Manhattan classic by PA Press

G eo f f r ey Ly n c h Principal photography by Evan Joseph and Mike Tauber

Princeton Architectural Press 路 New York

C o n t e n ts

Map: Manhattan Locations

Introduction: The Manhattan Prewar Apartment House

A Note to the Reader

Upper East Side: Fifth Avenue

Upper East Side: Park Avenue

Around the Upper East Side

106

Upper West Side: Central Park West

132

Upper West Side: West End Avenue

140

Upper West Side: Riverside Drive

156

Around the Upper West Side

1 76

Downtown

205

Acknowledgments

206

Prewar Architects

210

Selected Buildings by Architect

218

Selected Buildings by Location

223

Notes / Bibliography

224

Credits

M O RN

2ND AVE

9 PARK AVE

1ST AVE

E 96TH ST

YORKVILLE

E 90TH ST

R DR

W 90TH ST

E 95TH ST

3RD AVE

W 95TH ST

MADISON AVE

CENTRAL PARK WEST

W 96TH ST

25 69

W 86TH ST

W 80TH ST

E 80TH ST

61 42

W 66TH ST

41 40

W 65TH ST

LEXINGTON AVE

E 60TH ST

E 57TH ST

PARK AVE E 42ND ST

PARK AVE

9TH AVE

E 40TH ST

GARMENT DISTRICT

W 35TH ST

E 35TH ST

W 34TH ST

MADISON SQUARE

GRAMERCY PARK

7TH AVE S

GREENWICH VILLAGE

Y RL

E AV W

WEST VILLAGE

73 71

WAS HING TON SQUARE PARK

2ND AVE PL

EAST VILLAGE E 5TH ST

E 10TH ST TOMPKINS SQUARE PARK

AVENUE D

AV E

AVENUE B

AVENUE A

78 H

UNIV ERSI TY PL

FDR

AV E

STUYVESANT TOWN

4TH

E 14TH ST

W 14TH ST

E 20TH ST

E 15TH ST

UNION SQUARE

81 80

IRVING PL

7TH AVE

5TH AVE

8TH AVE

9TH AVE

GRAMERCY

W 15TH ST

3RD AVE E 23RD ST

W 20TH ST

KIPS BAY

E 25TH ST

E 30TH ST

1ST AVE

W 23RD ST

MADISON AVE

AVE OF THE AMERICAS

AY A DW

LEXINGTON AVE

5TH AVE

7TH AVE

BRO

CHELSEA W 25TH ST

10TH AVE

MURRAY HILL

E 34TH ST

W 30TH ST

T OR

3RD AVE E 45TH ST

MIDTOWN

BRYANT PARK

W 40TH ST

29 E 50TH ST

6TH AVE

TIMES SQUARE

W 42ND ST

10TH AVE

5TH AVE

7TH AVE

8TH AVE

W 45TH ST

E 55TH ST

MADISON AVE

9TH AVE

10TH AVE W 50TH ST

CHELSEA PARK

E 66TH ST

E 59TH ST

W 57TH ST AVE OF THE AMERICAS

WEST END AVE

CENTRAL PARK SOUTH

BROA DWAY

11TH AVE

12 11

W 60TH ST

CLINTON/ HELL’S KITCHEN

11TH AVE

AY DW

AMSTERDAM AVE

JOE DIMAGGIO HWY

E 72ND ST

E 70TH ST

E 65TH ST

3 2 1

W 55TH ST

E 12 TH AV

17 PARK AVE

COLUMBUS AVE

44 43

HENRY HUDSON PARKWAY

W 70TH ST

BROADWAY

ID E DR

W 72ND ST

E 75TH ST

19 18

MERC ER ST

RI VE RS

49 62

2ND AVE

W 75TH ST

E 79TH ST

21 20

5 36

3RD AVE

EAST END AVE

UPPER EAST SIDE

YORK AVE

CENTRAL PARK

YORK AVE

UPPER WEST SIDE

SUTTON PLACE

39 38

E 85TH ST

8 7

1ST AVE

E 86TH ST

W 85TH ST

1ST AVE

FDR DR

TUDOR CITY PL

ALPHABET CITY AVENUE C

AMSTERDAM AVE

E 103TH ST

E 100TH ST

BROADWAY

E 105TH ST

2ND AVE

W 100TH ST

WEST END AVE

3RD AVE LEXINGTON AVE

W 103TH ST

JEFFERSON PARK

5TH AVE

EAST HARLEM

E 110TH ST

COLUMBUS AVE

HENRY HUDSON PARKWAY

R DE D

BROADWAY

IN G SI

W 110TH ST

PARK AVE

W 116TH ST E 115TH ST

5TH AVE

W 115TH ST

HARLEM

MADISON AVE

E AV

MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS

MANHATTAN AVE

W 116TH ST

MALCOM X BLVD

RIVERSIDE DR

I .N ST

M a n h at ta n lo cat i o n s

Upper East Side: Fifth Avenue

435 East 52nd Street (River House)

173–175 Riverside Drive

1 810 Fifth Avenue

14 Sutton Place South

258 Riverside Drive (The Peter Stuyvesant)

820 Fifth Avenue

320 East 57th Street

310 Riverside Drive

834 Fifth Avenue

136 East 64th Street

315 Riverside Drive

907 Fifth Avenue

