The Gramercy House, 235 East 22nd Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 235 East 22nd Street by Carter Horsley

This superb Art Deco apartment house at 235 East 22^nd Street on the northwest corner of Second Avenue was designed by George and Edward Blum and completed in 1931.

One of the largest pre-war apartment buildings in the Gramercy Park area, this attractive 17-story was converted to a cooperative in 1984.  It has 335 apartments.

Bottom Line

One of the city’s finest Art Deco apartment houses, it is close to Gramercy Park and is notable for its extensive and very colorful terracotta decorative elements and its small but exquisite quoins of diagonally placed bricks.

Description

The superb website Daytonianinmanhattan.com posted a long article on the building April 10, 2013.

It provided the following commentary:

“The Blums tossed aside the gloom and doom of the Depression and wrapped the new building with a colorful band of terra cotta.  Here pointy zig-zags like mountain ranges sat above a gentle wave pattern like a river.  The southwestern color scheme – turquoise, green, ochre and navy – prompted one architectural historian to call it “Pueblo Deco.’  The Art Deco design culminated in the two-story entrance and its three stylized terra cotta waterfalls.”

There is an extremely attractive broad bandcourse with many layers above the third floor in the brown-brick base that is distinguished by its dark green pilasters and strong blue bricks diagonally waving horizontally above them.  The rest of the façade is light-colored bricks.

The building has a canopied entrance beneath a decorative element above the second floor.

The building has three unequal wings with small gardens with Art Deco cast-iron low fences at the building line and there is a large garden at the west end of the building with a tall cast-iron fence with similar design motifs to the low fences.  The center and east wings have large light-brown bandcourses above the 8^th, 11^th and 13^th floors.

The building has discrete air-conditioners.

Amenities

The building has wood-burning fireplaces, a roof deck, a live-in superintendent, a bicycle room, storage, a large garden at its west end and a part-time doorman.  It has no garage, no health club and no balconies, but it allows pets.

Apartments

Apartment 15D/E is a two-bedroom unit with a large entry foyer that leads to a 15-foot wide dining area next to an 8-foot-square kitchen and an 18-foot-wide living area with a wood-burning fireplace and which opens onto a 36-foot-long terrace flanked by two small, angled terraces.  The master bedroom has a 9-foot-wide sitting room and the second bedroom has a 13-foot-wide office.

Apartment 6D is a two-bedroom unit with a 14-foot-wide dining area next to a 25-foot-long living room with a fireplace and an 18-foot-long eat-in kitchen.

Apartment 6J is a two-bedroom unit with a semi-circular, 10-foot-wide entry gallery that leads to a 22-foot-long living/dining room with a fireplace and an enclosed kitchen.

Apartment 15J is a two-bedroom unit with a 10-foot-square entry foyer that leads to a 13-foot-long living room with a wood-burning fireplace and an 8-foot-long dining alcove next to its enclosed kitchen.

Apartment 4S is a two-bedroom unit with a large, angled foyer that leads to a 17-foot-wide living froom and a 7-foot-long open kitchen.  The apartment also has a 12-foot-long home office.

Apartment 2A is a two-bedroom unit with a 6-foot-long entry foyer that leads to a 12-foot-long dining area next to the 18-foot-wide kitchen that also leads to a 22-foot-long living room with a wood-burning fireplace.

Apartment 2B is a studio unit with a 10-foot-long dining foyer next to a 8-foot-long pass-through kitchen and a 20-foot-long living area with a 7-foot-long alcove.