This
handsome, 19-story
rental apartment building was designed by Emery
Roth and built in 1939.
It
was the first apartment building to be erected in Murray
Hill after the 1929 Crash and, according to"Mansions in the Clouds, The Skyscraper
Palazzi of Emery Roth,"by
Steven Ruttenbaum, Balsam Press, Inc., 1986, the buff-brick structure
is a
simplified version of those classically inspired buildings Roth
designed at the
peak of the twenties boom."
"The
austerity of the thirties, though, is plainly
evident in this high-class building, for
it exhibits no terra-cotta pediments or cartouches.It does, however, have crenellated brickwork
and a romantic, stepped-back profile reminiscent of Roth's earlier
towers.Soaring
above its relatively unadorned
surfaces is a square water tower capped by a pyramidal red tile roof.Evidently, both the
architect and the
builders felt that a Park Avenue
building as
late as 1939 should still epitomize classical elegance and refinement," Mr. Ruttenbaum continued.
Entrance
"The
typical floors of Twenty Park Avenue," he
noted, "originally contained units of one to three rooms.In the upper, setback
floors, there were also
several four-room apartments with terraces, a five-room unit and a
penthouse
suiteTo enhance
the marketability of
the small one-room units, Roth included dressing rooms and foyers large
enough
for dining purposes; and to make the two-room A-line apartments more
attractive, he equipped each with a circular dining foyer."
The
building, which is also known as 45 East 35th Street,
has a canopied,
one-step-up entrance with a two-story entrance surround.It has a doorman, a 24/7
attended lobby,
sidewalk landscaping. It is pet friendly and permits protruding
air-conditioners.
Its
facade is distinguished by crenellation bandcourses
above the first floor and at three levels near the top. It also has
long
balconies in the middle of the south and east facades at the 16th floor.In addition, there is a
rounded element at
the base of the watertower on the south side that is very handsome and
the
fifth floor has thin bandcourses below and above it to interrupt the
mass of
the lower part of the building.
Many
of the building's 98 apartments were renovated in 2009
and 2010.
The
building is close to the Morgan Library on Madison
Avenue at 36th
Street
and not far from the New York Public Library and Grand Central Terminal
on 42nd
Street.There is good public transportation.
The
building was acquired in 2005 by Stonehenge Partners
Inc., which is headed by Ofer Yardeni and Joel Seiden, who at the same
time
bought 41
Park Avenue,
167
East 82nd Street
and 10
Downing Street.Its other properties include The Olivia on West 33rd
Street
and the RitzPlaza
on West
48th Street.
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