131–135 East 66th Street

440 Riverside Drive (The Paterno)

960 Fifth Avenue

115 East 67th Street (Millan House)

998 Fifth Avenue

19 East 72nd Street

Broadway and around the Upper West Side

1020 Fifth Avenue

35 East 76th Street

1 West 67th Street (Hotel des Artistes)

1030 Fifth Avenue

1 Gracie Square

2109 Broadway (The Ansonia)

1170 Fifth Avenue

520/530 East 86th Street

161 West 75th Street

120 East End Avenue

6–16 West 77th Street

2211 Broadway (The Apthorp)

Upper East Side: Park Avenue 10

417 Park Avenue

Upper West Side: Central Park West

15 West 81st Street

580 Park Avenue

41 Central Park West (Harperly Hall)

221 West 82nd Street

610 Park Avenue (Mayfair House)

55 Central Park West

200 West 86th Street (The New Amsterdam)

640 Park Avenue

65 Central Park West

225 West 86th Street (The Belnord)

655 Park Avenue

101 Central Park West

740 Park Avenue

115 Central Park West (The Majestic)

Downtown

760 Park Avenue

1 West 72nd Street (The Dakota)

1 Fifth Avenue

765/775 Park Avenue

145–146 Central Park West (The San Remo)

39 Fifth Avenue (Grosvenor Apartments)

778 Park Avenue

211 Central Park West (The Beresford)

40 Fifth Avenue

812 Park Avenue

300 Central Park West (The Eldorado)

43 Fifth Avenue

875 Park Avenue

45 Christopher Street

885 Park Avenue

Upper West Side: West End Avenue

2 Horatio Street

888 Park Avenue

300 West End Avenue

28 East 10th Street (Devonshire House)

940 Park Avenue

450 West End Avenue

40–50 East 10th Street

1040 Park Avenue

530 West End Avenue (The Sexton)

59 West 12th Street

1088 Park Avenue

800 West End Avenue

242 East 19th Street

1120 Park Avenue

36 Gramercy Park East

1185 Park Avenue

Upper West Side: Riverside Drive

44 Gramercy Park North

33 Riverside Drive

60 Gramercy Park North

Around the Upper East Side

90 Riverside Drive

1 Lexington Avenue

140 Riverside Drive (The Normandy)

London Terrace

Tudor City

I n t ro d u ct i o n : T h e M a n h at ta n P r e wa r Apa rt m e n t H o us e

For many New Yorkers, real estate is an obsession.

great works of architectural design almost never come

Dinner-party discussions quickly turn to addresses,

on the market because residents can’t imagine leaving,

views, lobbies, and maintenance fees. It’s an expensive

except feet first. New York’s prewars ignite extraordinary

and arduous struggle to find a home you love; the hunt

passion; living in a prewar designed by one of that era’s

involves walking through many apartments that are

celebrated architects in one of their best buildings is

overpriced letdowns. You may find it difficult to sup-

a priceless luxury, often marking a person’s entry into

press a surge of real estate envy when visiting friends’

high society.

perfect new places, listening to their long stories about

Walking along Manhattan’s Park Avenue or the

the lucky happy ending that occurred just after they

streets of the Upper West Side, you may wonder how

had lost all hope of finding a home. We yearn for what

this passion for prewars originated. Though pleasant,

we probably can’t ever afford: one of those extraordi-

their architecture is generally calm and unexceptional.

narily beautiful apartments we see in glossy magazines

A location on Fifth Avenue overlooking Central Park is

and real estate ads, flawlessly designed right down to

impressive, but aren’t they just nice apartment buildings?

