1049 Park Avenue: Review and Ratings

Review of 1049 Park Avenue by Carter Horsley

This very handsome, mid-block, 14-story apartment building at 1049 Park Avenue on the northeast corner at 86^th Street was erected in 1919 and has 36 condominium apartments.

According to “Park Avenue, Street of Dreams,” by James Trager, it was “perhaps the first postwar building to be completed on Park Avenue” after World War I.

It was designed by William Bottomley, whose firm, Bottomley, Wagner & White would later design River House at 435 East 52^nd Street.

Bottom Line

An early “pre-war” apartment building on Park Avenue, it has quite elaborate decorative elements and wood-burning fireplaces.

Description

The brown-brick building is distinguished by its very attractive decorative pairs of quoins on its lower two floors and the attractive decoration of cartouches and garlands between the windows on its top three floors.

The building has a handsome three-story entrance surround and a canopied entrance and it has consistent fenestration.

It permits discrete and protruding air-conditioners and parts of its  lower façade has been repaired with different colored bricks.

The Carnegie Hill Architectural Guide published by the Carnegie Hill Neighbors provided the following commentary about the building:

“The brown-brick façade has rosette-carved quoins on its lower two floors at its corners, echoed in four columns of carved plaques.  Limestone window surround have carved keystones.  Of special note is the classical, three-story entrance design: Double pilasters with composite capitals that flank the foliate door surround and balconied window.  The entablature is capped with a dentiled cornice, a broken pediment and a triangular pediment.  The top three stories offer more visual rewards.  Six vertical terra-cotta plaques between the windows are carved with cartouches and garlands….In 1922 the building received a Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects for the ‘Best designed Apartment Hotel erected during the past three years.”

Amenities

It has a doorman, but no garage, no health club, no balconies, no roof deck and no sidewalk landscaping.

Apartments

Apartment 6A is a three-bedroom unit that has a 14-foot-long entry foyer that leads to a 23-foot-wide living room with a wood-burning fire0lace that opens onto a an enclosed 19-foot-long, windowed dining room next to an 11-foot-long kitchen with an 11-foot-long breakfast room and a 10-foot-long office.

Apartment 11C is a three-bedroom apartment has a 13-foot-long entry foyer hat leads to a 23-footlong living room with a wood-burning fireplace that leads to a 14-foot-squre dining room with an angled window next to a 16-foot-long kitchen.

History

The building was sold in 1930 by F. French and in 1943 it was sold by Morton and Aaron Simon of Simon Bros. from the Chase Manhatan Bank. In 1963, it was bought by Klausner Associates  from Park Avenue and 87^th Street Associates for cash over a mortgage of $540.000.

Location

It is in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood, close to many museums, schools and religious institutions. There is excellent cross-town bus service on 86th Street and an express subway station at 86th Street and Lexington Avenue.

The area is convenient to many stores.