Tag Archives: landmark

Millan House

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Millan House (two Ls, please) is a pair of buildings spanning E 67th to E 68th Street, built around a private garden and adorned with a private zoo. If they were built on an avenue – Park or Lexington – this New York architecture would be well known; in their mid-block location they’re a pleasant surprise to passers-by.

The whimsical animals are carved stone, not terra cotta – the building was owned by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., after all. The building is now a cooperative.

Millan House Vital Statistics
  • Location: 115 E 67th Street/116 E 68th Street between Lexington and Park Avenues
  • Year completed: 1931
  • Architect: Andrew J. Thomas
  • Floors: 11
  • Style: neo-Romanesque
  • New York City Landmark: 1981 (Upper East Side Historic District)
Millan House Recommended Reading

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Harperly Hall

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Harperly Hall, briefly infamous as Madonna’s residence and dance studio, is notable as a rare (for New York) example of Arts and Crafts style in architecture.

Henry W. Wilkerson, the architect, partnered with several other creative types to develop the building as a cooperative – the first on Central Park West.

The building has a T-shaped courtyard on W 64th Street, with three entrances at the top of the T. An iron fence and gatehouse guards the courtyard.

Harperly Hall Vital Statistics
  • Location: 41 Central Park West / 1 W 64th Street
  • Year completed: 1910
  • Architect: Henry W. Wilkinson
  • Floors: 12
  • Style: Arts and Crafts
  • New York City Landmark: 1990
Harperly Hall Recommended Reading

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37 Washington Square West

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37 Washington Square West (aka Macdougal Street), a 16-story apartment house designed by Gronenberg & Leuchtag, is notable for its rich use of terra cotta – particularly the colorful detailing in the building’s base.

The 1928 structure is now owned by New York University (NYU), and used for faculty housing.

37 Washington Square West Vital Statistics
  • Location: 37 Washington Square West (aka Macdougal Street) at W 4th Street
  • Year completed: 1928
  • Architect: Gronenberg & Leuchtag
  • Floors: 16
  • Style: Italian Gothic
  • New York City Landmark: 1969 (Greenwich Village Historic District)
37 Washington Square West Recommended Reading

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71-75 E 93rd Street

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71-75 E 93rd Street (aka 1180 Park Avenue) is a beautifully maintained Neo-Federal mansion in Manhattan’s Carnegie Hill section, and the cornerstone of a complex of four adjoining buildings at the corner of E 93rd Street and Park Avenue.

The five-story building was originally built for financier Francis F. Palmer, and completed in 1918. (The building is still sometimes referred to as the Francis F. Palmer House.)

George F. Baker, Jr., another financier, purchased the mansion in 1927 and expanded it with three extensions: a garage (69 E 93rd Street), ballroom wing (1180 Park Avenue) and townhouse residence for his father (67 E 93rd Street). All four buildings were designed by Delano & Aldrich, a prominent architectural firm of the early 1900s. With the main house, the ballroom and garage form a courtyard open to E 93rd Street.

(George Baker, Sr. died before his home was completed; his daughter-in-law later occupied the house.)

The Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia – exiles from Soviet oppression – purchased the main house and ballroom wing in 1958 with funds donated by Russian-born banker Serge Semenenko.

Financier Richard Jenrette purchased 67 and 69 E 93rd Street in 1987 and 1988. These homes are now headquarters of Classical American Homes Preservation Trust.

The George F. Baker, Jr. House Complex is subject of three NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission designations – and part of the Expanded Carnegie Hill Historic District.

71-75 E 93rd Street Vital Statistics
  • Location: 75 E 93rd Street at Park Avenue
  • Year completed: 1918
  • Architect: Delano & Aldrich
  • Floors: 5
  • Style: Neo-Federal
  • New York City Landmark: 1969
71-75 E 93rd Street Recommended Reading

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101 Central Park West

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101 Central Park West is a prestigious address, referred to as a “white glove” cooperative where apartments still include maids’ rooms, elevators still have operators, and price tags are in the millions. It’s plainer than some other famous Central Park West addresses – possibly because it was built during the Great Depression.

