Category Archives: New York

New York City

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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Century

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The Century Apartments is among New York’s finest examples of Art Deco and residential architecture, and a nationally-recognized landmark. Yet it was only the architect’s “Plan B”!

The building is one of a pair of twin-towered Art Deco landmarks (the other is The Majestic) designed and built by Irwin S. Chanin along Central Park West. Both were constructed almost simultaneously, though The Majestic started and opened earlier. Both buildings were named for their predecessors – Century Theatre and Hotel Majestic. And both buildings used then-innovative cantilevered steel frames that allowed corner windows.

According to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission report, Chanin considered The Century to be the finer of the two buildings. But the structure is a far cry from what Chanin had envisioned. He had purchased the entire block and in 1929 proposed a 65-story “Palais de France.” The office and hotel tower were to house the French consulate and tourist board, offices of French commercial firms, three stories of exhibition space for French goods, and shops on the ground floor. Chanin failed to secure financing from French banks, however, and he abandoned Palais de France in 1930. The Century was half as tall and half the area of Chanin’s dream.

The building’s apartments were scaled down from those of The Majestic because of the difficulty in renting large apartments during the Depression. Originally the structure held 417 suites in 52 different layouts. Over the years, some apartments have been combined; the building now has about 350 units.

An investment group purchased The Century in 1982 and attempted to turn it co-op. The NY Attorney General nixed the deal, but in 1989 a condominium conversion passed after a long, bitter battle with tenants.

The Century has been home to numerous celebrities, but the most recent celebrities paid no rent: Peregrine Falcons nesting in the south tower!

The Century Vital Statistics
  • Location: 25 Central Park West, W 62nd to W 63rd Street
  • Year completed: 1931
  • Architect: Irwin Chanin and Jacques L. Delamarre
  • Floors: 32
  • Style: Art Deco
  • New York City Landmark: 1985 (individual), 1990 (Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District)
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1982
The Century Recommended Reading

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444 Central Park West

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444 Central Park West is a distinctive Manhattan Valley apartment building that easily dominates the block. The 19-story Romanesque structure towers over its six- and seven-story neighbors, and its inventive facade of brick and terra cotta over a limestone base stands out from the crowd.*

The design is the work of Emery Roth alumni Russell Boak and Hyman Paris. The duo were active 1927-1942, with their most noteworthy work designed in the late 1930s.

The building was converted to a co-op in 1976.

* Not that Manhattan Valley is dull. A block north, the landmarked former New York Cancer Hospital is a stunning condo conversion.

444 Central Park West Vital Statistics
  • Location: 444 Central Park West at W 104th Street
  • Year completed: 1930
  • Architect: Russell Boak and Hyman Paris
  • Floors: 19
  • Style: Romanesque
444 Central Park West Recommended Reading

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256 Fifth Avenue

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256 Fifth Avenue is among the few examples of Moorish Revival architecture in New York City. As the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission noted, it’s “remarkably intact” for a building that went up in 1893.

The windows steal the show: Their size, shape, number and decoration changes from floor to ornate floor.

Alas, the building is not without alterations. The ground floor storefront is now standard commercial granite; the sixth-floor terra cotta balcony was removed – probably because it was in danger of falling after a century of use. The gaps in the terra cotta were never filled in.

256 Fifth Avenue Vital Statistics
  • Location: 256 Fifth Avenue between 28th and 29th Streets
  • Year completed: 1893
  • Architect: Alfred Zucker and John Edelman
  • Floors: 6
  • Style: Moorish Revival
  • New York City Landmark: 2001 (Madison Square North Historic District)
256 Fifth Avenue Recommended Reading

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215 E 68th Street

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215 E 68th Street found the Fountain of Youth. The 33-story apartment tower was built in 1962 with a then-popular white brick facade. But time was not kind. Not only did white brick become passé; after 50 years, the brickwork needed extensive repair or replacement. Owners opted to tear down the brick and replace it with white terra cotta panels accented by bands of black and gray.

Terra cotta reigned as the decorative material of choice from 1880 through the 1950s. Sometimes whole buildings – notably the Woolworth Building and Alwyn Court Apartments – were clad in the material. Then International Style and Postmodernism replaced masonry with glass and steel, and terra cotta all but disappeared.

In 215 E 68th Street, the material finds a second life – as a replacement for brick. Facade designer BCRA explained, “New terracotta cladding is approximately 1/3 the weight of new brick and has no mortar joints or seals that will require future maintenance. The new system design reduced the amount of fasteners by 50%, which helped to keep construction noise during installation to a minimum for residents. The cavity within the new overcladding uses an air gap and 3″ insulation that greatly improved the thermal performance of the new wall by over three times the original.”

The result is a distinctive apartment building with the appearance of new construction. Now if only we aging apartment dwellers could change our skin….

215 E 68th Street Vital Statistics
  • Location: 215 E 68th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues
  • Year completed: 1962; re-clad 2012
  • Architect: Emery Roth & Sons; renovation by Forst Consulting and FXFOWLE Architects
  • Floors: 33
  • Style: Modern
215 E 68th Street Recommended Reading

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203 E 45th Street

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203 E 45th Street, home of “The Perfect Pint,” is a bit of a mystery to me. My usual sources have no real information on the building – but then, why would they? The three-story-plus-roof-garden building is a modest structure with no special architectural features.

But it appears to belong in “Holdouts!: The Buildings That Got In The Way” (or the earlier paperback version “New York’s Architectural Holdouts” ), a fascinating book by Andrew Alpern and Seymour Durst. The neighboring 32-story Wyndham Hotel is cantilevered over The Perfect Pint, similar to 160 E 22nd Street.

The Wyndham was originally the Alex Hotel, completed in 2006 on the site of the famed Pen and Pencil restaurant. While there are numerous online articles about the Alex’s early financial troubles, I found none that mention dealings with the owners of the property’s diminutive neighbor.

203 E 45th Street Vital Statistics
  • Location: 203 E 45th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues
  • Floors: 3
203 E 45th Street Recommended Reading

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166 Fifth Avenue

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166 Fifth Avenue, a seven-story store and loft building, replaced a mansion in 1899-1900. The storefront (like those of its neighbors) has been modernized.

The building is part of the Ladies Mile Historic District, designated in 1989. At the time, Andrews Coffee Shop occupied the ground floor.

166 Fifth Avenue Vital Statistics
  • Location: 166 Fifth Avenue between E 21st and E22nd Streets
  • Year completed: 1900
  • Architect: Parfitt Brothers
  • Floors: 7
  • Style: Renaissance Revival
  • New York City Landmark: 1989 (Ladies Mile Historic District)
166 Fifth Avenue Recommended Reading

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