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Top 10 Apartment Buildings Architecturally, West Side

One would have to be Solomon to choose architecturally between the San Remo and the Beresford apartment buildings, both designed by Emery Roth, on Central Park West. The former twin-towered edifice is classical, elegant and tall.  The latter triple-towered structure is bulky but has significant frontage on two parks.  Neither, of course, has the mystique and allure of the Dakota, whose gravitas anchors the Upper West Side, nor the exotic frivolity of the Ansonia and the Dorilton, both on Broadway.  

 

#1 - The San Remo, 145 Central Park West

Co-op in Central Park West

This is the city's most beautiful apartment building and its design by Emery Roth for dividing the top of thei 27-story building into two 10-story towers was the first such scheme in the city.



#2 - The Beresford, 211 Central Park West

Co-op in Central Park West

Another masterpiece by Emery Roth, this monumental residential palazzo has three towers on its two park facades and has been described as "a stone symphony."



#3 - The Dakota, 1 West 72nd Street

Co-op in Central Park West

 The city's most legendary apartment building, the fortress-like Dakota has a large courtyard and an impressive moat railing festooned with dragons. 



#4 - The Osborne, 205 West 57th Street

Co-op in Midtown West

Despite its somber appearance, the Osborne, which was erected in 1883 as one of the city's first major luxury apartment buildings, is palatial and has a dazzling lobby that is a luminous Byzantine dream of gilded tiles. 



#5 - The Dorilton, 171 West 71st Street

Co-op in Broadway Corridor

 Although the Dorilton has not always been one of the city's most prestigious residential addreses, it is flamboyant, exuberant, romantic and one of the most spectacular architecturally.


#6 - The St. Urban, 285 Central Park West

Co-op in Central Park West

Completed in 1906 and designed  in an extremely complex French Second Empire style by Robert T. Lyons, the St. Urban is almost too robust in its assertive embellishments and was converted to a cooperative in 1966.



#7 - The Ansonia, 2109 Broadway

Condo in Broadway Corridor

 With its rounded corners, the filigree of its handsome balconies and widows' walks, the Ansonia conjures the fancies of the Belle Epoque and suggests what a mid-rise Paris might be.



#8 - The Eldorado, 300 Central Park West

Co-op in Central Park West

Another twin-towered residential skyscraper designed by Emery Roth, the Eldorado's twin peaks accentuate its streamlined,  rocketship-like Art Deco-style looks.


#9 - 15 Central Park West

Condo in Central Park West

 It's a top-of-the-line new building with pre-war aesthetics that may well be the city's most desirable residential address in terms of amenities, location and views.



#10 - The Apthorp, 2211 Broadway

Condo in Riverside Dr./West End Ave.

One of the city's finest courtyard apartment buildings, this building has a great, gated  entrance along Broadway.