These two little guardhouses stand out on 19th street, and are right next to a towering mimosa tree (aka silk tree), which flowers beautifully. The quality of light as you walk along this stretch is fascinating.

Stumbled upon this one downtown on Water Street, and it's so ... weird. All modern glass skyscrapers, yet tucked away is this little old-fashioned candy store, with it's Frontierland font and hot dog awning.

When it came time to tear down this old church on 12th street, someone had the brilliant idea to leave its facade in place and just put a building behind it. So now it stands alone, like a movie-set prop.

This building on Bleecker near Broadway is stunning. Click the photo to see even more detail. I'm amazed that the detail here hasn't been worn away by the elements, but it looks fresh-carved. I've seen many people stop in their tracks to look at this.

I don't know anything about these buildings on Water Street, nor can I explain what makes these stand out among many other nondescript buildings around the city. Maybe it's the color of the bricks in those two middle buildings. I don't know why, but I like it.

Two awesome murals of giraffes over the doors. In this photo, you also see the building next door, which has fun tilework above the door and stone lions, too. This is another one on 19th between 3rd and Irving, a great street.

On 18th street between 1st and 2nd avenues, there is a house creatively decorated for Halloween. All year long. There must be 30 statues of hideous monsters, contorted faces, and leering gargoyles, all integrated into the walls and architecture.

I'm not sure if this is one of the Quaker buildings or not, but it sits in that group of great architecture on 16th street next to Stuyvesant Square Park. The ivy continues all along the building to the left, too. Walk west from the park and be blown away.

This building is the original reason for making this list. When I used to walk to Meetup every day, I would pass this building and it really stood out to me, for reasons I can't discern. I think it's the colors. Turns out it's a historical landmark and museum, stuck around nothing else remarkable.

Just thought the top of this building was neat. Nice brickwork. It and the building to the left have a very simple, clean aesthetic that looks European/Scandanavian somehow.

Because of the great long balcony and spectacular ironwork here, these buildings always remind me of New Orleans. They're also unusually set-back for NYC, giving them much larger "front yards".

This whole building is nice, on Irving Place, but this window in particular draws my eye whenever I walk past. Rachel pointed out that clearly Spider-Man lives there, but that's ridiculous. He lives in Queens.

On 35th street, near Park I think, you'll see this building randomly hidden on an otherwise nondescript street. Click through to see the whole thing - it's really neat how those huge grand bay windows are on not just one floor, but two. The arched gate before the entrance is a nice touch, too.

Here's a renovated building on 13th & 1st ave. What's cool is that the top part of the building is a very modern-looking glass design, but it sits on a cool brick design below. It makes it look like they kept half the brick of the old building and grafted a new design on top (although they probably just built it from scratch.) You're left with a building that looks new and modern but not so modern that it's out of place among all the old brick homes on the street.