Apple Bank Building, 2112 Broadway: Review and Ratings

Review of 2112 Broadway by Carter Horsley

The top four floors of the 8-story, landmark, Apple Bank Building that occupies the full block bounded by Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue and 73^rd and 74^th Streets were converted to 29 residential condominium apartments in 2006.

The very handsome building dominates the attractive Verdi Square Park and its express subway station pavilion.

The apartments have their own entrance to the building at 2112 Broadway. 

The huge and grand, four-story high banking hall of the Apple Bank in the base of the building was not altered and has its own entrance in the middle of its frontage on Broadway and also on 73^rd Street facing Verdi Square.

The conversion was undertaken by Stahl Real Estate, which owns the building.

Bottom Line

This distinguished building with very spacious apartments dominates the important intersection of Broadway, Amsterdam Avenue and 72nd Street and commands one of the few prominent “key” sites in Manhattan.

Description

The limestone-clad building has a rusticated base and the banking hall’s tall windows are distinguished by memorable, cast-iron bats at their base on the building’s exterior designed by Samuel Yellin.

Amenities

The building has a 24-hour concierge, a gym inside the bank’s vault, a “canine shower for grooming pets,” a commercial laundry facility, and bronze mailboxes at “each home’s entrance.”

The building has no garage, but there is excellent public transportation.

Apartments

Each apartment has a different layout, all designed by SLCE Architects, and all have large entry galleries.

Six of the apartments are duplexes with roof terraces.

Apartment 5B is a three-bedroom unit with a 24-foot-long entrance gallery that leads past an enclosed eat-in kitchen that leads to a 16-foot-long den/media room and the gallery also leads to a 27-foot-long living room.  The apartment also has a small home office room.

Apartment 6A is a three-bedroom unit with an 11-foot-long entry foyer that leads past an enclosed 13-foot-long kitchen to a 22-foot-long, angled, corner living/dining room.

Apartment 5G is a three-bedroom unit with a very large entry foyer that is adjoined by a small office and a small mud room and leads to a long gallery that opens onto a 29-foot-wide living/dining room by the 13-foot-long kitchen that has a pass-through to a 13-foot-long  breakfast room.

Apartment 78G is a duplex with a large entry foyer on the lower level that leads past an open kitchen to a 28-foot-long living/dining room and also to a bedroom.   The upper level has a large bedroom that opens onto a large terrace.

Apartment 7D is a four-bedroom unit with an angled 18-foot-long foyer that leads to a 30-foot-long living/dining room next to an enclosed, 18-foot-long eat-in kitchen.

History

The landmark building was built in 1928 for the Central Savings Bank that was formerly located at 14^th Century and Fourth Avenue. It was designed by York & Sawyer in the same monumental, Italian Renaissance palazzo-style the architects employed at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York building in Lower Manhattan.

The bank was founded in 1859 as the German Savings Bank in the City of New York and changed its name to the Central Savings Bank during World War I and subsequently it became the Apple Bank.

The building was described by Elliot Willensky and Norval White in “The A.I.A. Guide to New York City, Fourth Edition” (2000), as “one of the area’s noblest and most imposing edifices.”

Stahl Real Estate presented plans to the Landmarks Preservation Commission to make minor changes to an exit on 74^th Street that is used as a second means of egress for the condominium apartments. The solution was to the leave the west side of the very handsome gates in place and to leave permanently open the east side and install a glass “panic” door with push-bar just inside the entrance.