the doorknobs—the trophy homes, photographed with

If you have the opportunity, visit a few of these

celebrity owners who describe their regular jaunts to

apartment homes for a firsthand look. Perched high

the Paris flea markets to find just the right side table.

above the noisy streets, filled with light, and sometimes

Prewar apartment houses, constructed between

commanding spectacular skyline views, prewars have

1870 and 1935, contain some of the most consistently

come to define the elegance and glamour of living in

desirable homes in the city. On average they cost sig-

New York City. They have the beauty, proportions, and

nificantly more than their newer counterparts; these

elegance of private houses; prewars were deliberately

designed to convince families to give up their town

message about social class: separate service elevators

houses, matching or surpassing them architecturally

and servants’ quarters were the norm. Today, finding a

while providing the luxuries of twenty-four-hour door-

prewar apartment in pristine condition is rare, as they

men and a dedicated superintendent. Some buildings

either command stratospheric prices or have been sub-

even had a private dining room and chef facility. They are

divided into smaller one- and two-bedrooms, following

quiet, and the air is fresh and cool. Instead of the gritty

the dictates of economic necessity. Whether large or

city being on the other side of a thin wood front door,

small, however, these homes maintain their sense of

there’s always a doorman or two watching the street for

grandeur and charm, making them highly coveted in

you. Near good schools, restaurants, museums, and all

the always-competitive Manhattan real estate market.

the city offers, they offer privacy, security, and stately

The center-hall floor plan is the defining architec-

architecture, with an almost obsessive attention to detail

tural move of prewar apartments (which are typically

in the woodwork, fine wood floors, moldings, brass door

categorized by number of rooms: a classic six has two

handles, and many other handcrafted features.

bedrooms in addition to maid’s quarters, and a clas-

The buildings’ exteriors feature three-story walls of

sic eight has four bedrooms plus maid’s quarters). For

smooth, thick limestone slabs, topped by ten or more

example, in a 1,600-square-foot classic six, such as an

stories of simple brick in earth tones ranging from Indian

A-line home at 800 West End Avenue, the entrance is

red to dark brown to sandy beige. Reaching out to the

not through the public corridor beside the kitchen but

curb is a regal deep blue or private-club-green canvas

through a remarkably sizable foyer, 28 feet long and 8

canopy to both announce the address and keep resi-

feet wide. There’s a painting or two on the wall, and you,

dents and visitors dry on rainy nights as they wait for

the tired city dweller, feel embraced by the space as

cabs. Double-hung windows are centered in rows above

you drop your keys in a dish on a wood sideboard, take

a pair of small, heavy-looking, black latticed front doors.

off your shoes, and receive a welcome-home kiss. A tall,

A doorman in a hat and uniform is waiting just behind the

framed doorway opens onto a wide living room with a

glass; a bit like a private club, it’s designed to be hard to

marble fireplace in the middle and two large windows

see inside. Though hundreds of people may live in the

centered on the wall facing the street. The living room

building, it’s meant to feel secure and intimate, not grand

is far enough from the front door that you don’t hear

like a hotel. Residents are greeted by a smile from some-

your neighbor’s television from across the hall. Through

one who knows them by name. The door swings open,

another framed doorway is a large dining room.

and they glide into a narrow room finished in smooth,

Bedrooms are tucked away for privacy down a short

warm marble and soft lighting, leaving the city behind.

hall. Ten-foot ceilings and windows in each room make

If you’ve never been in a prewar apartment house,

spaces feel even bigger and brighter. Those hallmark

you may not be prepared for how expansive the rooms

prewar details are abundant: just the right baseboards;

are. Their very height, with lofty ceilings accommo-

inlaid herringbone wood floors; cute, classic white tile

dating large, sun-drenched windows, harks back to a

bathrooms. Even closets, rare in modern apartments

luxury and grace lost in the practical approach to post–

though so important to living in the city, are large and

World War II apartment design. They really do seem like

plentiful. Whoever designed this apartment clearly

homes in the sky—particularly the duplexes, where vis-

worked hard to make it feel like a real family home,

itors arrive from a private elevator that gives access to

where you’d feel proud to raise your children.

a grand, chandelier-lit foyer with a curving stair toward one end, opening into huge, perfectly proportioned public rooms with marble fireplaces and windows in just the right places. Three or four bedrooms are hid-

New York City has an extraordinarily rich portfolio

den upstairs. These treasures of urban domestic archi-

of residential architecture dating from the latter half

tecture were built during an era when elegance and

of the nineteenth century through the early 1930s.

