Tag Archives: upper west side

Manhasset Apartments

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Manhasset Apartments are near-twin Beaux Arts landmark buildings on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, instantly recognizable for their two-story slate mansard roof and imposing orange brick form.

The buildings were originally designed by architect Joseph Wolf as eight-story structures – then the legal limit for apartments. When the original developer went bankrupt, the new developer hired Janes & Leo to add three stories, taking advantage of new building codes. In the process, Janes & Leo changed the decorative style to Beaux Arts.

In 1910, a new set of owners added retail stores along Broadway.

The building’s current owners rebuilt the roof starting in late 1996; while the scaffolding was still up in March of ’99, an absent-minded restaurant chef set the building on fire.

Manhasset Apartments Vital Statistics
  • Location: 301 W 108th Street / 300 W 109th Street at Broadway
  • Year completed: 1905
  • Architect: Joseph Wolf, Janes & Leo
  • Floors: 11
  • Style: Beaux Arts
  • New York City Landmark: 1996
Manhasset Apartments Recommended Reading

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101 Central Park West

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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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214 Riverside Drive

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214 Riverside Drive, the Chatillion, is a distinctive Beaux Arts apartment building. Its picturesque, curving form is right in character with undulating Riverside Drive.

Originally conceived as a luxury building, with just two grand apartments per floor, Chatillion has been subdivided to 15 apartments per floor!

The coop appears to have more than its share of history. The property’s website recounts “Murder, suicide, crime, disasters, political intrigue” at the address.

214 Riverside Drive Vital Statistics
  • Location: 214 Riverside Drive at W 94th Street
  • Year completed: 1902
  • Architect: Stein, Cohen & Roth
  • Floors: 7
  • Style: Beaux Arts
  • New York City Landmark: 1989 (Riverside-West End Historic District)
214 Riverside Drive Recommended Reading

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243 West End Avenue

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243 West End Avenue was built in 1925 as Hotel Cardinal, an apartment hotel designed by Emery Roth, one of New York’s foremost residential architects. The red brick facade is embellished with elaborate polychrome terra cotta window treatments on the bottom three and top three floors – recalling the classic base-shaft-capital design of early tall buildings.

The NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) notes in its West End-Collegiate Historic District Extension Designation Report that the original cornice and windows have been replaced. Originally, the windows were six-over-six double-hung sashes (archi-speak for 12-paned windows).

For a time, the building was also known as the Coliseum Plaza.

LPC adds a musical note: Music publisher Frederick Benjamin Haviland, whose songs included “The Sidewalks of New York,” lived here before his death in 1932. Fast forward to 2015: there’s a song titled “243 West End Avenue” performed by The Virgin Lips. You heard it here first!

243 West End Avenue Vital Statistics
  • Location: 243 West End Avenue at W 71st Street
  • Year completed: 1925
  • Architect: Emery Roth
  • Floors: 16
  • Style: Renaissance Revival
  • New York City Landmark: 2013 (West End-Collegiate Historic District Extension)
243 West End Avenue Recommended Reading

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249 West End Avenue

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249 West End Avenue stands squeezed between apartment buildings three times its height, thanks to the perseverance of its owner, Mary Cook.

The five-story building, once typical of West End Avenue townhouses, was constructed as one of five homes designed to look like one large building (see the Daytonian in Manhattan blog for the “before” picture).

Mrs. Cook, a widow, declined offers from developers both north and south of her home. In 1915, 255 West End Avenue rose 14 stories to her north. In 1925, 243 West End Avenue rose 15 stories to her south.

Mrs. Cook died in 1932; the building became home of the Continental Club, and in the late 40s it was converted to apartments.

249 West End Avenue Vital Statistics
  • Location: 249 West End Avenue between W 71st and W 72nd Streets
  • Year completed: 1893
  • Architect: Clarence Fagan True
  • Floors: 5
  • Style: Romanesque Revival
  • New York City Landmark: 2013 (West End-Collegiate Historic District Extension)
Recommended Reading

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Beresford

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The Beresford is among the most celebrated creations of one of New York’s most celebrated architects, Emery Roth. The building’s 200-foot-square, 22-story mass is highly visible, its three towers permanently etched in the skyline – the view protected by Central Park to the east and the American Museum of Natural History to the south.

Beresford was built just in the nick of time – completed just weeks before the stock market crash. Nonetheless, the Great Depression eventually claimed the grand building, and it was sold at auction in 1940. (See Luxury Apartment Houses of Manhattan: An Illustrated History for more details.) But Beresford bounced back, becoming a cooperative (1962) and attracting the rich and famous.

The Renaissance-style structure is built around a T-shaped courtyard that opens to the west, providing light and air to interior-facing rooms. There are four entries: Two on W 81st Street, one (the main address) on Central Park West, and a service entrance on W 82nd Street.

Emery Roth’s other major works include the San Remo and Ardsley, also on Central Park West; the Normandy (Riverside Drive), Oliver Cromwell (W 72nd Street), Ritz Tower (W 57th Street) and Hotel Belleclaire (Broadway).

Beresford Vital Statistics
  • Location: 211 Central Park West between W 81st and W 82nd Streets
  • Year completed: 1929
  • Architect: Emery Roth
  • Floors: 22
  • Style: Renaissance
  • New York City Landmark: 1987
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1982
Beresford Recommended Reading

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75 Central Park West

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75 Central Park West is a lesser-known work of a master of New York apartment house architecture, Rosario Candela.

This building seems to have reversed the normal progression of older, luxury buildings: Apartments have been combined rather than divided; the original 55 units are now 48.

Over the years, many of the windows have been altered. Originally, all of the windows were pairs of three-over-three double-hung windows. Many of the pairs have been combined and/or changed to casement or fixed windows.

75 Central Park West Vital Statistics
  • Location: 75 Central Park West at W 67th Street
  • Year completed: 1929
  • Architect: Rosario Candela
  • Floors: 15
  • Style: neo-Renaissance
  • New York City Landmark: 1990
75 Central Park West Recommended Reading

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River Mansion

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River Mansion has had a storied life, starting as the residence of a wealthy Broadway actress, devolving into a rooming house, then the home of (minor) royalty, back to a rooming house, then as a music school and now restored as a residence. It is part of New York’s Riverside-West 105th Street Historic District, an enclave of just 30 five-story town houses sharing similar architecture.

The building (and its neighbor 322 W 106th Street) was completed in 1902, just four years after completion of Riverside Park.

For the fascinating story of the River Mansion’s occupants, read the Daytonian in Manhattan blog. And to get a better sense of the house’s neighbors, read The New York Times‘ account, “The Heist, the Getaway and the Sawed-Off Leg.”

River Mansion Vital Statistics
  • Location: 337 Riverside Drive at W 106th Street
  • Year completed: 1902
  • Architect: Robert D. Kohn
  • Floors: 5
  • Style: Beaux Arts
  • New York City Landmark: 1973
  • National Register of Historic Places:
River Mansion Recommended Reading

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