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15 East 91st Street: Review and Ratings

between Fifth Avenue & Madison Avenue View Full Building Profile

Carter Horsley
Review of 15 East 91st Street by Carter Horsley

This block boasts several of the greatest private mansions ever built in the city, now occupied by the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Design, the Sacred Heart School and the Russian Consulate. In addition, it has the prestigious Spence School, a pizza parlor and a hamburger joint.

This very attractive, 16-story, gray-brick, building was erected in 1948. It is a cooperative with 43 apartments.

It is distinguished by a cantilevered pier of bay windows on Madison Avenue and a very handsome glass grill at its northern end on the avenue. The building has a green canopy with chrome entrance doors, some terraces, a doorman, sidewalk landscaping, and a two-story limestone entrance surround. It has no garage, no health club and no sidewalk land.

Its apartments facing the avenue overlook the controversial site of a proposed high-rise luxury apartment building on the northeast corner that for several decades was occupied by a one-story Citibank building of uninspired design. Community activists twice in 2000 successfully defeated proposals before the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission for first a 17-story and then an 11-story building on the site.

The controversy reflected the vigorous community spirit in this Carnegie Hill neighborhood, which has many private schools and important cultural institutions.

There is good cross-town bus service on 86th and 96th Streets.

Rating

22
Out of 44

Architecture Rating: 22 / 44

+
24
Out of 36

Location Rating: 24 / 36

+
12
Out of 39

Features Rating: 12 / 39

=
58

CityRealty Rating Reference

 
Architecture
  • 30+ remarkable
  • 20-29 distinguished
  • 11-19 average
  • < 11 below average
 
Location
  • 27+ remarkable
  • 18-26 distinguished
  • 9-17 average
  • < 9 below average
 
Features
  • 22+ remarkable
  • 16-21 distinguished
  • 9-15 average
  • < 9 below average
 
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Key Details
One United Nations Park
between East 39th Street & East 40th Street
Murray Hill
One United Nations Park is an unprecedented interplay of privacy and light—a balance that reflects the architecture’s bold exterior and luminous interiors.
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One United Nations Park - Exterior View - Building One United Nations Park - Exterior/Interior View - Terrace and Living Room One United Nations Park - Interior - Corner View - Living Room One United Nations Park - Interior - Living Room - View of ESB One United Nations Park - Interior View - Colorful Living Room