194 Riverside Drive is relatively small, and well-screened by the trees of Joan of Arc Island – it would be easy to miss. But the building’s bold features are well worth seeing close up.
According to the Street Easy real estate website, the seven-story building originally had three 13-room apartments per floor; now there are 42 units.
The architect, Ralph S. Townsend, also designed neighboring 190 Riverside Drive as well as the much showier Kenilworth on Central Park West. In one of his Streetscapes columns, The New York Times’ architectural historian, Christopher Gray, provides some background on the architect.
(A wonderful collection of Gray’s columns was published in 2003 under the title New York Streetscapes. Although it is now out of print, you can still get copies at Amazon.com – both new and used: New York Streetscapes: Tales of Manhattan’s Significant Buildings and Landmarks
194 Riverside Drive Vital Statistics
- Location: 194 Riverside Drive at W 92nd Street
- Year completed: 1902
- Architect: Ralph S. Townsend
- Floors: 7
- Style: neo-Renaissance
- New York City Landmark: 1989
194 Riverside Drive Recommended Reading
- NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission designation report
- The New York Times Streetscapes /Readers’ Questions; Architect’s Legacies, a Mansion, an Early High-Rise (September 5, 1999)
- City Realty review
- Street Easy NY listing (includes floor plans)
- Emporis database