Table of Contents

Introduction "The cost of quality, past and present; what has been offered to the apartment-consuming public and how has it been marketed." Antecedents of American Apartments The origins of apartmetns: ancient Roman; seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Scottish; an 1804 condominium conversion still estant in London. Huckstering Hubert "Philip Hubert, grandfather of the co-op concept in New York; the Rembrandt, the Chelsea, 121 Madision Avenue, the Navarro." Grand Gramercy Dowager queen of co-op apartments at 34 Gramercy Park. Residential Rustication The Osborne at 205 West 57th Street. Audacious Ansonia Fashionably French flamboyance at Broadway and West 73rd Street. Halfway Houses "Apartments aspiring to residential respectability: doubleheight studios, multifloor units, semiduplexes, interlocking units." Dramatic des Artistes Sumptuous studios for aesthetic affluence at One West 67th Street. Gotham Gothic Theatricality and spaciousness at 44 West 77th Street. Commodious Courtyards "An escpae from the Manhattan street grid: the Dakota, Graham Court, the Apthorp, the Belnord, 1185 Park Avenue." Lexington Luxury Affluent living adjoining Gramercy Park at One Lexington Avenue. Faux French The ersatz Beaux-Arts St. Urban at 285 Central Park West. Parisian Prasada Spacious solidity at 50 Central Park West. Hudson on the Hudson Th Hendrik Hudson at 380 Riverside Drive. Regal Riverside Continental grandeur overlooking the river at 404 Riverside Drive. Eclectic Elegance Hard-fought survival and rebirth at 45 East 66th Street. Resurrection Redux Alwyn Court is twice reborn at 180 West 58th Street. Meandering Montana "Apartment appellations depict a wandering West, with a settlement at 375 Park Avenue, the third of four apartment houses named Montana." Holdout House The last of its breed at 417 Park Avenue; how lower Park Avenue developed and then changed after World War II. Silent Sentinels "Limestone reticence along Fifth Avenue: 907, 845, 834, 825 and 820 Fifth Avenue; Nixon and Rockefeller at 810 Fifth Avenue; a 1910 Kansas view of New York apartments." Built to Suit Custom planning at 1107 Fifth Avenue; the 54-room Hutton triplex. Multiple Mansions Stacked status behind the modest facade of 820 Park Avenue; the spectacular triplex of A. J. Kobler. Magnificent Masionette Proudly palatial privacy at 666 Park Avenue: a huge multifloored maisonette apartment that Imelda Marcos wanted. Penthouse Podium "Rus in urbe atop 1010 Fifth Avenue: the lavish penthouse of Fred F. French, and some architectural detective work." Bulky Beresford Classically triple-towered and terraced at 211 Central Park West; Emery Roth as a self-made immigrant architect succedding in an alien world. Tuscan Tapestry Texture and terra-cotta at 898 Park Avenue. Erstaz English A vestigial memory of London at London Terrace on West 23rd Street and Ninth Avenue; builder Henry Mandel versus holdout Tillie Hart. Riverfront Refuge "Exclusive enclave at 435 East 52nd Street; the great Christmas tree battle, or, who owned the penthouse terrace?" Depression Deco A practical response to an altered economy: the Century Apartments at 25 Central Park West. Majestic Moderne Twin-towered testament to zigzags and zoning: the Majestic Apartments at 115 Central Park West; Irwin Chanin's predictions. Modified Mansion "Joseph Pulitzer's palace designed by McKim, Mead & White at 11 East 73rd Street becomes layered luxury lodgings." Toney Tenement Co-op conversion of Vanderbilt's visionary Shively Sanitary Tenements at East 77th Street and Cherokee Place. Residential Recycling "Offices to apartments in lower Manhattan: the Potter Building facing City Hall, and Liberty Tower on Liberty Place." Phantom Fashion A grand cooperative apartment house at 960 Park Avenue ... that never existed. Shrinking Space "The evolving New York-apartment floor plan: the extremes, an 18-room full-floor suite at 903 Park Avenue, and a one-bedroom unit at the Century Apartments, 25 Central Park West." Index