comfort were paramount. They reflected an unspoken

An astonishing amount of that was built in the 1920s

manhattan classic

construction frenzy leading up to the stock market

times as tall as the classic English and Italian architectural

crash of 1929. Some apartment houses reach for the

styles often drawn upon; their original exquisite propor-

sky along Central Park West, tempting buyers with dra-

tions were stretched with mixed success.

matic, postcard-ready spires. Fifth Avenue, Park Avenue,

Cast-iron structures and concrete floors eventu-

and Riverside Drive, known for their penthouse apart-

ally replaced wood and solid brick. Elevators were nec-

ment mansions, offer some of the finest residential

essary to convince families to live above the third floor.

architecture in the world. You’ll quickly learn, however,

These were the two key ingredients for making sky-

that a lot of apartment houses don’t have park views

scrapers and represented the forefront of construction

or high-wattage addresses, but instead can be found

technology in the late 1800s. It was far more econom-

lining the avenues and the major cross streets, such

ical and less risky to erect a light steel frame and clad

as West Eighty-Sixth Street on the Upper West Side.

it in heavy-looking brick than it was to build solid brick

Almost a hundred, totaling more square footage than

walls three or four feet thick, nine stories tall. Far taller

the downtowns of most American cities, adorn the

buildings with more apartments were suddenly pos-

wide, tree-lined sidewalks of sleepy West End Avenue.

sible; for the first time in history, buildings other than

More are below Fourteenth Street, and a few were built

church domes reached more than about six stories. To

in Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope.

attract families, they could be advertised as completely

The apartment house got off to a slow start in New

fireproof, very quiet, and full of the latest in modern

York as a French import in the 1860s. In elite social cir-

appliances and conveniences. Twelve stories quickly

cles of that time, it was considered immoral for a well-

became the default height until 1929, when the passage

off family to share the same roof with another family.

of New York’s Multiple Dwelling Law allowed even taller

Sharing even a town house divided into two duplexes

apartment houses on large lots or wide streets.

would be a stain on a family’s reputation. The apartment

By the early years of the twentieth century, around

house had an image problem, as it was perceived to

1908 or 1909, the apartment house’s image problem

be too much like a tenement, those unadorned five- or

had begun to fade. Spectacular examples such as the

six-story walk-up apartment buildings you still see today

Apthorp at West Seventy-Ninth Street and Broadway and

on, for example, Orchard Street on the Lower East Side.

the Belnord at West Eighty-Sixth Street and Broadway

Tenements were once home to thousands of immigrant

were proof to well-to-do families that an apartment

families of four or many more, crowded into tiny, airless

house could be comparable to a town house. Instead of

two- or three-room apartments. Walls were paper-thin,

living in a mansion, they could inhabit part of a palace.

and a communal bathroom was located out in the rear

At twelve stories and 665,000 square feet, covering an

yard. The lot-line walls may have been brick, but the

entire city block, the 800-foot-long Belnord must have

floors were all wood, making them noisy and prone to

seemed colossal when it opened in 1909, looming over

collapse and fire—a problem for town houses, too.

adjacent row houses and blocking out their sun.

As the population of Manhattan soared over the next

Just like today, luxury bathrooms and kitchens

twenty years, developers and their architects designed

were the rage; apartments might feature porcelain tubs

more apartment houses. They carried out experiments

and pedestal lavatories, a porcelain-lined refrigerator,

with different floor plans, room proportions, facades, and

or a laundry room with steam-jet washtubs for boiling

architectural details in attempts to achieve the gracious-

clothes. For a rapidly growing country, these big, mod-

ness of a nineteenth-century house in a twelve-story

ern buildings represented the future and a sense of

building. Some, such as the Dakota at Seventy-Second

relentless optimism.

Street and Central Park West, looked like grand hotels

New York was growing at an astonishing pace,

or overdecorated cakes. Floor plans in buildings con-

expanding from five hundred thousand inhabitants in

structed before about 1908 can be awkward, with all the

1850 to almost five million by 1910. Between 1890 and

rooms connected by one very long corridor. One major

1900, the population more than doubled. Where were

challenge was that these New York buildings were three

all these people going to live? As brand-new subway

introduction

lines branched out to the far ends of the city for the first

of the city’s best neighborhoods and establishing New

time, making it easy to get from uptown to Wall Street in

York as a global center for fine architecture.

thirty minutes, apartment house construction boomed.

