Carter's Review

The 14-story apartment building at 132 West 96^th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues is one of the city’s largest mid-block residential complexes.

It is known as RNA Houses and was erected in 1967 by Riverside Neighborhood Assembly as part of the West Side Urban Renewal Project.

It has 208 co-operative apartments.

It was designed by Edelbaum & Webster and its general form and style recalled the slightly earlier Kips Bay Plaza development of two large “slabs’ and a uniform, cellular design by I. M. Pei.  As such, it is probably the best looking of the numerous developments that were created in the urban renewal project. The Kips Bay Plaza buildings occupied two full blocks with considerable landscaping and because of their considerable size were unavoidably impressive and quite elegant.

Bottom Line

A very attractive and impressive, mid-block variation on the I. M. Pei-designed Kips Bay Plaza development.

Description

In their great book, “New York 1960, Architecture and Urbanism Between The Second World War And The Bicentennial,” Robert A. M. Stern, Thomas Mellins and David Fishman noted that “although the building’s front was described by Norval White and Elliot Willensky as a “concrete beehive of a façade,” it rather effectively honored the wall of this important crosstown street, despite being slightly set back from the building line.” 

With its honeycomb façade and fine proportions, this building is also very impressive and elegant even though it lacked the grandeur of being a truly free-standing project.

The building has a lot of sidewalk landscaping and a three-step-up entrance.

Amenities

It has a live-in superintendent and a garage.

History

In the summer of 1963, it was one of four projects that were the first middle-income housing developments planned for inclusion in the Wet Side Urban Renewal Project.  The other projects were the Strycker’s Bay Apartments on the east side of Columbus Avenue between 93^rd and 94th Streets consisting of 234 apartments in a 16- and a 20-story building; Goddard-Riverside House, on the east side of Amsterdam Avenue between 94^th and 95th Streets with 194 apartments in a  27-story building and Columbus Park Towers on the west side of Columbus Avenue between 93^rd and 94^th Streets with 161 apartments in a 26-story tower.