985 Park Avenue: Review and Ratings

Review of 985 Park Avenue by Carter Horsley

This restrained and attractive, limestone-clad, 15-story building at 985 Park Avenue between 83^rd and 84^th Streets was designed by Costas Kondylis for The Icon Group, which is headed by Todd Cohen, Terrence Lowenberg and Michael Miller, who lives at 960 Park Avenue.

Geoffrey Bradfield did the interiors.

It was completed in 2007 and has 5 duplex and 2 triplex condominium apartments.

Bottom Line

A modern “in-fill” building with only a few multi-level apartments in an excellent location across from a handsome church and school complex and close to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Description

The building has a limestone façade and a very handsome fenestration pattern somewhat similar to that of the Gainsborough at 222 Central Park South, which was designed in 1908 by C. W. Buckham. The living rooms have floor-to-ceiling windows with French doors leading to a Juliet balcony.

The Park Avenue views of St. Ignatius Loyola Roman Catholic Church across the avenue are very nice, albeit not as impressive as the Gainsborough’s Central Park vistas, and they are not from double-height living rooms. Although the windows at 985 Park Avenue give the appearance from the outside that there is one big double-height space behind them, there are actually two floors.

Amenities

The building has a lobby attendant, video intercom, private keyed elevator and tenant storage and a laundry in the basement.

Apartments

Kitchens have Poliform cabinetry with under-cabinet lighting, and stone countertops and backsplashes, SubZero refrigerators, Miele cooktops, speed ovens and dishwashers and expresso and cappuccino makers and Blanco sinks with Dornbracht fixtures. Bathrooms have radiant heated floors and heated tower racks.

Kitchens have Polform cabinetry with stone countertops, Miele cook tops, speed ovens, dishwashers, a Subzero refrigerator and an expresso machine.

Windowed master baths have Kohler “tea for two” soaking tubs, white Kashmir onyx and Thassos inlaid borders, double vanities and separate showers.

The garden triplex has a 20-foot-wide guest suite/study that opens onto a 22-foot-wide garden on its first level, a 17-foot-long gallery on the second level that leads to a 21-foot-wide living room and a 15-foot-wide dining/media room adjacent to an open 11-foot-long kitchen and a 24-foot-long terrace and the third level contains three bedrooms.

A duplex layout has an 18-foot-wide living room and a 19-foot-wide dining room next to an 11-foot-wide open kitchen on the first level and three bedrooms on the second level.

History

Until the late 1970's, the small building formerly on the site was the home of the Florence Market, an upscale grocery store run by Anthony Tucciarone, who bought the building in 1948 and held onto it until his death, in 2004. A May 8, 1994 article in The New York Times by Christopher Gray noted that “it is a chubby little building, with 25-foot-frontage, in other circumstances a mansionesque dimension,” adding that “this is a plain little building, with bare Italianate detailing.”  “It was built in 1870 by Ellen Smythe, a milliner, at a cost of $6,000 as a three-family dwelling; the storefront is probably a later alteration,” Mr. Gray observed.

The ground floor was previously occupied by Portraits Inc., a well-known gallery with a distinctive green and gold sign whose walls were decked, according to Sam Knight in a May 23, 2004 article in The New York Times, "with the visionary stares of chief executives and the soft smiles of their children."

The building was not within an historic district but some people such as Lisa Kersavage, executive director of the Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts, wanted to save it, claiming, according to Mr. Knight's article, that it was a "rarity on Park Avenue" and "it's such a small building; it's so old and so intact."