Tag Archives: Manhattan

Millan House

Manhattan, , , , , , ,

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

Google Map

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Mortimer B. Zuckerman Research Center

Manhattan, , , , , , ,

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Mortimer B. Zuckerman Research Center is a major expansion of previous lab facilities. The distinctive red-sliced slab tower accommodates a neighboring church, which provided the needed land and air rights.

The red terra cotta wall slices through the slab tower, separating laboratories in the western section from supporting offices in the eastern section. Each major facade has its own passive sun shade solution. Fritted glass panels shade the labs; aluminum-pipe louvers shade the offices.

The project had to be completed without disturbing ongoing research at the existing laboratories.

The base of the tower includes a rectory for St. Catherine of Siena Church.

See the architect’s project portfolio and design narrative for a detailed analysis.

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Mortimer B. Zuckerman Research Center Vital Statistics
  • Location: 415 E 68th Street between York and First Avenues (block-through to 410 E 69th Street)
  • Year completed: 2006
  • Architect: Skidmore Owings & Merrill
  • Floors: 23
  • Style: Postmodern
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Mortimer B. Zuckerman Research Center Recommended Reading

Google Map

Cherokee Apartments

Manhattan, , , , , , , , , ,

Cherokee Apartments are beautiful – and beautifully maintained – apartments designed specifically for families with tuberculosis patients. Originally known as Shively Sanitary Tenements (aka East River Homes, aka Vanderbilt model tenements), the buildings have rare features you’ll probably never see elsewhere.

Dr. Henry Shively, a prominent physician who advocated home treatment of tuberculosis, persuaded Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt to endow $1.5 million to build and maintain a model healthful living environment. Henry Atterbury Smith designed the four interconnected buildings.

You might say the apartments are built of air – providing abundant fresh air dictated many design features. The roofs had open-air recreation facilities; most street-facing windows were triple-sash floor-to-ceiling affairs opening on to balconies – to encourage open-air sleeping. Gas stoves were all equipped with forced-air ventilating hoods; even the staircases were open-air. (The staircases were also notable for having two handrails – one for children, one for adults – and seats on each landing in case you needed to rest.) The “lobbies” are Guastavino tile-lined vaults open at each end.

The sanitary, airy housing was intended to alleviate living conditions of the poor. But no sooner than the buildings were completed, architect Henry A. Smith declared all such housing a failure. “The model tenements are too expensive. They are built for the very poor, but the very poor do not live in them. They can’t afford it,” declared Smith in a New York Times feature.

The New York Association for Improving the Conditions of the Poor leased 48 of the 383 apartments as a “Home Hospital.” In 1923 the charitable trust that governed East River Homes was dissolved and the buildings sold to City and Suburban Homes Company. In the 1930s the rooftop recreational facilities were removed and apartments were extensively remodeled. In 1986 the buildings were converted to a co-op, and renamed Cherokee Apartments.

Cherokee Apartments Vital Statistics
  • Location: Cherokee Place between E 77th and E 78th Streets
  • Year completed: 1912
  • Architect: Henry Atterbury Smith
  • Floors: 6
  • Style: Beaux Arts
  • New York City Landmark: 1985
Cherokee Apartments Recommended Reading

Google Map

245 Tenth Avenue

Manhattan, , , , , , , , ,

Hovering over New York’s High Line in Chelsea, 245 Tenth Avenue is a shining example of metallic architecture. Or is it?

The stamped-steel and glass luxury condo (apartments at $5 million) presents complex facades: Stark stainless walls overlooking the corner gas station, random glass and steel patterns on the Tenth Avenue and High Line facades. The effect, according to the architects, is meant to evoke images of smoke puffing from the steam locomotives that once chugged along the High Line’s rails.

Real estate blog The Real Deal sniped, “To say that 245 10th Avenue is Manhattan’s latest contribution to the cult of ugliness is not necessarily as disrespectful as it sounds. Like the rebarbative High Line 519 one block south on 23rd Street, 245 10th Avenue is a particularly eccentric example of Mod-meets-deconstruction, with retro-glances to the aesthetics of the 1960s and forward glances to what we must pray is not the future of architecture.”

But the Empire Guides blog said, “245 10th Avenue is a stunning building overlooking the High Line Park and is one of the most impressive architectural spectacles along the length of the green space.”

Metal panels are becoming more common as architectural skin, but they invite comparison to elegant Deco-era classics like the Socony-Mobil Building and the Chrysler Building.

What’s your take?

245 Tenth Avenue Vital Statistics
  • Location: 245 Tenth Avenue at W 24th Street
  • Year completed: 2010
  • Architect: Della Valle Bernheimer (Jarred Della Valle, Andrew Bernheimer)
  • Floors: 11
  • Style: Postmodern
245 Tenth Avenue Recommended Reading

Google Map

381-389 West End Avenue

Manhattan, , , , , , , ,

381-389 West End Avenue and 303-307 W 78th Street are a row of eight Flemish Renaissance houses, Frederick B. White’s only known New York City works.

The little-known architect had a brief but incandescent career: He died at 24, but from 1883 to 1886 built more than 200 homes and cottages, and had another 50 under construction.

The original tile roofs have been replaced with asphalt, and many of the windows and doors have been replaced with modern aluminum units. One of the W 78th Street houses – 303 – was remodeled in the 1920s to a white stucco neo-Tudor design. Sadly, this breaks the harmony that was intended.