Often, prewar architects were self-taught,

Families could live a short walk from all the greenery and

first-generation immigrants who couldn’t afford to go

fresh air of Central Park, work downtown, and not spend

to architecture school. Instead, they learned their trade

long hours traveling between the two.

on the job as apprentices. Long hours were spent bent

Construction slowed between the beginning of

over drafting tables, crafting center-hall plans and brick

World War I and 1921 and took off again as the Roaring

facades. Their clients were developers who were strug-

Twenties rocketed along. Entire neighborhoods seem-

gling to keep up with the city’s phenomenal growth,

ingly tripled in height, as rows of four-story town houses

including the Campagna family, Dwight P. Robinson

were flattened to make way for fifteen-story apartment

& Company, the Paterno Construction Company, and

houses. Perhaps typical of economic boom cycles,

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s grandfather, James T. Lee.

many of the biggest, most spectacular architectural

These architects were shunned by the established

landmarks, such as 740 Park Avenue and 120 East End

architectural community, whose members (drawn from

Avenue, were finished just as the economy dove into the

wealthy families) had often studied for years at the

Great Depression. When banks stopped lending money

grand École des Beaux Arts in Paris, been sent on long

to developers, new construction ground to a halt. Like

architectural tours of Europe, and built portfolios of

a delicate tree that thrives in just the right conditions of

grand mansions and public buildings. Emery Roth, who

sunlight, temperature, and rain and then vanishes com-

designed the towering San Remo and the monumental

pletely when its climate changes, the prewar building

Beresford on Central Park West, was rejected in his first

era was over.

membership application to the American Institute of

By that point, the great fifty-year apartment house

Architects in 1927.

boom had transformed the architectural landscape

Rosario Candela, a Sicilian immigrant, was the

of the city, pumping enormous energy into its already

master of the center-hall floor plan and transformed his

vibrant street life. Thousands of very desirable apart-

buildings’ facades into highly refined, majestic compo-

ments were within a short walk or subway ride of res-

sitions, often blending well-proportioned Italian details

taurants, theaters, and museums; the Upper East Side

with dramatic tapering forms. Over the years, the name

continues to have the highest population density in the

Candela has in one word come to identify the city’s finest

United States. But starting in the 1930s, as more fam-

prewars. (A classic six in Candela’s 800 West End Avenue,

ilies could afford cars, New York’s suburbs overtook

on the corner of Ninety-Ninth Street near Riverside Park,

the city as the place to live. Few luxurious family-size

was what first drew me to prewars.) His great apartment

apartments—the ones you really want from the moment

houses, such as 740 and 778 Park Avenue and 834 Fifth

you walk through the front door—would be built again

Avenue, are almost impossible to get into, even for those

until the first decade of the twenty-first century, during

able to afford their stratospheric prices.

another real estate boom.

Other prominent prewar architects include J. E. R. Carpenter, whose work is concentrated on Fifth and Park Avenues and shows remarkable restraint. His finest building may be the dramatic, Gothic-inspired,

The architects who designed these buildings have

curving 173–175 Riverside Drive, across the street from

largely been forgotten by history, although even today,

the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in Riverside Park.

their names act as precious keywords that help apart-

Schwartz & Gross was the architecture firm that set the

ment seekers navigate the aggressive and baffling world

warm, yet proud, masonry tone of West End Avenue,

of Manhattan real estate. Bing & Bing means very good.

Central Park West, and Park Avenue. Their firm designed

Candela seems to mean the best. These developers and

hundreds of apartment houses that established the

architects played a crucial role shaping the streetscapes

family-friendly architectural fabric of the Upper West

manhattan classic

Side and Upper East Side. Brothers George and Edward

and Park Avenues or Central Park West garner most of

Blum were more eccentric, experimenting with ornate

the attention, the great prewar architects also designed

terra-cotta ornament such as the unexpected all-white,

hundreds of more modest and attainable buildings that

art nouveau facade of 780 West End Avenue and the

nonetheless enjoy the warmth and gracious style of

bold, brightly colored zigzags of Gramercy House

their fabulous cousins. Robert T. Lyons, best known for

on East Twenty-Second Street. Around Columbia

his palatial Park Avenue apartments, retooled what he

University, you’ll find many of Gaetano Ajello’s buildings,

learned there on a less opulent scale at 535 West 110th

which were built during the first dense waves of apart-

Street, near Broadway and Columbia University. If you

ment house construction on the Upper West Side. Also

like Emery Roth’s work, there are nine of his buildings on

prolific were George F. Pelham and Rouse & Goldstone.

