When I was a kid in the 1970’s, our family would go to Clove Lakes Park and my mom would point out the Physicians and Surgeons Building on Victory Boulevard across the street from the park, and tell us it looked like it was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
She was on point — but it was designed by Charlie Azzue, a Frank-Lloyd-Wright inspired architect.
In the 1970’s we didn’t have the internet to look things up on, so the designer remained a mystery to us for years.
Azzue designed a set of buildings at the site — the main building (above) and two others at the corner, pictured below.
Here is a video on the buildings, including the interior of the main building, which has dueling and symmetrical spiral staircases each with a Googie Architecture skylight bubble above them:
And we didn’t know at the time that Staten Island actually does have a building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright — in fact it is the only residential home architected by Wright in New York City! It is The Crimson Beech, located on Lighthouse Hill, Staten Island.
The only other building architected by Frank Lloyd Wright in NYC is The Guggenheim Museum. Both The Crimson Beech and The Guggenheim opened in 1959, just before Frank Lloyd Wright passed away.
Charlie Azzue’s Modernistic Architecture
Another modernistic building that every Staten Islander knows is the angular mansion on Todt Hill Road with the Egyptian hieroglyphics writing on it. That too was designed by Charlie Azzue, in 1975.
Here is a video on the house:
Charlie Azzue also designed the front of the Professional Arts Building at 1492 Victory Blvd.
The Charlie Azzue Story
Some of the Charlie Azzue story is on the website azzue.com.
According to an interview in the SI Advance, Charlie Azzue was born in Brooklyn in 1939. As a teenager he worked in construction, and got married at age 21 in 1960 to the former Anna Marie Savino. The couple moved to Rome, where their first child was born; they named her Roma. In Rome, Charlie earned a living renting Vespa scooters to tourists.
The family returned to Brooklyn in 1963, and Azzue studied architecture at Pratt Institute, while working as a waiter at night in Greenwich Village.
The family moved from Brooklyn to Staten Island midway through the 1960’s, like everyone was doing in those days after the Verrazano Bridge opened in 1964.
Soon Azzue started to make his mark as an architect, designing residential and commercial buildings. He designed over 50 building exteriors or interiors. He had a flair for Frank Lloyd Wright-like design, but also designed more traditional homes and buildings, depending on what his client was after.
Azzue Was Not Licensed; He Was Innovative
Azzue never became a licensed architect — which was standard for the day for many architects; he drew up the designs and had a licensed architect review and certify them.
In 1979, according to an article in the SI Advance, Island historian Barnett Shepherd curated a show of drawings by local architects at the Staten Island Museum. Shepard included Azzue even though he was not a licensed architect, which caused a bit of a stir at the time. “I had to put him in,” said Shepard. “He was doing something imaginative and exciting when many people weren’t.”
Charlie Azure’s Other Work
Azzue architected the exterior or interior of over 50 residential and commercial buildings, including a suite of custom homes on Milden Avenue on Grymes Hill on Staten Island, and many buildings on the grounds of Staten Island University Hospital in Dongan Hills — including a Pedestrian Bridge, linking several sections of the hospital.
According to his website, Azzue architected several buildings in Sante Fe, New Mexico, including:
The Casapueblo Inn in Santa Fe, NM
Azzue designed the exterior of the Casapueblo Inn, at 138 Park Avenue, in Sante Fe, New Mexico — which is now referred to as the WorldMark Casa Pueblo.
114 Coyotte Xing in Sante Fe, NM
Azzue designed the exterior and interior of a residential home at 114 Coyotte Xing in Sante Fe, New Mexico. This is a fabulous home with incredible views.
According to its current Zillow information page the home is valued at $1,075,000 but is not for sale. The Zillow page describes the house:
“Jaw-Dropping VIEWS, End-of-the-road privacy and QUIET just a ten minute drive from Santa Fe. Designed & Built by Architect & Artist, Charlie Azzue. A sensual retreat of soft arches and curved plaster walls, terra-cotta colored concrete floors, and rich wood corbels and vigas. This 3 bedroom, 3 bath home is a refined marriage of rustic intimacy & contemporary light.
Open flow from kitchen to formal dining (views!) and Great Room (views!) for exceptional entertaining. Enjoy al fresco dining or a hot-tub soak under the stars in the enclosed central courtyard –a safe haven for pets. Charming double kiva serves both living area and Master Bedroom. Well-separated suite with bath and view deck works beautifully as Guest quarters, office or media room. A home to soothe and soar the spirit.”
Note the part above about the “enclosed central courtyard” being “a safe haven for pets” and the address being on a street called Coyotte Xing.
Azzue’s Own Homes On Staten Island
Azzue designed his own “aggressively modern house on Todt Hill” — although its exact address is hard to find.
Azzue was an inspiration to Lois A. Mazzitelli, an urban designer and native Staten Islander who obtained a BS in Architecture and a master’s in urban planning at CCNY. She had a career as a planner by the NYC Department of City Planning, charged with negotiating construction projects in lower Manhattan. As a 20-year-old architecture undergrad she interviewed Azzue at “his aggressively modern house on Todt Hill,” she recalled. “I rang the bell. Mr. Azzue was there and very graciously took me through his home. I learned two lessons that day, one about architecture and one about sharing one’s knowledge and educating the next generation coming up.”
Azzue’s Staircases
Azzue also designed some amazing circular staircases. There are a number of them pictured on the azzue.com website — here is one below. The azzue.com website does not list where these staircases are; we’ve sent in an email to them asking to add the locations.
Azzue Retired to Sculpting & Design
By the time Azzue did a Staten Island Advance interview in 2010, he and his family had a house on the beach in Annadale. Azzue retired from architecting buildings at age 65 in 2005, and dove into sculpting and design.
Azzue’s Sculptures
Azzue’s website has photographs of some of the sculptures that he built in his later years — such as the one to the left — a 16-foot-tall acrobat group that Azzue sculpted and created on the grounds of his beachside home in Annadale in the 2000’s.
Azzue held events in the 2008-2012 time period where he would display his sculptures at various places in Staten Island and Brooklyn, including the front lawn of some of the medical buildings he designed, like the Physicians & Surgeons building shown at the top of the article.
Although Azzue’s sculptures look like they were done in marble, they were actually created in marine fiberglass — a much lighter material. You can view his sculptures on his website, https://azzue.com/Sculpture.
Azzue Passed Away in 2014 in Boca Raton
Azzue passed away in 2014 at age 79.
Mansion on Todt Hill’s Original Owner
Growing up in the 1970’s, it was common knowledge to us that our family dentist, Dr. Philip Rothman, owned the building — and in fact had it built. In the early 1970’s, Dr. Rothman was on the network for NYC employees dental plans — he seemed to be one of the few dentists on the plan because his business THRIVED.
His office, in his converted residential home on Hylan Blvd in Grasmere was non-stop overcrowded with patients — it was always a 1.5 to 2-hour wait to be seen. When we first started going there, he was the only dentist. Before long he hired as many as 5 other dentists and was doing really well. He had a personality similar to Hugh Hefner.
I believe at the time he talked about the house he was having built on Todt Hill with my parents. When we drove by it in our family car, my mom would point it out.
A lookup shows indeed that a Muriel Rothman owned the house early on — no doubt she was Dr. Rothman’s wife. Muriel Rothman’s prior residence is listed as 895 Hylan Blvd, which is indeed what used to be Dr. Rothman’s dentist office.
At this writing, the mansion is on the market, asking $2.2 million. The NY Post did an article on it in September, 2025.
More on Azzue
The Staten Island Advance has done several articles on Azure — they are here, and here, and here.
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