Category Archives: Manhattan

Manhattan

240 W 23 Street

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240 W 23 Street, described as “eclectic” in the “AIA Guide To New York City,” is right at home on an eclectic block of Chelsea. C.P.H. Gilbert, best known for elaborate mansions, designed the commercial structure with almost as much detail as his gothic Ukrainian Institute (former Harry F. Sinclair House). The lofts-turned-apartments sits among official and unofficial landmarks such as the Chelsea Hotel (two doors east), Muhlenberg Branch of the NY Public Library, and McBurney YMCA.

There seems to be some confusion about the building’s age. The AIA Guide reports “1880s”; Daytonian in Manhattan says 1899; the Department of Buildings says 1920; most real estate sources list 1930. Since Daytonian in Manhattan seems to have done the most research, I’m going with 1899.

240 W 23 Street Vital Statistics
  • Location: 240 W 23rd Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues
  • Year completed: 1899 (many references say 1930)
  • Architect: C.P.H. Gilbert
  • Floors: 7
  • Style: “eclectic”
240 W 23 Street Recommended Reading

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230 Riverside Drive

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230 Riverside Drive is relatively plain on its 15 lower floors, but blossoms above the setback with gargoyles, arcades and glass-canopied penthouse.

The landmarked building was converted to condominiums in 2004. According to Street Easy NY, the sponsor renovated the 268 units in three classes. High-end apartments were lavishly fitted with the finest appliances and amenities, including heated bathroom floors. Some units were renovated “in a more economical sense,” and some units were offered as “do-it-yourself” units.

However, under guidance of conversion architect H. Thomas O’Hara, the sponsor did preserve and restore the structure’s terra cotta.

While the facade’s style is Medieval Revival, the lobby is designed in Art Deco. It was last renovated in 2011.

230 Riverside Drive Vital Statistics
  • Location: 230 Riverside Drive at W 95 Street
  • Year completed: 1931; condo conversion, 2004
  • Architect: Charles H. Lench; condo conversion, H. Thomas O’Hara
  • Floors: 19
  • Style: Medieval Revival
  • New York City Landmark: 2015
230 Riverside Drive Recommended Reading

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200 Madison Avenue

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200 Madison Avenue has a split personality. Its ornate neo-classical facade shelters a technically modernized interior. While the richly decorated lobby and elevator doors remain, the office tower has LEED energy certification.

If the ornamentation reminds you of the Helmsley Building (aka New York Central Building), that may be because Warren & Wetmore designed both. (Warren & Wetmore also designed Grand Central Terminal.) You’ll have to look up to enjoy the effect. The building’s ornamentation is primarily in the cornices, at the setbacks and crown.

Of historical note, this is where the Empire State Building developers had their offices during construction of New York’s most famous skyscraper.

200 Madison Avenue Vital Statistics
  • Location: 200 Madison Avenue between E 35 and E 36 Streets
  • Year completed: 1926
  • Architect: Warren & Wetmore
  • Floors: 25
  • Style: neo-classical
200 Madison Avenue Recommended Reading

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126 E 66 Street

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126 E 66 Street is memorable for its Roman brick arches and massive wood doors. The picturesque three-story residence is directly across the street from the Seventh Regiment Armory (aka Park Avenue Armory), built 17 years prior.

According to NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission research, the building “Replaced a rowhouse built in the 1870’s. Built as a stable, coach house, and residence for coachman’s family. Henry 0. Havemeyer, who commissioned the stable, lived at 1 East 66th Street. After its completion, he sold it to Oliver H. Payne, brother-in-law of William C. Whitney.” The building was sold to John Hay Whitney and at this writing is still in the Whitney family.

An article in Curbed NY points out that the building is only a remnant of the original structure. As built, the coach house and stables extended to the site of 122-124 E 66 Street.

Havemeyer, who commissioned the building, was the prominent Domino Sugar magnate for whom the Brooklyn Street is named.

