Northeast corner at
110th Street (Cathedral Parkway)
The
Hendrik Hudson at 380 Riverside Drive
By Carter
B. Horsley
One of the city's greatest apartment buildings, the Hendrik Hudson is
an eclectic, Tuscan-style fortress that may well be the most
interesting building on Riverside Drive.
Designed by Rouse & Sloan for developers George F. Johnson Jr.,
and Aleck Kahn, the building sports two large, square towers along
Riverside Drive and light-courts on 110th and 111th Streets.
In his excellent book, "Luxury Apartment Houses of Manhattan, An
Illustrated History," (Dover Publications, Inc., 1992), Andrew Alpern
describes the building, which is the top illustration on his book's
cover:
"Each of these towers is a tour de force, with open Palladian arches on
all four sides, balustraded balconies and decorative terra-cotta
panels. Connecting the two towers was a balustraded
promenade, which for a brief time was surmounted by an open trelliswork
arbor...At the base of each tower, where it joined the main body of the
building, pseudo-Palladian window was originally planned.
What was actually built, however, was even more grandiose: an
elliptical oeil-de-boeuf window with cartouche above, carved
ornamentation around and swagged garlands flanking."
Entrance
with caryatids
In place of traditional cornices, the building, which is on an
asymmetrical site, has Spanish tile eaves supported by large bronze
brackets and the beige Roman brick facades have balconies, spaced
widely apart, some in bronze and some in stone. The building
is ringed by a dry, railed moat and the second story windows in the
two-story limestone base are arched and the main, recessed entrance on
110th Street is flanked by large caryatids.
The building's name refers to the discoverer of the Manhattan in 1609.
Entrance
detail
Alpern noted that elevators open onto windows facing a central
courtyard and that the corridors were paved in Welsh quarry tiles and
finished in imitation Caen stone and ended in windows overlooking
Riverside Park. Apartments had central foyers and service
entrances and many bedrooms were placed at corners for improved
circulation and walnut paneling, wood-beamed ceilings and mahogany
doors with glass knobs were used in the apartments, Alpern reported.
Detail of
building top
Rents originally ranged from $1,500 to $3,000 a year, Alpern noted,
added that the same developers and architects erected, in 1908, an
annex to the building, a 12-story building at 601 West 110th
Street. The annex, which extends to Broadway, is different in
style with a quite fascinating "water-borne theme" and is known as the
College Residence Hotel.
Many of the building's large units were subdivided, mostly in the
1940's and it was converted to a cooperative in 1970 with offering
prices, according to Alpern, that ranged from $4,800 for a first-floor
studio to $26,100 for a top-floor, 3-bedroom apartment with a river
view and monthly maintenance of $315.
Facade
detail
The 8-story building has a very large marble lobby.
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