West End Avenue alone, as well as eleven by Candela.

Of course, the great civic architects of early twen-

In fashion terms, they are the ready-to-wear collections

tieth-century New York contributed a few extraordi-

styled after luxury brands.

nary apartment houses. McKim, Mead & White created

The apartment houses in this book are curated

the palatial 998 Fifth Avenue and a few others on Park

highlights of the thousands you’ll find in Manhattan.

Avenue, since replaced with much larger office build-

Together, they illustrate the building type’s brief history

ings. Warren & Wetmore designed both 927 Fifth Avenue

and architectural evolution, from its roots in an elite,

and 903 Park Avenue (though the firm focused on mon-

borrowed, nineteenth-century Parisian way of living to

umental stone piles such as Grand Central Station and

its flowering as an unmistakably glamorous form of New

the Farley Post Office rather than the aggressive prof-

York skyscraper in the early 1930s, more desirable to the

it-driven realm of residential development).

rich than a private mansion.

There were many others. Yet it is important to emphasize that although the luxurious buildings on Fifth

A Note to the Reader

This book represents examples of apartment houses from each Manhattan neighborhood and major street. Brief histories accompany a number of the more renowned and well-documented buildings; detailed information such as who designed each of the buildings on Park Avenue can be found in the two indexes, organized by neighborhood and by architect. Buyers who are determined to live in a Candela or Roth or Bing & Bing building should search there. (Although every effort has been made to confirm the accuracy of these listings, sometimes existing sources contain conflicting information.) Each building entry highlights an exemplary floor plan, meticulously redrawn (at a scale of 1 inch = 20 feet, unless otherwise noted) and paired with beautiful color photography of one or more noteworthy additional apartments that show how the great prewar idea is lived and experienced more than one hundred years after its inception.

introduction

upper East Side : fifth avenue

1926

arch i tect:

J. E. R. Carpenter

C ross street:

810

Fifth Avenue

CL CL

LIBRARY 18'-4" X 20'-0" CL

GALLERY 15'-7" X 12'-8"

ENTRY

LIVING ROOM 17'-10" X 47'-10"

LAUNDRY / FAMILY ROOM 11'-6" X 15'-6"

KITCHEN 13'-8" X 15'-6"

STAFF ROOM 15'-3" X 10'-10"

CL W.I.C. DRESSING ROOM

DINING ROOM 24'-6" X 15'-10"

Upper E ast S i de : F i fth Av en u e

MASTER SUITE 19'-6" X 21'-8"

DRESSING ROOM

MASTER SUITE 12'-6" X 18'-0"

Sixty-Second Street

810 fifth avenue

arch i tect:

Starrett & Van Vleck

C ross street:

820

CONSERVATORY

fifth avenue

DINING ROOM 27'-7" X 20'-7" LAUNDRY KITCHEN 14'-8" X 19'-0"

PANTRY 10'-4" X 13'-5"

SILVER CL

MAID‘S ROOM CL

SERVANT‘S ROOM

LIVING ROOM 20'-1" X 28'-2"

SERVANTS‘ HALL 13'-4" X 16'-4" ELEV ELEV

GALLERY 12'-1" X 44'-10"

ENTRY

1916

ELEV

LIBRARY 20'-1" X 20'-0" BEDROOM 9'-6" X 15'-8" BEDROOM 13'-2" X 18'-7" CL

W.I.C.

W.I.C. BEDROOM 18'-0" X 25'-4"

BEDROOM 13'-6" X 18'-9"

W.I.C. BEDROOM 14'-2" X 18'-9"

Upper E ast S i de : F i fth Av en u e

BEDROOM 15'-1" X 18'-9"

B_820 FIFTH-P

Sixty-Third Street

Publicity-shy residents have

Considered by some the finest

choice, but given that its existing

apartment house on Fifth Avenue,

work catered to the rich, the firm

included Louise Crane of the Crane &

and one of the most expensive

knew the spaces in which the wealthy

Company stationery family; prominent

addresses in the world, 820 Fifth Avenue

felt comfortable. It mastered the

secondary-art-market dealer William

is an all-cash, white-glove building,

center-hall plan in one go at a

Acquavella, whose gallery is in a

where being a billionaire is no guarantee

time when that convention was

limestone mansion on East Seventy-

of making it past the co-op board or

still emerging. Oddly, 820 would

Ninth Street; and billionaire Kenneth

even getting an interview.

be Starrett & Van Vleck’s only

Griffith, who founded the hedge fund

apartment house.