126 E 66 Street Vital Statistics
  • Location: 126 E 66 Street between Park and Lexington Avenues
  • Year completed: 1895
  • Architect: William J Wallace and S.E. Gage
  • Floors: 3
  • Style: Romanesqu Revival
  • New York City Landmark: 1981 (Upper East Side Historic District)
126 E 66 Street Recommended Reading

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Post Towers

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Post Towers, built in 1926 as the New York Evening Post Building, is a residential conversion in New York’s Financial District. The 21-story Art Deco building was the Post’s second headquarters, after the landmark building on Vesey Street.

Post Towers’ architectural distinction is the colorful geometric terra cotta design in the crown. This was recently cleaned and restored, and is best seen from across West Street.

When built, this (and all buildings on the east side of West Street) was on the waterfront. Battery Park City is built on landfill from the excavation for the original World Trade Towers.

Post Towers Vital Statistics
  • Location: 75 West Street at Carlisle Street
  • Year completed: 1926; converted to residential 1998
  • Architect: Horace Trumbauer; conversion by Costas Kondylis
  • Floors: 21
  • Style: Art Deco
  • National Register of Historic Places: 2000
Post Towers Recommended Reading

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322 Central Park West

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322 Central Park West is the only work of prolific New York architects George and Edward Blum to be located on Central Park West. The Blum brothers designed many Upper West Side apartment houses – why only one on CPW? Possibly because the avenue was slower to develop than other streets. The biggest park-side landmarks were erected at or after the end of the Blums’ practice.

The 15-story building rests on a three-story limestone-block base; its ornately carved, arched entrance is on W 92nd Street. As in many Blum apartment buildings, windows on the top three stories have elaborate terra cotta surrounds.

322 Central Park West has 49 apartments, and became a cooperative in 1962.

322 Central Park West Vital Statistics
  • Location: 322 Central Park West at W 92nd Street
  • Year completed: 1926
  • Architect: George and Edward Blum
  • Floors: 15
  • Style: neo-Renaissance
  • New York City Landmark: 1990 (Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District)
322 Central Park West Recommended Reading

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279 Central Park West

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279 Central Park West, completed in 1988, is among the youngest buildings on the avenue, yet it is part of New York’s Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District. I suspect that it’s included because it was easier for the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission to leave the building in the district than to specifically exclude it.

The architect, Constantine Kondylis, is often associated with Donald Trump projects (including Trump International Hotel and Tower at the foot of Central Park West). But 279 Central Park West is a far cry from the black or gold glass boxes that The Donald is fond of.

As a modern building, it lacks the ornate facades typical of the district, but 279 is still pleasing for its three-story limestone base, inset bay windows, curved corner windows, and eight terraced setbacks. Thanks to luxury amenities and location (or in spite of location, if one doesn’t want to be so far uptown), apartments in this condo have million-dollar price tags. Or you can rent. At this writing, there’s a three-bedroom, 2,855 sq. ft. duplex available for just $22,000 a month.

279 Central Park West Vital Statistics
  • Location: 279 Central Park West at W 88th Street
  • Year completed: 1988
  • Architect: Constantine Kondylis
  • Floors: 23
  • Style: postmodern
  • New York City Landmark: 1990 (despite its age, this building is part of the Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District)
279 Central Park West Recommended Reading

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Kenilworth

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The Kenilworth has an impressive entry flanked by banded columns reminiscent of the Prasada and the Lucerne. Last of the Second Empire-style buildings to be built on Central Park West, remarkably the structure looks unchanged from 1908, except that the wood-frame windows were replaced.

Even the interiors have been preserved. Architectural historian Andrew Alpern wrote, “The Kenilworth has three apartments on each floor, two of which are of a modified long-hall variety. While not exceptional in their planning or appointments, these suites have been kept surprisingly intact.” (New York’s Fabulous Luxury Apartments: With Original Floor Plans from the Dakota, River House, Olympic Tower and Other Great Buildings)

Overshadowed by neighboring San Remo apartments, the 12-story Kenilworth was built without the benefit of a steel frame, or the 1929 building code that liberalized residential height restrictions. The structure’s limestone and red brick walls actually hold the building up, they’re not just for appearance.

