Tag Archives: Lincoln Square

65 Central Park West

65 Central Park West

Manhattan, New York, , , , , , , , ,

65 Central Park West is one of nine Central Park West landmarks* designed by famed Emery Roth. Less dramatic than Roth’s towered San Remo, Beresford, or El Dorado, this Neo-Renaissance co-op is still impressive New York architecture.

The building’s location, across from Tavern on the Green and just a three-block walk from Lincoln Center, is idyllic.

Apartments here are currently listed at between $975,000 and $5.5 million.

* One of the Emery Roth landmarks, Mayflower Hotel (1925), was demolished in 2004 to make way for Robert A.M. Stern’s 15 CPW. Roth’s other Central Park landmarks are still standing. Besides 65 CPW they are (moving uptown): San Remo (1930), Beresford (1929), Alden (1926), 275 CPW (1930), 295 CPW (1940), El Dorado (1931), and Ardsley (1931).

65 Central Park West Vital Statistics
  • Location: 65 Central Park West at 66th Street
  • Year completed: 1926
  • Architect: Emery Roth
  • Floors: 16
  • Style: Neo-Renaissance
  • New York City Landmark: 1990
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1982
65 Central Park West Recommended Reading

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15 Central Park West

15 Central Park West

Manhattan, New York, , , , , , , ,

15 Central Park West is one of the newest, yet most famous addresses on the avenue. The asymmetrical condominium towers take up a full block. The 20-story “House” is on Central Park West; the 43-story “Tower” is on Broadway. The two are connected in a courtyard that also serves as a private driveway, to shield rich and famous tenants from paparazzi.

Privacy is prized as much as luxury (10- to 14-foot ceilings throughout) and amazing views of Central Park. The 202 apartments are arranged so that only two units share an elevator landing.

The $950 million building is sheathed entirely in limestone – unusual (and costly) for a structure of this size. Coincidentally, the limestone came from the same quarry used by another all-limestone landmark – the Empire State Building.

The towers are too new to be considered for official landmark status, but they replace the Mayflower Hotel, which very well might have had that honor. The Upper West Side-Central Park West Historic District begins across W 62nd street.

15 Central Park West Vital Statistics
  • Location: 15 Central Park West between W 61 and W 62 Streets
  • Year completed: 2007
  • Architect: Robert A. M. Stern
  • Floors: 20 (“House”)/43 (“Tower”)
  • Style: Postmodern
15 Central Park West Recommended Reading

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Century

Manhattan, , , , , , , , , , ,

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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Lincoln Square

Manhattan, , ,

The Lincoln Square neighborhood got its name in May 1906, but it took the Lincoln Center Redevelopment project to really put the area on the map. The 1955 public/private urban renewal project turned a slum into a cultural complex. Some fifty years later, the center was renovated and extended with the addition of less formal features, such as the Illumination Lawn and the plaza, grandstand and cafe on Broadway between West 65th and West 66th Streets.

The project’s enduring flaw is the lack of mass transit: A single subway stop – and a local stop at that – serves Lincoln Center.

Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus occupies two square blocks south of Lincoln Center; Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School and Martin Luther King, Jr. High School occupy two blocks west of Lincoln Center. Capital Cities/ABC has a cluster of four buildings at Columbus Avenue and West 66th Street. Retail culture – in the form of Tower Records and Barnes and Noble – used to be Lincoln Center’s neighbors on opposite sides of Broadway at West 66th; they’ve been succeeded by Raymour & Flanigan furniture and Century 21 discount department store.

The slide show begins with Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, then continues with the Lincoln Square neighborhood outside Lincoln Center.

Lincoln Square and Lincoln Center Suggested Reading

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Lincoln Center

Collections, Manhattan, , , ,

The Lincoln Square neighborhood got its name in May 1906, but it took the Lincoln Center Redevelopment project to really put the area on the map. The 1955 public/private urban renewal project turned a slum into a cultural complex. Some fifty years later, the center was renovated and extended with the addition of less formal features, such as the Illumination Lawn and the plaza, grandstand and cafe on Broadway between West 65th and West 66th Streets.

The project’s enduring flaw is the lack of mass transit: A single subway stop – and a local stop at that – serves Lincoln Center.

Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus occupies two square blocks south of Lincoln Center; Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School and Martin Luther King, Jr. High School occupy two blocks west of Lincoln Center. Capital Cities/ABC has a cluster of four buildings at Columbus Avenue and West 66th Street. Retail culture – in the form of Tower Records and Barnes and Noble – used to be Lincoln Center’s neighbors on opposite sides of Broadway at West 66th; they’ve been succeeded by Raymour & Flanigan furniture and Century 21 discount department store.

The slide show begins with Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, then continues with the Lincoln Square neighborhood outside Lincoln Center.

Lincoln Square and Lincoln Center Suggested Reading

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Hotel des Artistes

Manhattan, , , , , , , , ,

Hotel des Artistes is the most prominent of the eight buildings that make up the West 67th Street Artists’ Colony Historic District, in the National Register of Historic Places. It wasn’t the first, but 1 West 67th Street remains the largest of the studio/apartment buildings.

What sets this (and other studio buildings) apart is the double-height studio spaces in each apartment, with double-height windows to give artists ample natural light. Despite appearances, not all of the rooms are double-height. A little architectural sleight-of-hand is involved: Some of the double-height window openings are bisected by a steel panel that mimics a window pane pattern.

The building is a hotel in name only – built with hotel amenities to evade then-current apartment building height restrictions. Apartments originally had no kitchens; residents took their meals in a communal dining room (now the restaurant The Leopard at des Artistes). Other hotel amenities included a theater, a ballroom, and a swimming pool.

Hotel des Artistes has been home to prominent artists, performing artists – and non-artists. It became a co-op in 1970.

Hotel des Artistes Vital Statistics
  • Location: 1 West 67th Street at Central Park West
  • Year completed: 1918
  • Architect: George M. Pollard
  • Floors: 18
  • Style: Neo-Gothic with Tudor elements
  • New York City Landmark: 1990
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1985
Hotel des Artistes Recommended Reading

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Prasada

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Prasada is one of New York’s most distinctive pieces of architecture, though not everyone’s favorite. The Beaux Arts apartment building is too heavily ornamented for some, even those who appreciate the building’s landmark qualities. One critic derides the “banded limestone ‘marshmallow’ columns that I have always regarded as one of the truly tasteless architectural elements of all time.”*

Modern viewers have been deprived of the architect’s vision, however. The original French Second Empire mansard roof, balconies and iron railings were removed over the years, altering the structure’s visual balance. Prasada’s original three-apartments-per-floor has (through combination and division) ballooned to 47. Those apartments were two-, three- and four-bedroom affairs – plus one or two servant’s rooms!

Nonetheless, there’s high demand for Prasada’s cooperative apartments: In 2013, the penthouse changed hands for a reported $42 million. Monthly maintenance on the 6,500-square-foot unit is reportedly $19,114. That probably doesn’t include washing the 45 windows.

*Francis Morrone, “The Architectural Guidebook to New York City.”

Prasada Vital Statistics
  • Location: 50 Central Park West at W65th Street
  • Year completed: 1907
  • Architect: Charles W. Romeyn and Henry R. Wynne
  • Floors: 12
  • Style: Beaux Arts
  • New York City Landmark: 1990
Prasada Recommended Reading

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Harperly Hall

Manhattan, , , , , , , , ,

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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One Lincoln Plaza

Manhattan, , , , , , , , , ,

One Lincoln Plaza (aka ASCAP Building) was the first residential tower to go up in Lincoln Square after completion of Lincoln Center. But it’s not exactly what the developers had in mind, thanks to a scrappy holdout – the owner of a five-story brick-and-brownstone on W 63rd Street.

There are two versions of what transpired between tenement owner Col. Jehiel R. Elyachar and developer Paul Milstein. The New York Times’ account and Holdouts!: The Buildings That Got in the Way differ in some details, but essentially the Colonel kept raising the price of his $50,000 property to more than $600,000. Exasperated, the Milsteins decided to build around the tenement (a city-mandated park had already been cut out of One Lincoln Plaza’s footprint).

One Lincoln Plaza Vital Statistics
  • Location: 20 W 64th Street at Broadway
  • Year completed: 1972
  • Architect: Philip Birnbaum & Associates
  • Floors: 43
  • Style: Postmodern
One Lincoln Plaza Recommended Reading

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101 Central Park West

Manhattan, , , , , , , , , ,

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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