1255 Fifth Avenue: Review and Ratings

Review of 1255 Fifth Avenue by Carter Horsley

This attractive, beige-brick apartment building at 1255 Fifth Avenue on the northeast corner at 107^th Street was built in 1925 and renovated as a condominium in 1985. 

The 8-story building has 59 apartments.

Bottom Line

A good looking, pre-war, mid-rise apartment building at a good location near the top of Central Park with an inappropriate glass rooftop addition that has superb vistas.

Description

The building has a two-story rusticated base and alternate windows on the third floor have very handsome pediments.  There is a handsome, balustraded bandcourse beneath the third floor windows and a stringcourse below and a cornice above the seventh floor.

The top floor does not relate contextually to the rest of the building, which has a canopied, one-step-up entrance, sidewalk landscaping, and discrete air-conditioners.

Amenities

The building has a doorman, a concierge and a live-in superintendent.  It also has a roof deck, a health club and a laundry room on every floor.

Apartments

Penthouse 8B is a two-bedroom duplex with an 18-foot-long living room with a wood-burning fireplace and a curved stair up to a 15-foot-long solarium with two large terraces.  The unit has an enclosed 9-foot-long kitchen. 

Apartment 3C is a one-bedroom unit with a 15-foot-wide living room with a mezzanine, a 10-foot-long enclosed kitchen and a large, 6-sided terrace. 

Apartment 4F is a studio unit with a 16-foot-long living room with a balcony and an –foot-long, pass-through kitchen and 16-foot-long alcove. 

Apartment 5L is a one-bedroom unit with a 15-foot-long living room and an enclosed 10-foot-long kitchen. 

Apartment 5K is a studio unit with a 25-foot-long living room with an 11-foot-long dining area next to a pass-through kitchen and a 10-foot-long sleeping loft.

History

The building was dedicated January 16, 1927 as the Home of the Daughters of Israel for the aged and infirm and Mayor Walker was the principal speaker and he said that he was “handicapped slightly by the title of Mayor, but it is Jimmy Walker who is joining this organization tonight.”

Location

This building is near the north end of Fifth Avenue's famous "museum mile." The Museum of African Art is building a facility two blocks to the north and the Museum of El Barrio and the Museum of the City of New York are a couple of blocks to the south. Mt. Sinai Hospital is several blocks to the south and further south is The Jewish Museum, the Cooper Hewitt Museum of Design, the National Academy, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Neue Gallerie, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Frick Collection. 

The building is close to the Harlem Meer and the Conservatory Gardens, both in Central Park.