Tag Archives: New York City

London Terrace

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London Terrace shows that “timing is everything” can trump “location, location, location.” This whole-block residential development of Henry Mandel (“the Donald Trump of the 1920s”) had the bad luck of being built just as the country fell into the Great Depression. The 14-building, 1,670-unit project bankrupted Mandel and slipped into foreclosure. Just across Ninth Avenue – but built three decades later – the 10-building, 2,820-unit Penn South complex had a considerably easier life.

To be fair, the Penn South co-op had the backing of the then-giant International Ladies Garment Workers Union and a 25-year New York City tax abatement, advantages unavailable to London Terrace.

Mandel’s ambitious Chelsea complex – the city’s then-largest – included a central courtyard closed at the ends by a large indoor pool on Tenth Avenue and a restaurant on Ninth Avenue. In addition, there were separate rooftop exercise and recreation areas for children and adults, a telephone message center, page boys to run errands and other amenities that the rich were accustomed to. Yet the buildings were not for the rich: Most apartments were studio or one-bedroom units – no servants rooms here!

After the financial dust settled, London Terrace split into two developments with somewhat scaled-back amenities. The four corner buildings, dubbed London Terrace Towers, were converted to co-ops in 1986. The 10 mid-block buildings are known as London Terrace Gardens, and are still rental apartments. The pool and rooftop facilities are still in use.

The Tuscan architectural style, detailed and multi-colored, breaks up what could otherwise be a bleak and monolithic monster.

Some online accounts claim that Mandel jumped from the roof of London Terrace in 1934 after declaring bankruptcy. Good drama, but not true. His 1942 New York Times obituary reports that he died at Lenox Hill Hospital on October 10, 1942 after a short illness.

If you’re looking for drama, look no further than the story of Tillie Hart: She refused to move for the bulldozers, claiming her house’s sublease had another year to run. Even after losing court battles, Ms. Hart reportedly barricaded herself until sheriffs forcibly removed her belongings to the sidewalk.

The most recent drama was a battle over rights to use the swimming pool.

London Terrace Vital Statistics
  • Location: W 23rd to W 24th Street, Ninth to Tenth Avenue
  • Year completed: 1931
  • Architect: (Victor) Farrar & (Richard) Watmough
  • Floors: 22
  • Style: Tuscan
London Terrace Recommended Reading

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Brooklyn Army Terminal

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Brooklyn Army Terminal is Cass Gilbert’s monumental all-concrete intermodal warehouse, rushed to completion for World War I. Also known as the US Army Military Ocean Terminal or the Brooklyn Army Base, it was the largest concrete building, when built, and also the largest military terminal in the U.S. As a strictly utilitarian facility, the buildings totally lack the lavish ornamentation of Gilbert’s Beaux Arts and Gothic masterpieces.

Although completed too late to play a role in WWI, the five-million-square-foot terminal moved three million troops and 37 million tons of military cargo during WWII.

The terminal continued to operate through the cold war, as a supply base for U.S. troops in NATO. The most famous soldier to “ship out” from Brooklyn was Elvis Presley, in 1958. But after Elvis left the building, things were pretty quiet until the ’70s, when the Army itself shipped out. New York City bought the Brooklyn Army Terminal in 1981 and began converting it to civilian use in 1984, a process that is still continuing.

Like other industrial parks, Brooklyn Army Terminal is closed to the general public, but Turnstile Tours now has twice-monthly weekend guided tours of the facility.

(Many thanks to Corey William Schneider and the New York Adventure Club, the Facebook-based group that arranges explorations of lesser-known attractions throughout the city’s five boroughs.)

Brooklyn Army Terminal Vital Statistics
  • Location: 140 58th Street, Sunset Park
  • Year completed: 1919
  • Architect: Cass Gilbert
  • Floors: 8
  • Style: Brutalist
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1983
Brooklyn Army Terminal Recommended Reading

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Main Brooklyn Post Office

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Main Brooklyn Post Office, aka Conrad B. Duberstein U.S. Bankruptcy Courthouse, is one of downtown Brooklyn’s architectural gems. The four-story (plus tower) granite structure is boldly detailed Romanesque Revival. The building originally included federal courtrooms – but the courts have now pushed the original post office functions into the addition, built in 1933.

Both the original building and the annex were restored, inside and out, from 1996 through 2013. But prior to the restoration, the Federal Government wanted to demolish the annex to build a 415-foot-high courthouse tower – a structure that would dwarf the original building.

As The New York Times reported in 1992, “Deirdre Carson, a vice president for land use for the Brooklyn Heights Association, said that the 1891 building was one of the classic architectural structures in downtown Brooklyn and that putting a large building next to it would ruin its visual impact. ‘We’re trading two years of jobs for generations of ugliness,’ she said.” (full story)

Main Brooklyn Post Office Vital Statistics
  • Location: 271-C Cadman Plaza East
  • Year completed: 1891
  • Architect: Mifflin E. Bell, William A. Freret
  • Floors: 4
  • Style: Romanesque Revival
  • New York City Landmark: 1966
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1974
Main Brooklyn Post Office Recommended Reading

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Cherokee Apartments

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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

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74 E 79th Street

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74 E 79th Street is an oddity of New York architecture: Three landmark row houses gave their lives to let this 19-story tower rise.

The result was jeered by the “AIA Guide to New York City” as “A strange tower looms over Victorian town houses: Parisian Left Bank studios at the top, boredom at the waist, and a rich row of brick and brownstone along the street-front (all part of a zoning package).”

According to The New York Times’ account, the original developer got a Buildings Department permit to erect an 18-story apartment tower at 72 and 74 E 79th Street in 1980 – but demolition of the old buildings was delayed. In 1981 the Landmarks Preservation Commission created the Upper East Side Historic District, which includes those buildings. Meanwhile, new owners applied to change their plans; Department of Buildings agreed to the changes. Preservationists, including the LPC, cried foul and sued to stop work.

The plot thickens: City Council passed the “sliver law” prohibiting ultra-narrow buildings. The proposed structure didn’t meet “sliver law” standards, so the project came to a screeching halt. By the time that the Department of Buildings was able to green-light the project – but back with the original plans – the partner with the financing lost interest.

The owner of 76 E 79th Street then swooped in, buying the unbuildable lots next door. The new three-lot site was now wide enough to satisfy the “sliver law” and a new tower plan was devised to incorporate the historic row house facades.

74 E 79th Street Vital Statistics
  • Location: 72-76 E 79th Street between Madison and Park Avenues
  • Year completed: 1884; conversion 1988
  • Architect: Anson Squires (72 & 74); James E. Ware (76); Conklin & Rossant (conversion)
  • Floors: 19
  • New York City Landmark: 1981
74 E 79th Street Recommended Reading

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780 West End Avenue

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780 West End Avenue was ahead of its time, New York apartment house architecture that emphasized its height by omitting the horizontal banding common among “classical” buildings. Also, the perforated cornice seems to add a 14th floor.

The building is also notable for its mix of granite, white brick, and terra cotta, and for the curved balconies at the second, third, 12th, and 13th floors.

The architects, George & Edward Blum, were prolific designers. They have more than 120 apartment houses to their credit, plus many office and loft buildings; many of their structures are New York City landmarks.

780 West End Avenue Vital Statistics
  • Location: 780 West End Avenue at W 98th Street
  • Year completed: 1914
  • Architect: George & Edward Blum
  • Floors: 13
  • Style: Art Nouveau
780 West End Avenue Recommended Reading

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245 Tenth Avenue

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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

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381-389 West End Avenue

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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

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12 E 87th Street

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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

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Hotel des Artistes

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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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