After Louis's death in 1979, the building was bought by real estate investor Sol Goldman, who converted it to a housing co-operative over the next decade.

[4] The surrounding neighborhood largely contains brick-and-limestone row houses and apartment structures built in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

[13] The single pinnacle contrasts with the multiple twin-towered buildings on Central Park West (namely the Century, the Majestic, the San Remo, and the El Dorado), which were all built following a change to the zoning regulations in 1929.

[7][15] He said: "This colored brick exterior, which rises from a low, dark ground to a gleaming, white pinnacle, gives the building a dynamic quality.

[13] The Master Building's two main entrances, at the centers of the 103rd Street and Riverside Drive elevations, both contain double-height portals.

[18] The Riverside Drive entrance, which formerly led to the Roerich Museum,[4] is approached by a short flight of steps and contains one metal-and-glass door on either of the portal's reveals.

[22] The building was to house a large and a small auditorium, two art libraries, conference rooms, and studios, in addition to three cultural institutions.

The floors are made of terrazzo tiles with geometric patterns, while the walls contain a crown molding composed of 90-degree angles.

"[39] Both the building and the institute take their name primarily from Master Morya, a non-corporeal spiritual leader from whom Helena Roerich received guidance via automatic writing.

[8][40] A secondary source of the name was Roerich himself who was revered as a theosophist master, able to interpret the wisdom of ancient gurus to modern man.

It struggled to survive until, in 1922, Louis Horch financed its transfer from a single-room, all-in-one studio at 314 West 54th Street to a mansion he bought on the site where the Master Building would later be constructed.

[41][c] The Master Institute aimed to give students a well-rounded education in the arts and also to "open the gates to spiritual enlightenment" through culture.

[43][44] In 1925, while the Roeriches were engaged in a long period of travel in Central Asia, Horch began to acquire the lots surrounding the mansion to construct the Master Building.

In doing this he followed a pattern he had established in providing an organizational structure for the Master Institute when he installed the Roeriches and their close associates as nominal shareholders and corporate officers.

The corporation was appointed to plan and construct a skyscraper to replace the mansion in which the museum, institute, and outreach center were located.

[34] In 1934, Horch arranged to have Master Institute of United Arts, Inc., the educational corporation he had created in 1923, take over responsibility for the building from the organization he had previously used to run it.

[58] At this time, Horch arranged for the Institute to give a five-year mortgage for $1,674,800 to the entity that managed the building (now organized as the Riverside Drive & 103d Street Corporation) at five and one-half percent interest.

Horch countered that the Roeriches had improperly attempted to countermand his decisions as building owner and director of the cultural organizations it contained.

Then, on July 13, 1935, Nettie wrote Helena of her and Horch's "fourteen years of complete devotion in heart and in deed" and of their enduring "loyalty and selfless sacrifice" over that period.

"[34] These letters explain actions that Horch took on June 5, 1936, to sever relations between the Institute and the other cultural organizations housed at the Master Building and discharge all their employees.

[60] When the attempt failed, they sued Horch to regain what they believed to be their rightful authority to participate in the operation of the building and its component organizations.

The American artists included Stuart Davis, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Jack Levine, Marsden Hartley, George Luks, John Sloan, Philip Evergood, Reginald Marsh, Charles Burchfield, and Rockwell Kent.

[63] In 1939 the museum began hosting the annual exhibitions of American Abstract Artists, a group devoted to expanding appreciation of non-objective art that had been formed in 1937.

[79][80][81] As chair of Bloomington Conservation Project, Horch and the Master Institute of United Arts led an effort to improve deteriorated housing by converting single-family brownstone buildings into rent-subsidized apartments.

[88][89] Following the death of Louis in 1979, the Horch family sold the Master Building to a real estate investor, Sol Goldman, who was then the city's largest private landlord.

The firm of Antonucci and Lawless conducted further renovations in 1996, adding wheelchair-accessible doors at the 103rd Street entrance and restoring the first-floor iron grilles.

[19] After renovations were finished in 2005, the number of two- and three-bedroom units was increased dramatically, due to the combination of the building's original studio apartments.

In the early 21st century, the lobby has been restored, hallways remodeled, and amenities increased, including larger storage areas, a bike room, and an improved laundry facility.

[94] The Landmarks Preservation Commission report on the building praises its "successful employment of sculptural massing, vertical emphasis, and the minimal, yet elegant, use of surface ornamentation and historically-inspired detailing.

"[32] Critics have praised the adept handling of the transitions between the base and tower, "as square and chamfered corners established a sprightly syncopation against the more thunderous beat of the central masses.