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About 1192 Park Avenue
This handsome building has a very warm brown brick facade with very attractive and ornate wrought-iron window grills on the first floor. It is directly across the sidestreet from the Hunter College Campus Schools on part of the former Squadron A Armory site and it is just to the north on the avenue of two very beautiful, low-rise Georgian-style buildings and therefore has considerably more light and air than most apartment buildings on the avenue.
Located in the heart of the desirable Carnegie Hill neighborhood, it was erected in 1926 and converted to a cooperative in 1952. The 15-story edifice has 75 apartments.
It was designed by Rosario Candela, who is widely considered to have been the country’s greatest designer of luxury apartment buildings and he collaborated with many of the city’s most famous architectural firms. He collaborated with Cross & Cross on the design of 720 Park Avenue and with Arthur Loomis Harmon on the design of 740 Park Avenue, two of the boulevard's most prestigious structures. He also worked with Cross & Cross on the design of 1 Sutton Place South and his other Park Avenue buildings include 765, 770, 778, 1021, 1105, 1172, and 1220. His other famous buildings include 834 and 960 Fifth Avenue and 19 East 72nd Street.
Candela’s buildings, "it is said, were the grandest of the decade that was itself the greatest," wrote Elizabeth Hawes in her book, "New York, New York, How The Apartment House Transformed The Life Of The City (1869-1930)", published by Henry Holt in 1993.
"He had a respect for privacy and an eye for significant detail. He was a complete thinker. He added duplicate water connections to street mains and multiple switches for ceiling lights as well as beautifully turned staircases and separate wine cellars. More significantly, he designed buildings from the inside out. He placed windows where they received light, balanced a room, or allowed a graceful arrangement of furniture…. Candela also invested unusual energy in the entry hall. In a typical apartment, he made it a full-sized room with rich views into the interior because he thought it was important to greet a visitor with a full sense of a home…. Candela liked puzzles. During the Depression, he took up cryptography, and during World War II, he broke the Japanese code," Hawes wrote.
Born in Sicily, Candela came to the United States in 1909 and graduated from the Columbia school of architecture in 1915.
The lower portion of the first floor has a rough-hewn gray granite base, an interesting alternative to the traditional limestone facing. The building has protruding air-conditioners and inconsistent fenestration.
There are many fine private schools in this neighborhood as well as many cultural and religious institutions.
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