Citadel Investment Group in Chicago.

The building, on the northeast corner of Sixty-Third Street, was

The building includes only

McKim, Mead & White’s masterpiece

developed by the Paterno Construction

twelve homes—two maisonettes

998 Fifth Avenue, completed four

Company. Prolific builders noted for

and ten full-floors—which are

years earlier, had set a high bar; 820

their apartment houses in Morningside

rarely sold and never officially

was deliberately similar in plan, size,

Heights, around Columbia University,

put on the market. The fifth-floor

and grandeur. Its all-limestone, heavily

Paterno also built the imposing

apartment has some 7,500 square

rusticated neo–Italian Renaissance

440 Riverside Drive, 825 and 856 Fifth

feet, nine windows facing Central

facade looks massive, eternal, and

Avenue, and 1220 Park Avenue.

Park, and eighteen rooms, including

fortresslike. Exhibiting tremendous

five bedrooms, six and one-half

architectural restraint, yet exuding

Starrett & Van Vleck, best known

bathrooms, and a 44-foot-long

a clear sense of civic power and

for its high-end department stores,

gallery ideal for entertaining.

permanence, the building features

including the Lord & Taylor building

There are two manned elevators.

seventh-floor balconies that seem

on Fifth Avenue between Thirty-Eighth

For privacy in a very nosy city,

designed to serve as a platform for

and Thirty-Ninth Streets, recently

a driveway is paired with a waiting

some important public official. J. E. R

completed in 1914. At first Starrett

room for chauffeurs, allowing

Carpenter’s 907 Fifth Avenue, finished

& Van Vleck seemed to be an odd

residents to come and go unnoticed.

the same year, is stylistically akin.1

Paterno hired architecture firm

820 f i fth av en u e

820 fifth avenue

arch i tect:

Rosario Candela

C ross street:

834

MAID‘S ROOM 8'-4" X 10'-0"

ENTRY KITCHEN 11'-7" X 17'-8" FOYER

PANTRY 19'-9" X 8'-10"

GALLERY 12'-0" X 24'-0" DINING ROOM 17'-10" X 15'-7" LIVING ROOM 20'-5" X 27'-7"

BEDROOM 19'-6" X 11'-7" W.I.C.

W.I.C. W.I.C. LIBRARY 20'-5" X 19'-7"

BEDROOM 19'-9" X 15'-5"

W.I.C.

Upper E ast S i de : F i fth Av en u e

MAID‘S ROOM 11'-9" X 7'-9"

MAID‘S ROOM 8'-0" X 10'-7"

Fifth Avenue

CLOAK ROOM

1931

Sixty-Fourth Street

A resident of 834 Fifth Avenue once

worked with him on 960 Fifth

nearby apartment houses at 720,

asked, “Why would you move out of

Avenue) to design a symmetrical,

740, 770, and 778 Park Avenue—

834 unless you’ve died?”2

tapering, sixteen-story superluxury

exuberant architecture reflecting the

apartment house, one that would

bubble of the 1920s economic boom,

tried unsuccessfully for two years to

break out of the mold of the cornice-

dotted with terraces and featuring

buy all six town houses along the

topped palazzo that had been firmly

spectacular duplex and triplex

blockfront between Sixty-Fourth and

established by 998 Fifth Avenue

penthouses that were unquestionably

Sixty-Fifth Streets, but the corners

at its completion in 1912. Here would

mansions in the sky.

