Carter's Review

This building at 353 West 56^th Street is one of four handsome, mid-block apartment houses that are known as the Parc Vendome complex that share a large common, landscaped garden that differs from most of the city's other large courtyard projects because it is not enclosed by high walls at the east and south ends. 

The four-building complex, which has about 575 apartments, is unusual also because the south buildings at 333 West 56th Street and 353 West 56^th Street are 11 stories tall while the north buildings at 340 West 57th Street and 350 East 57th Street are 19 stories tall. The south building at 353 West 56th Street was completed in 1931 while 340 East 57th Street was completed in 1932 and the 350 West 57^th Street one was completed in 1929. 

The complex actually consists of only two buildings, one on 57^th Street and one on 56^th Street, but each has two official entrances. 

The Parc Vendome complex was designed by Farrar & Watmough for Henry Mandel, one of the city’s most ambitious and active developers in the 1920s. 

Mandel's other project, also designed by Farrar & Watmough, included London Terrace on the block bounded by 23rd and 24th Streets and Ninth and Tenth Avenues. 

This complex was converted to condominium apartments in 1983. The 57^th Street buildings have 144 apartments each. 

Bottom Line

A very elegant apartment complex clustered about a large communal garden, this location has steadily improved in recent years with such nearby high-rise neighbors as the Time Warner Center, Trump International Hotel & Plaza, the Hearst Building, Central Park Place and new Extell Development residential skyscrapers on West 57^th Street. 

For information about the building’s description, amenities, history and location, see the CityRealty.com entry for 340 West 57^th Street.

Apartments

Some of the living rooms measure 27 by 18 feet and some have fireplaces. 

Apartment 6K is a one-bedroom unit that has a long entry foyer that faces an enclosed, eat-in, kitchen and a 22-foot-long living room. 

A one-bedroom unit on the 9^th floor has a foyer that leads to a 24-foot-long living room with a fireplace and an enclosed 9-foot-long, windowed kitchen. 

Apartment 3N has a 9-foot-wide entry foyer that leads to a 24-foot-long living room with a pass-through, 9-foot-long kitchen and a separate home office. 

Apartment 10E has a foyer that leads to a 23-foot-long living room with a fireplace and a terrace next to an eat-in kitchen. 

Apartment 4F has an 11-foot-wide entry foyer that leads to a 22-foot-long living room and an 18-foot-long, eat-in kitchen.