By Carter B. Horsley
This very attractive, slim apartment building was designed by J. E. R. Carpenter, the foremost architect of luxury residential buildings in the city of his generation.
His other buildings on Fifth Avenue include 810, 825, 907, 920, 988, 1030, 1035, 1060, 1115, 1120, 1143, 1150, 1165 and 1170 as well as 2 East 66th Street.
Erected in 1926 as a cooperative, the 14-story building has only 9 apartments.
Most luxury apartment buildings of its era had multipaned windows and unfortunately many apartment owners have opted to replace them with single-pane windows for less obstructed views and energy savings. This building has inconsistent fenestration, but also permitted some windows to be enlarged, thereby further compromising the building's architectural integrity and demonstrating the owners' arrogant insensitivity to aesthetics.
This building is also a fine example of the extensive interior changes that occur over time in some of the city's top luxury apartment buildings.
Originally the top floor was servants' rooms. In his excellent book, "The New York Apartment Houses of Rosario Candela and James Carpenter" (Acanthus Press, 2001), Andrew Alpern notes that in 1927 the top floor was converted to "a card room and solarium and combined with 12/13 duplex to form triplex." Ten years later, however, he added, the top floor was divided from the triplex as a separate apartment, but in 1971 was rejoined to the duplex for Steven Ross, the head of Warner Bros., and was subsequently sold to Mortimer Zuckerman, the real estate developer and publisher.
Sidestreet entrance
The finely detailed, Italian-Renaissance-palazzo style structure has an elegant, canopied entrance. It has no garage.
Its quiet location is convenient to the many cultural institutions, art galleries, restaurants and boutiques of this prime Upper East Side location along Fifth Avenue’s "Museum Mile."
This very desirable, limestone-clad building has superb Central Park views, a doorman and high ceilings.
Dennis Kozlowski, the former head of Tyco, owned an apartment in the building. (8/4/07)
For more information on 950 Fifth Avenue check its entry at CityRealty.com