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About 279 Central Park West
One of the newer apartment houses on Central Park West, this building was erected as a condominium in 1988 and is one of the few buildings in the city to have curved-glass corner windows.
The windows not only are very graceful notes to the building's asymmetrical composition but also take advantage of its stupendous views of Central Park.
The building's asymmetrical shape was determined by special "contextual" zoning that the city enacted in the 1980's that called for floors to be setback above the boulevard's traditional "building wall height" of 15 stories. Similar zoning is in place along much of Broadway where numerous buildings with the same kind of setbacks were built beginning in the 1980's, although most of those had more symmetrical setbacks because they were on larger sites. The only other building on Central Park West similar to this one is at 353 Central Park West at 95th Street, but it does not have curved-glass windows.
This building has only 38 apartments, some of which are duplexes. It has a three-story limestone base with very handsome window grills on the first floor. Its canopied entrance leads to a revolving door and a large lobby with dark wood paneling.
There is excellent cross-town bus service as well as a subway station two blocks south on Central Park West at 86th Street.
Although the building's silhouette is a bit clumsy, it offers great views, modern conveniences, a good location and the exclusivity of few apartments.
Carter B. Horsley
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