235 West 70th Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 235 West 70th Street by Carter Horsley

This 7-story, white brick apartment building at 235 West 70th Street is across the street from the impressive P.S. 199, the Jessie Isador Straus School, which was erected in 1963 and designed by Edward Durell Stone.

In their wonderful book, "New York 1960, Architecture and Urbanism between the Second World War II and the Bicentennial," authors Robert A. Stern, Thomas Mellins and David Fishman, provided the following commentary about the school:

"The three-story elementary school building was set back from and slightly depressed bellowed the widened street. Thin, glazed-white-brick piers incorporation decorative brickwork patterns rose to support a cantilevered roof, and recessed gray walls were punctuated with a near uniform grid of windows. A distinct departure from the suburban-inspired designs of the 1950s and early 1960s, the school suggested the domesticated monumentality of Eric Kebbon s best efforts of the 1940s and was notable for the high level of finish and delicate details. As the editors of Architectural Forum put it: 'This is one of Edward Durell Stone's most vigorous buildings, formal but not a bit fancy. Against a backdrop of apartment houses with their cliffs of punchcard windows and ledges of balconies, it stands free and clear, testimony to the dignity and seriousness of education, and to its rigors as well."

The school was built about the same time as the massive Lincoln Towers residential complex just to the south.

This cooperative building was built in 1965 and has 61 apartments.

It has three fire-escapes on its front façades and discrete air-conditioners. The building has a four-step-down entrance with a grey-stone entrance surround and sidewalk landscaping. The building has a bicycle room, laundry facilities and a live-in superintendent.

It has no garage, no fitness center and no roof deck.

It is convenient to the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the 72nd Street subway station.