Tag Archives: residential

Montauk Club

Brooklyn, , , , , , , , , ,

Montauk Club is “an architectural treasure” of Park Slope, Brooklyn, according to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. Francis H. Kimball designed the brownstone and brick building in the style of a Venetian palace, decorated on three sides in terra cotta with scenes of the Montauk Indians. (The north side of the building, adjoining a vacant lot, was left plain for possible expansion.)

The club itself still exists (see their website for details), though it now uses just the two lower floors. The upper floors have been converted to cooperative apartments – accessed through the club’s former “ladies’ entrance.” The ladies’ entrance allowed the lady of 1891 to go directly to the third floor dining room without encountering cigar smoke or other male vices.

Montauk Club Vital Statistics
  • Location: 25 Eighth Avenue at Lincoln Place
  • Year completed: 1891
  • Architect: Francis H. Kimball
  • Floors: 5
  • Style: Venetian Gothic
  • New York City Landmark: 1973 (part of Park Slope Historic District)
Montauk Club Recommended Reading

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Barbizon Hotel for Women

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

Barbizon Hotel for Women, now known as the condominium apartments Barbizon 63, was built as a residential hotel catering to young professionals.

The NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) added the building to its roster in April 2012, noting that the structure is “an excellent representative of the 1920s apartment hotel building, and is notable for the high quality of its design.”

The zoning law of 1916 required setbacks – indented upper floors – on tall buildings to permit more light to reach the street. Complex arcades and courtyards in Barbizon Hotel’s setback design add visual interest to the tower. The complex brickwork, with a mix of colors and corbelling, adds visual rich texture, even from a distance.

Hotels for women were the ladies’ answer to late-1800s “bachelor flats” for men (e.g., The Wilbraham), and completed the quaint (by today’s standards) segregation of residences: for families, for single men, and for single women. (See also Beekman Tower Hotel, the former Panhellenic Tower.) See the LPC designation report for a great synopsis of New York City’s housing variety: tenements, apartments, french flats, rooming houses, residence and club hotels.

The first owners lost the hotel through foreclosure, but a second group led by Lawrence Elliman was able to show a profit by 1938. Quite a few now-famous women lived at the Barbizon through the mid-70s – by which time the hotel was again losing money. Between 1980 and 2001 the hotel changed hands five times, and then in 2005 it was converted to condominium apartments.

Barbizon Hotel for Women Vital Statistics
  • Location: 140 E 63rd Street at Lexington Avenue
  • Year completed: 1928
  • Architect: Murgatroyd & Ogden
  • Floors: 23
  • Style: Mix of Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance
  • New York City Landmark: 2012
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1982
Barbizon Hotel for Women Recommended Reading

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Aire

Manhattan, , , , , , , , , ,

Aire is a glass residential tower adjacent to the former Red Cross blood center just north of Lincoln Center. The building’s complex wedge-shaped plan presents an almost knife-edged profile when viewed from the south. Like any reflective facade, Aire’s appearance changes at the whim of the weather.

The former Red Cross building, meanwhile, was razed and rebuilt as a mixed-use low-rise structure – four floors above ground, two floors below grade. The street-level and underground floors are retail space, the upper floors are earmarked for community use.

The residential tower is a luxury rental building – a 2BR apartment lists for $14,000/month. The building’s amenities, however, are comparable to a luxury condominium: Landscaped private park, onsite health club, children’s indoor and outdoor play areas, and more. Not to mention awesome location – Central Park is two blocks east, Lincoln Center is two blocks south, Riverside Park is two blocks west.

Aire Vital Statistics
  • Location: 200 W 67th Street/150 Amsterdam Avenue
  • Year completed: 2011
  • Architect: Handel Architects
  • Floors: 42
  • Style: Postmodern
Aire Recommended Reading

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210 E 68th Street

Manhattan, , , , , , ,

There are plenty of more imposing buildings on Third Avenue – Trump Palace is on the next block – but 210 E 68th Street stands out at street level because of its colorful Art Deco accents and orange brickwork.

The 1929 apartment building was designed by George and Edward Blum, prolific architects who have more than 120 apartment buildings to their credit (not even counting their office and loft buildings). Alas, this was one of their last two buildings (the other is at 235 East 22nd Street).

The New York Times architecture critic Christopher Gray suggests a rationale for these apartments’ unusual color and decoration: “Perhaps because [the Blums] were fighting the hulking Third Avenue elevated train nearby, they used giant zigzag stripes of contrasting brick running across the front like World War I naval camouflage.” (The Third Avenue El was closed in 1955.)

210 E 68th Street Vital Statistics
  • Location: 210 E 68th Street at Third Avenue
  • Year completed: 1929
  • Architect: George & Edward Blum
  • Floors: 16
  • Style: Art Deco
  • National Register of Historic Places: 2008
210 E 68th Street Recommended Reading

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40 E 62nd Street

Manhattan, , , , , , , , ,

40 East 62nd Street lights up the block with its colorful gold, blue and red terra cotta; bay windows and battlements suggest a medieval castle – (a man’s home, after all…).