101 Central Park West Vital Statistics
  • Location: 101 Central Park West between W 70th & W 71st Streets
  • Year completed: 1930
  • Architect: Schwartz & Gross
  • Floors: 17
  • Style: neo-Renaissance
  • New York City Landmark: 1990 (Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District)
101 Central Park West Recommended Reading

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Mayfair House

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Mayfair House was designed as a residential hotel by James Carpenter, one of New York’s premier apartment house architects. For a time, the building operated as the Mayfair Regent Hotel.

Colony Capital bought the building at a bankruptcy auction in 1998, and partnered with Trump International to convert the 210 hotel rooms and suites to 70 condominium apartments. At the same time the new owners expanded the ground floor restaurant, and swapped entrances: The restaurant entrance is now on E 65th Street and the residential entrance is on Park Avenue.

Thankfully, no glass boxes were added (as was done four blocks away, at Trump Park Avenue).

Mayfair House Vital Statistics
  • Location: 610 Park Avenue at E 65th Street
  • Year completed: 1925; conversion 1998
  • Architect: James Carpenter; Costas Kondylis & Partners (conversion)
  • Floors: 15
  • Style: neo-Gothic / neo-Renaissance
  • New York City Landmark: 1981 (Upper East Side Historic District)
Mayfair House Recommended Reading

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1185 Park Avenue

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1185 Park Avenue is one of a handful of luxury New York apartment houses built around a central courtyard – and the only one of note without a name. (You’ve probably heard of the others: The Dakota, Apthorp, Belnord and Graham Court.) The architects, Schwartz & Gross, specialized in hotels and apartment buildings and were known for exceptional apartment layout.

There are 12 apartments to a floor (though some have been combined) arrayed around the courtyard. Six separate lobbies serve those apartments, so that each elevator landing has only two apartments. The NY Curbed archive takes a peek at some of 1185 Park’s multi-million-dollar homes.

If you Google “1185 Park Avenue,” many of the results will refer to the book of that name, a memoir of Annie Roiphe. That’s getting off the subject of architecture, but her tale is a reminder that money and plush surroundings aren’t everything. So don’t feel bad that you don’t live here.

1185 Park Avenue Vital Statistics
  • Location: 1185 Park Avenue between E 93rd and E 94th Streets
  • Year completed: 1929
  • Architect: Schwartz & Gross
  • Floors: 16
  • Style: neo-Gothic
  • New York City Landmark: 1993 (Expanded Carnegie Hill Historic District)
1185 Park Avenue Recommended Reading

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Beresford

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The Beresford is among the most celebrated creations of one of New York’s most celebrated architects, Emery Roth. The building’s 200-foot-square, 22-story mass is highly visible, its three towers permanently etched in the skyline – the view protected by Central Park to the east and the American Museum of Natural History to the south.

Beresford was built just in the nick of time – completed just weeks before the stock market crash. Nonetheless, the Great Depression eventually claimed the grand building, and it was sold at auction in 1940. (See Luxury Apartment Houses of Manhattan: An Illustrated History for more details.) But Beresford bounced back, becoming a cooperative (1962) and attracting the rich and famous.

The Renaissance-style structure is built around a T-shaped courtyard that opens to the west, providing light and air to interior-facing rooms. There are four entries: Two on W 81st Street, one (the main address) on Central Park West, and a service entrance on W 82nd Street.

Emery Roth’s other major works include the San Remo and Ardsley, also on Central Park West; the Normandy (Riverside Drive), Oliver Cromwell (W 72nd Street), Ritz Tower (W 57th Street) and Hotel Belleclaire (Broadway).

Beresford Vital Statistics
  • Location: 211 Central Park West between W 81st and W 82nd Streets
  • Year completed: 1929
  • Architect: Emery Roth
  • Floors: 22
  • Style: Renaissance
  • New York City Landmark: 1987
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1982
Beresford Recommended Reading

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Ardsley

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The Ardsley is one of a handful of Art Deco apartment buildings on Central Park West – and considered by some to be Emery Roth’s finest Art Deco building, even surpassing his Eldorado, one block south. It’s a sharp departure from the styles Roth used in his other famous Central Park West apartment towers: Alden, Beresford, and San Remo.

The Ardsley Vital Statistics
  • Location: 320 Central Park West at W 92nd Street
  • Year completed: 1931
  • Architect: Emery Roth
  • Floors: 22
  • Style: Art Deco
  • New York City Landmark: 1990
The Ardsley Recommended Reading

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