381-389 West End Avenue Vital Statistics
  • Location: 381-389 West End Avenue at W 78th Street
  • Year completed: 1886
  • Architect: Frederick B. White
  • Floors: 3
  • Style: Flemish Renaissance
  • New York City Landmark: 1984
381-389 West End Avenue Recommended Reading

Google Map

12 E 87th Street

Manhattan, , , , , , , , ,

12 East 87th Street, aka The Capitol, is a stunning example of George & Edward Blum’s textured designs. The eight-story luxury building is hidden mid-block between Fifth and Madison Avenues.

The Capitol is clad in glazed white terra cotta and Roman brick, with deep-set windows and remnants of a prominent terra cotta cornice (the upper part of the cornice was removed, but the supporting brackets remain). A dry moat in front includes stairs to the basement level. The black railing in front was originally all brass, matching the entrance, but pieces were stolen over the years, and replaced with galvanized steel.

The original whole-floor apartments boasted 14 rooms and four baths. Each apartment’s four main “public” rooms – the living room, dining room, reception room and salon – were interconnected to provide a 40-foot by 50-foot space for entertaining. In 1935 and 1943, the owners subdivided the eight apartments into 32 units. (See the Street Easy listing for current floor plans.)

The building became a cooperative in 1985.

12 East 87th Street Vital Statistics
  • Location: 12 E 87th Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues
  • Year completed: 1912
  • Architect: George & Edward Blum
  • Floors: 8
  • Style: neo-Renaissance
  • New York City Landmark: 1993
12 East 87th Street Recommended Reading

Google Map

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

Google Map

Langham

Manhattan, , , , , , , , , ,

The Langham is an elegant bookmark separating the more famous Dakota (to the south) and San Remo. The building is a restrained Beaux Arts / French Second Empire; the lower 10 floors are dignified rusticated limestone and brick, with restrained decoration and Juliette balconies. The 11th floor is more heavily decorated, and the 12 and 13th floors – in the mansard roof – are the most elaborate.

Originally, the building had just four apartments per floor: Each a luxury home that included three or four bedrooms, two servant’s rooms, library, living room, and dining room. All were entered via an elegant foyer (or if you were a servant or tradesman, via a back service elevator). The Langham touted a central refrigeration system to provide ice to each apartment (before mechanical refrigerators), mail delivery via conveyor belt, and a central vacuum cleaning system. A carriageway on W 73rd Street provided access via a back lobby. More importantly, in the days before air conditioning, each apartment had windows facing in four directions, thanks to three light courts along the back (west) side.

The building now has 64 units. But the apartments now range from two to eight bedrooms (a combination of a five-bedroom and a three-bedroom), with rents ranging from $4,250 to $60,000 per month. In 2008, The Gawker listed The Langham as one of the 20 most expensive rentals in New York City.

The Langham has had more than its share of celebrity tenants: Irving Bloomingdale, vice president (and son of the founder) of Bloomingdale’s; Isadore Saks, with his son, Joseph. Isadore Saks founded Saks & Company; Martin Beck, head of the Orpheum theater chain, who built the Palace Theater; Edward F. Albee, head of the Keith and Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chains and grandfather of the playwright Edward Albee; Lee Strasberg, the actor and teacher. Last, but not least, actress Mia Farrow had an 11-room apartment in The Langham, which was used in the filming of Woody Allen’s “Hannah and Her Sisters.”

The Langham Vital Statistics
  • Location: 135 Central Park West from W 73rd to W 74th Street
  • Year completed: 1907
  • Architect: Charles W. Clinton & William Hamilton Russell
  • Floors: 13
  • Style: Beaux Arts / Second Empire
  • New York City Landmark: 1990
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1982
The Langham Recommended Reading

Google Map

31 E 79th Street

Manhattan, , , , , , , ,

31 E 79th Street is two buildings in one, though you wouldn’t know it at first glance. The original, eastern section was built in 1925 with one seven-room apartment per floor; the western section, added three years later, contained triplex apartments.

From the outside, only three clues that the building was built in parts: Inconsistent cornice, cracks developing in E 79th Street facade, and unusual horizontal spacing of windows.

See Andrew Alpern’s “New York’s Fabulous Luxury Apartments“ for floor plans (not to mention 73 other luxury apartment houses).

31 E 79th Street Vital Statistics
  • Location: 31 E 79th Street at Madison Avenue
  • Year completed: 1925 / 1928
  • Architect: G.B. Beaumont
  • Floors: 15
  • Style: neo-Renaissance
31 E 79th Street Recommended Reading

Google Map

55 Central Park West

Manhattan, , , , , , , , ,

55 Central Park West, among the first Art Deco apartment houses on the avenue, has become known as the “Ghostbusters Building.” In the 1984 movie, the building is attributed to insane architect Ivo Shandor.

Schwartz & Gross, the real architects, must be spinning in their graves. They designed an innovative brick, stone and terra cotta structure that changes color as it rises, from dark red to white. Massive fluted projections in the base and as finials at the setbacks emphasize the building’s vertical lines.

Inside, 55 CPW was fairly modest: apartments ranged from three to six rooms on lower floors. But all apartments had the innovation of a sunken living room.

Upper floors have larger apartments – including a massive 12-room duplex penthouse that sold for $35 million in 2013.

55 Central Park West Vital Statistics
  • Location: 55 Central Park West at W 66th Street
  • Year completed: 1930
  • Architect: Schwartz & Gross
  • Floors: 19
  • Style: Art Deco
  • New York City Landmark: 1990
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1982
55 Central Park West Recommended Reading

Google Map