The building is part of the Upper East Side Historic District, in fine company if you’re looking for historic residences.

Among the building’s wealthy and famous tenants was Henry Janeway Hardenburg, architect of the Plaza Hotel and The Dakota.

The New York Times Streetscapes column and Daytonian in Manhattan blog are excellent reads; the Daytonian blog includes old photos and floor plans.

40 E 62nd Street Vital Statistics
  • Location: 40 E 62nd Street between Madison and Park Avenues
  • Year completed: 1911
  • Architect: Albert Joseph Bodker
  • Floors: 8
  • Style: neo-Medieval
  • New York City Landmark: 1981
40 E 62nd Street Recommended Reading

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47 Plaza Street West

Brooklyn, , , , , ,

47 Plaza Street West is often described as Brooklyn’s own Flatiron Building – and the similarities are striking: Both have a triangular footprint, but 47 Plaza Street West is a little more complex – its eastern side gently curves to follow Grand Army Plaza’s perimeter. The 1928 Brooklyn apartment building and the 1902 Manhattan office building both overlook a pedestrian plaza and a park (though the Brooklyn Plaza and park are MUCH more impressive). Both buildings are in Renaissance style – though 16-story 47 Plaza Street West is Italian Renaissance to 21-story Flatiron’s French Renaissance.

Brooklyn’s Flatiron has something that the original lacks – a sibling on the same block. Berkeley Plaza, the 14-story apartment building at 39 Plaza Street West, was also designed by Rosario Candela, in the same style, at the same time.

47 Plaza Street West Vital Statistics
  • Location: 47 Plaza Street West at Union Street
  • Year completed: 1928
  • Architect: Rosario Candela
  • Floors: 16
  • Style: Renaissance
47 Plaza Street West Recommended Reading

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Chelsea Modern

Manhattan, , , , , , , ,

Chelsea Modern is a stunning, award-winning residential design with innovative features – and with a perfect companion building next door on West 18th Street. Even with its mid-block location, the 12-story zig-zagging blue glass facade stands out.

Architect Audrey Matlock took a page from Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building – perfectly matched window blinds are built in, so that no one can destroy the symmetry or color of the facade by installing, say, calico curtains. But condo buyers can alter their floor plans somewhat – some of the bedroom walls are movable. Handy when you need to make the guest room less hospitable. You can open the windows at Chelsea Modern – but not by sliding or swinging the sash: It moves straight out, parallel to the side of the building. Fresh air enters (or your culinary excesses exit) around the sides of the sash.

As with anything radical, Chelsea Modern has its passionate detractors. They lament “there goes the neighborhood” as historic architecture is razed and glazed. (See the Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York blog. Even if you don’t agree with the author, you have to appreciate the writing.) Two warehouses died in the making of this building.

Chelsea Modern Vital Statistics
  • Location: 447 W 18th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues
  • Year completed: 2008
  • Architect: Audrey Matlock
  • Floors: 12
  • Style: Postmodern / Deconstructivism
Chelsea Modern Recommended Reading

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459 W 18th Street

Manhattan, , , , , , , , ,

459 W 18th Street so perfectly complements Chelsea Modern, the condo next door, you might think that they were one building. That’s quite a trick, considering that the two structures have different heights, widths, orientations, colors and materials – not to mention architects.

But 459’s vertically-aligned angles and stark black and white aluminum panels paradoxically marry the blue and white glass and horizontal lines of Chelsea Modern.

459 W 18th Street Vital Statistics
  • Location: 459 W 18th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues
  • Year completed: 2009
  • Architect: Della Valle + Bernheimer Design
  • Floors: 11
  • Style: postmodern
459 W 18th Street Recommended Reading
  • The New York Times Real Estate column
  • City Realty review
  • Emporis database
  • New York Magazine feature
  • The Real Deal real estate blog
  • Architect magazine of the American Institute of Architects – design review
  • Bernheimer Architecture website
  • Arcade design blog (architect interview)

Click to access architecture090615.pdf

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The Arlington

Brooklyn, , , , , , , , ,

The Arlington is the last and tallest of four ornate Romanesque Revival/Queen Anne style apartment buildings built on Montague Street; the others, designed by the Parfitt Bros. firm, are The Montague (105), and The Berkeley/The Grosvenor (111/115). The 10-story tower makes this one stand out.

Playwright Arthur Miller lived here, as well as artist/filmmaker Marie Menken and poet Willard Maas.

An Arlington resident – Chuck Taylor – seems to be the building’s self-appointed historian: He’s written four blog pieces about the structure. His Smoking Nun essay includes vintage photos of Montague Street when it was a trolley route, and before.

The Arlington Vital Statistics
  • Location: 62 Montague Street between Hicks Street and Montague Terrace
  • Year completed: 1887
  • Architect: Montrose W. Morris
  • Floors: 10
  • Style: Romanesque Revival
  • New York City Landmark: 1965
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1962
The Arlington Recommended Reading

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