The 13-story structure was designed by Hiss and Weekes in the Italian Renaissance Revival style and occupies the full block between Broadway, Amsterdam Avenue, and 86th and 87th Streets.

On 86th Street, a pair of arches at the center of the facade lead to an internal courtyard with a garden, driveway, and entrances to the apartments.

The Belnord contains six entrances, each of which lead to a different set of apartments, and originally had a mechanical plant in the basement, as well as amenities such as horse stables and storage rooms.

Between the 1970s and 1990s, the tenants were involved in multiple disputes with then-owner Lillian Seril, and many residents refused to pay rent because of the Belnord's poor condition.

An entrance to the New York City Subway's 86th Street station, serving the 1 train, is directly outside the southwestern corner of the building.

[9] The Belnord is one of a few full-block apartment buildings in New York City,[10][11] with its structure occupying about two-thirds of its site and a 22,000-square-foot (2,000 m2) center courtyard making up the balance.

[5][7] The Belnord's arrangement is similar to that of the Apthorp, another large apartment building on Broadway and 79th Street built during the early 20th century.

[15] The writer Elizabeth Hawes said the barrel vault "amounted to an architectural rite of passage", separating the enclosed courtyard from the wide-open cityscape.

[31] The Belnord originally had its own mechanical plant in the basement,[32][33] which was placed directly beneath the courtyard to minimize vibrations within each apartment.

[4] The Belnord is served by the city's gas supply system and power grid, although the building produces its own steam using boilers in the sub-basement.

The bedrooms had full-height mirrors mounted onto the doors of the closets, and every apartment had its own wall safe, refrigerator, and telephone system.

[38] The units were advertised as having technologically advanced equipment; for example, the refrigerators in the kitchen had built-in ice machines,[14][55] and there were radiators beneath each window.

[25][26] The George A. Fuller Company received the general contract for the project,[62][63] and William Bradley & Son was hired to manufacture the building's limestone.

[7] The construction of the Belnord inspired the development of other nearby apartment buildings, particularly on vacant lots that had been owned by real estate speculators for several years.

[44][71] It could be easily accessed from other parts of New York City through its proximity to the subway, the Ninth Avenue elevated line, and several streetcar routes.

[93] All of the Belnord's 290 apartments were placed under rent control during the late 20th century, since the building had been erected before World War II.

After New York's rent-regulation laws were modified in 1971, the Belnord joined the state's Rent Stabilization Association; this allowed its owners to convert rent-controlled apartments to higher-paying rent-stabilized units after existing tenants had moved out.

[94] Several tenants recalled that they had to sneak refrigerators, kitchen tiles, and repairmen into the building in the middle of the night,[71] because Seril would not allow them to replace their appliances.

[1] Sparks unsuccessfully attempted to broker an agreement between the tenants and Seril,[16][49] and he withdrew from the Belnord dispute completely that July.

[98] By late 1980, the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) was hearing "eight or nine" disputes between Seril and the building's 225 tenants.

[49][50] In spite of the maintenance issues, many tenants remained in place, in part because of the extremely low rent; for example, a six-room apartment cost $460 per month ($1,701 in 2023).

[96][102] Seril's lawyer claimed in 1984 that she had spent $70,000 on new elevators and $20,000 on additional changes,[102] but residents said the building still suffered from other issues, including a huge crack on the facade.

[50] Dozens of residents continued to withhold rent through 1994, saying that Seril had failed to fix numerous major issues, such as cracked walls.

[104] Ziel Feldman and Kevin Maloney of Property Markets Group (PMG), in conjunction with Gary Barnett,[105] acquired the building in October 1994 for $15 million.

[50] Barnett said three European families provided much of the funding for the acquisition;[106] Curbed subsequently reported that Israeli diamond dealer Beny Steinmetz was one of the largest financial backers of PMG's purchase.

[120] The New York Court of Appeals voided the lease agreements in 2013 after finding that Barnett had tried to bypass rent-regulation laws, and these apartments reverted to being rent-stabilized.

[54] Stern planned to rebuild the courtyard driveway, install a central-air system, add a gym and other amenities, and rearrange the apartments.

"[14] When the Belnord opened, the Real Estate Record and Guide wrote: "It is delightful to be able to step from the library in a smoking jacket and drop a letter into the chute running down through the semi-private vestibules.

[44] Lucy Cleveland wrote for Domestic Engineering, "Superbly have they illustrated in stone, in the Belnord, the idea of a complete and secluded home within the aggregated loftiness of walls that spread to east, to west, to north, to south, and whose Mycenaean massiveness indeed proclaims Defendam [I am defended]!

"[153] Christopher Gray wrote in 1987 that the Belnord, along with the Ansonia and the Apthorp, "gave a cosmopolitan electricity to" the section of Broadway north of 59th Street.