Carter's Review

Just to the north of the Metropolitan Museum of Art across Fifth Avenue, this is one of the larger prewar buildings on the avenue in terms of units. Erected in 1926 and converted to a cooperative in 1954, the 16-story building has 78 good-sized apartments.

It was designed in Italian-Renaissance-palazzo style by J. E. R. Carpenter, the architect also of 810, 907, 920, 950, 988, 1030, 1060, 1115, 1120, 1143, 1165 and 1170 Fifth Avenue among others. It has a very finely detailed, 4-story limestone base, extensive sidewalk landscaping, and an attractive balustraded top. Its canopied entrance leads to a large lobby overlooking a garden.

It is on the former site of a 7-story building that was known as the Fifth Avenue Apartments. That building, which had a rusticated lower two floors and an arched two-story-high entrance, was considered "startling and unwelcome" when it was erected in 1890, wrote Jerry E. Patterson in his book, "Fifth Avenue, The Best Address," (Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1998).

Above its limestone base, this building's façade is mostly buff-colored brick but the over-all effect fits well and elegantly within the context of its all-limestone neighbors.

The sidestreet here is a busy entrance to the Central Park westbound transverse road at 85th Street so there is considerable traffic. Directly across the avenue, a large playground occupies the "island" between the east- and westbound transverse roads through the park. Cross-town bus service, obviously, is very convenient. Two supermarkets are nearby on Madison Avenue.

Recent additions to the building include an expansive, state-of-the-art fitness center.