Speaking of appearance, the heavy contrasting ornamentation and copper-trimmed slate mansard roof give the building presence beyond its mere dozen stories. The two-story columns and dry moat are just icing on the cake.

The Kenilworth was converted to a cooperative in 1957.

Kenilworth Vital Statistics
  • Location: 151 Central Park West at W 75th Street
  • Year completed: 1908
  • Architect: Townsend, Steinle & Haskell
  • Floors: 12
  • Style: Second Empire
  • New York City Landmark: 1990 (Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District)
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1982 (Central Park West Historic District)
Kenilworth Recommended Reading

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San Remo

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San Remo is one of the high points – literally and figuratively – of the Central Park West skyline, and of the career of architect Emery Roth. The NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) gushed that the building “…epitomizes Roth’s ability to combine the traditional with the modern, an urbane amalgam of luxury and convenience, decorum and drama.”

Following closely after his triple-towered Beresford (1928), San Remo became the first twin-towered apartment building on the avenue. But where the 22-story Beresford’s stubby “towers” were mainly to hide water tanks, 27-story San Remo’s towers had 14 floors of deluxe apartments. This was possible because a new (1929) building code raised the height limit for residential buildings.

Roth also designed the Oliver Cromwell (1928) on W 72nd Street, was a consultant on the twin-towered El Dorado (1931), and designed the Normandy Apartments (1938) on Riverside Drive.

The San Remo was praised by architectural critics for its height, for the classical Greek-styled “temples” atop the towers, and for the “foyer plan” that minimized hallways.

“Despite its popular success,” said the LPC, the property “…fell prey to the pervasive economic mayhem of the 1930s. A full year after it had officially opened, nearly a third of its apartments remained vacant, and the Bank of the United States which held its $5 million mortgage had collapsed, its officers charged with recklessly ‘gambling’ on the San Remo.”

The building bounced from one owner to another via bankruptcy until 1940, when San Remo and Beresford were sold in a package for $25,000 over the mortgage. Now, individual apartments cost tens of millions of dollars.

San Remo Vital Statistics
  • Location: 145 Central Park West between W 74th and W 75th Streets
  • Year completed: 1930
  • Architect: Emery Roth
  • Floors: 27
  • Style: Classical
  • New York City Landmark: 1987 (individual); 1990 (Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District)
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1982
San Remo Recommended Reading

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Majestic

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The Majestic Apartments, like sister building The Century, is a scaled-down version of Irwin Chanin’s original concept. Nonetheless, it is a New York architectural landmark for its Art Deco style – simultaneously bold and austere.

According to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), Chanin envisioned a 45-story full-service apartment hotel for the site. The single-tower design was to replace the Hotel Majestic of 1894. The stock market crash changed all that; The Majestic became a twin-towered 32-story apartment house. Chanin’s “experimental” use of Art Deco in a residential context was stripped to its essentials, relying almost entirely on economic brickwork for ornamentation.

The design contrasts with even his own Art Deco commercial design, the 1929 Chanin Building. The office tower employed marble, bronze and terra cotta ornamentation of the base and tower. (Although the Chanin Building was designed by the Sloan & Robertson firm, Chanin supervised the exterior detailing, the LPC said.)

The Majestic’s cantilevered steel frame was an important innovation, which made wraparound “solaria” windows possible.

The building became a cooperative in 1958.

The Majestic Vital Statistics
  • Location: 115 Central Park West between W 71st and W 72nd Streets
  • Year completed: 1931
  • Architect: Irwin Chanin
  • Floors: 32
  • Style: Art Deco
  • New York City Landmark: 1988 (individual), 1990 (Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District)
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1982
The Majestic Recommended Reading

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