Park West Village, 784 Columbus Avenue: Review and Ratings

Review of 784 Columbus Avenue by Carter Horsley

The attractive, red-brick slab apartment tower at 784 Columbus Avenue is the most southern of the three, 16-story Park West Village buildings that are slab buildings that run north to south just west of the Columbus Square development along Columbus Avenue between 97^th and 100^th Streets. 

Park West Village also includes four slightly larger and taller, attractive, red-brick, slab apartment towers to the west of the Columbus Square project and they run east to west around a large central green that opens to Central Park.

This building is just to the south and slightly to the east of 788 Columbus Avenue. The third building in this group, 792 Columbus Avenue is also known as 110-144 West 100^th Street and it just to the north and slightly to the east of 788 Columbus Avenue.

This trio of towers, which each have 287 apartments, is west of the Whole Foods store and 29-story apartment tower at 808 Columbus Avenue that are part of the Columbus Square development by Joseph Chetrit and Lawrence Gluck who had acquired Park West Village in 2000. Two other mid-rise towers on Columbus Avenue are also part of the Columbus Square development and all three were completed in 2011.

The Park West Village development was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, while the Columbus Square buildings were designed by Costas Kondylis.

Park West Village was one of the city’s most controversial urban renewal projects and was known initially as Manhattantown and then West Park Apartments.

It was built by Webb & Knapp, the development company of William Zeckendorf, and the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa).  It took more than a decade to complete in 1960 as scandals relating to its development led to a major reconsideration of “slum clearance” programs.

The renaissance of the Upper West Side north of 86^th Street has made the enclave much more popular and desirable.

For an extensive recap about the building and the development’s history, see CityRealty.com’s entry for The Olmsted at 382 Central Park West.