Carter's Review

From a distance, this pre-war apartment building at 975 Park Avenue on the southeast corner at 83^rd Street looks like a typically attractive, "standard-issue" Park Avenue apartment building of generous and stately proportions.

Up close, however, this red-brick building has a herd of cow skulls ringing its façade on a low stringcourse and along its cornice.

Erected in 1929, the 16-story building was converted to 66 co-operative apartments in 1964. It was developed by Edgar Ellinger and designed by J. M. Felson.

Amenities at this pet-friendly building include a full-time doorman, concierge, state-of-the-art fitness center, bike room, and private storage. The world-class Upper East Side location puts it near Central Park, Museum Mile, top schools, and upscale restaurants and boutiques.

Bottom Line

An impressive pre-war apartment building not far from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Description

The finely detailed building has a two-story limestone base with a canopied entrance and window surrounds on the third floor. There are three-story-high, arched window surrounds at the top of the building that rise from balconies above the 12^th floor. The building quoins at its corners above the second floor.

The building has some discrete and some protruding air-conditioners.

In his March 9, 2008 “Streetscapes” column in The New York Times, Christopher Gray wrote that architect Felson “gave it several unusual touches,” adding that “these include diaper work (criss-cross brick designs) at the parapet wall and swags at the third floor running between bulcrania (skulls of oxen – livestock is not often seen on Park Avenue.)

Amenities

The building has a doorman, an elevator operator, a gym and a bicycle room.

Apartments

The penthouse is a four-bedroom unit with a 19-foot-long entrance gallery with skylight that leads to a 19-foot-long media room  and a 24-foot-long living room with wood-burning fireplace and can access a 26-foot-long east terrace and a narrower 30-foot-long east terrace and a 20-foot-long south terrace and a 38-foot-long north terrace and a 26-foot-long north terrace and a 28-foot-long west terrace.  The living room connects to a 20-foot-long dining room next to an 8-foot-long pantry and a 15-foot-long kitchen gallery with two skylights next to a 17-foot-long kitchen with a breakfast area that leads to a laundry and a 17-foot-long family room that is next to a 26-foot-long master bedroom with a 30-foot-terrace an 8-foot-terrace and a 19-foot-long terrace.

Apartment 6B is a two-bedroom unit that has a 13-foot-long entry foyer that leads to a 23-foot-long living room, and an 18-foot-long gallery that opens onto a 29-foot-long sitting/drawing room next to a pantry and kitchen.

Apartment 11A is a two-bedroom unit that has a 15-foot-long entrance gallery that leads t a 23-foot-long living room with a fireplace in one direction and an 18-foot-long dining room in the other that leads to a 22-foot-wide kitchen and a 12-foot-wide office/maid’s room.

Location

This apartment building overlooks the Roman Catholic Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola and its school and related facilities diagonally across the avenue.

The building is close to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue and there are other schools and religious institutions nearby. Cross-town buses run on 86th Street and an express subway station is at Lexington Avenue and 86th Street.