When these buildings were designed and built in 1927 by architect Henry  Attenbry Smith, they were considered innovative and experimental.  As  extensions of the Jackson Heights Garden City philosophy,  Mr. Smith's  company, called the Open Stair Dwelling Company, designed the complex to offer a "healthful" environment of light and air circulation.

It's important to keep in mind that back in 1927, most of the prospective tenants were coming from places like the prospective tenants were coming from places like the Lower East Side, Yorkville, Hell's Kitchen.  A complex like this, made up of six, six-story brick buildings with its open stairs and skylit elevator core, V-shaped front courtyards, private interior green spaces, and inter-connected roofs, was indeed radical and beautiful and offered ample breaths of fresh air to their lucky new tenants.