It’s One Way to Get Your Hands on a Bit of New York Real Estate

The possibilities immediately raised a number of questions both selfish and civic-minded.

First of all, what if you have the disappointing experience of locating your own corner but finding that your building — a 12-story prewar apartment house in distinctive yellow brick with lion’s head cornices — is represented by a generic five-story tenement? (While viewers can delight in spotting precise details, like the green roof of the Carlyle Hotel and the steel-ribbed Unisphere, not every structure merits an exact replica.)