remained holdouts. Moving ahead,

be a skyscraper further refining designs

he hired Rosario Candela (after having

Candela already had underway for

Developer Anthony Campagna

The building ended up asymmetrical when Margaret V. Haggin capitulated after construction started and sold her town house on the corner of SixtyFourth Street to Campagna. Completed in 1931 after two years of construction, the 187,000-square-foot structure had twenty-four palatial homes with sizes ranging from 4,000 to 7,000 square feet, including two maisonettes and several spectacular duplexes. Stockbrokerage kingpin Charles Schwab had a penthouse. Bing Crosby’s son Harry lived in one of the maisonettes. Phantom of the Opera producer Hal Prince had a home there. Leslie Wexner, president and CEO of Limited Brands, moved there from an 18,000-square-foot Stanford White–designed town house at 25 East Seventy-Eighth Street. In 1948 Laurance S. Rockefeller hired the architecture firm Harrison & Abramovitz, later known for the corporate office towers it designed in the 1950s and 1960s, to create a sprawling triplex penthouse, now the home of News Corporation founder Rupert Murdoch. Apartment 3/4C has huge public rooms for entertaining. A 31-footlong entry gallery framing a grand curved stair opens to a living room and library facing Central Park, bookended by marble fireplaces. Combined, the rooms are almost 60 feet long. Higher up, above the park’s treetops in the 4,750-squarefoot 13/14A, a private elevator landing opens onto a double-height foyer facing a grand circular stair. To the right is a 19-by-29-foot living room centered on a dramatic fireplace, beyond which is a library with its own terrace facing the park and midtown. Upstairs, both the master bedroom and master bath also face the park. This all-limestone building overlooking the Central Park Zoo is one of the most desirable on the avenue and one of Candela’s finest.

8 34 f i fth av en u e

arch i tect:

J. E. R. Carpenter

C ross street:

Seventy-Second Street

907

Fifth Avenue

ENTRY

OFFICE 7'-6" X 22'-6"

FOYER 12'-5" X 13'-6"

SCREENING ROOM 18'-4" X 19'-9"

LIBRARY 21'-0" X 21'-6"

W.I.C.

KITCHEN 8'-9" X 21'-0"

AUX. KITCHEN 17'-0" X 8'-0" WET BAR

1915

DINING ROOM 23'-6" X 13'-6"

GALLERY 12'-0" X 23'-0"

BEDROOM 13'-8" X 9'-4"

CL CL

LIVING ROOM 21'-3" X 30'-9"

BEDROOM 13'-3" X 14'-6"

CL W/D

BREAKFAST ROOM 9'-0" X 12'-2"

BEDROOM 14'-0" X 15'-0"

MASTER BEDROOM 14'-8" X 18'-0" DRESSING AREA 10'-8" X 8'-4" CL

Upper E ast S i de : F i fth Av en u e

A_907 FIFTH-P-6AD

Before getting the commission for

mansion—James A. Burden’s barely

In 1925, when he died, it was torn down

907, his first building on Fifth Avenue,

twenty-year-old pile designed by Robert

to make way for Rosario Candela’s

J. E. R. Carpenter had nurtured his

Henderson (R. H.) Robertson. The new

960 Fifth Avenue, and Huguette Clark

hand designing three luxury apartment

building would have twenty-two homes,

moved to the twenty-eight-room

houses on Park Avenue. Stately, all-brick

most with two twelve-room apartments

penthouse at 907, which she owned

960, with a twelve-room and a ten-room

per floor, comprising 147,000 square

for more than eighty years.

home on each floor, was completed

feet and posing a confrontational

in 1912 for Fullerton Weaver Realty.

change in scale for the avenue.

He would later repeat this model at

When 907 was completed in 1916,

The penthouse’s public rooms facing the park are by all means magnificent, though Clark rarely

550 and 950 Park Avenue. Two more

the top floor was rented by Herbert

used them. The gallery off the elevator

apartment houses for the same client

L. Pratt, a Standard Oil vice president

is 55 feet long. Two doorways open

at 635 and 640 Park Avenue would

(whose Glen Cove, Long Island,

up to a 40-by-20-foot drawing room

soon follow. This time the apartments

estate The Braes would later become

next to a 40-foot-long living room

were huge full-floors, where he further

the Webb Institute of Naval Architecture).

and, at the other end, a 30-foot-long

explored the center-hall plan and

Another legendary resident was

library—a residential scale that’s

experimented with the size of the foyer

publicity-shy Huguette Clark, heiress

hard to imagine and that doesn’t

and the relationship of the public

of the copper baron William Andrews

even include the dining room. Clark

rooms to the avenue outside.

Clark. Considered the country’s

also maintained vast estates in Santa

second-richest man (behind only

Barbara, California, and New Canaan,

a limestone-clad Italian Renaissance

John D. Rockefeller) in 1900, William

Connecticut. At the time of her death

palazzo on the southeast corner

Andrews Clark built an opulent,

in 2011 at the age of 104, Clark was

of busy Seventy-Second Street, would

outrageously ornate mansion for

one of the last links to the city’s

be the first apartment house north of

his family on the corner of Seventy-

prewar heyday; she willed much of

Fifty-Seventh Street to replace a private

Seventh Street and Fifth Avenue.

her estate away to charity.3

The twelve-story 907 Fifth Avenue,

907 fifth avenue