Circa Central Park is now finished, and like Time Warner Center, the building hugs and enriches a ceremonious corner of Central Park. The four corners of the park each have become grand public spaces whose unique road configurations have shaped the buildings and amenities around them.
Manhattan has faced issues when deviating from its famous street grid. The “squares” created by diagonal Broadway became triangular islands surrounded by congestion, and its few traffic circles were deserts of asphalt dangerous to pedestrians. Over the last two decades however, our squares and circles have been humanized. The 4 corners of Central Park: Grand Army Plaza, Columbus Circle, Duke Ellington Circle and Frederick Douglass Circle have each been tamed through multi-million-dollar renovations that give more leeway to the pedestrian rather than exclusively to the car.
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Circa is an 11-floor condo wrapping the northeast corner of Frederick Douglass Circle. In 1950, the then-derelict intersection of 110th Street and Eighth Avenue (aka Frederick Douglass Boulevard and Central Park West) was named in honor of the great African-American orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass. The intersection wasn’t always a circle, and prior to 1940, it was dominated by the Ninth Avenue “El” whose exhilarating S-curve ran downhill from Ninth Avenue to 110th Street to Eighth Avenue. The track opened as the highest in the system — a point that made it so popular with jumpers that it became known as “Suicide Curve.”
In 1993, residents from the adjacent co-op buildings, Towers on the Park, approached the Central Park Conservancy to develop a new design for the traffic circle and build a long-planned memorial to Frederick Douglass. Quennell Rothschild & Partners led a team of artists and designers to shape a $15.5 million plan that in addition to the memorial would restore a Central Park entrance and improve the surrounding streetscapes. The memorial consists of an eight-foot bronze sculpture of Douglass by Gabriel Koren, and a large circle and fountain with ornamental and symbolic features designed by Algernon Miller.
The project opened in 2010 and the now symmetrical circle is anchored by a horizontal fountain and a statue of Douglass. Controversially, the memorial featured a quilt-like stone pavement inspired by quilts sewn by slaves to guide their way north to freedom. Historians have come out to say that these quilts are a myth.
The project opened in 2010 and the now symmetrical circle is anchored by a horizontal fountain and a statue of Douglass. Controversially, the memorial featured a quilt-like stone pavement inspired by quilts sewn by slaves to guide their way north to freedom. Historians have come out to say that these quilts are a myth.
Credit: Quennell Rothschild & Partners
Two years after the circle’s reopening, the city’s Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) sought proposals to redevelop a BP gas station at 2040 Frederick Douglass Boulevard. The new development would involve affordable housing as well as affordable retail space.Then-NYCEDC President Seth Pinsky said in a 2012 release, “The redevelopment of this site could offer a unique opportunity to enhance the surrounding community while also increasing economic activity throughout the entire area,”
BP gas station at the site circa 2011 (Google streetview)
Through a bidding process, Artimus Construction was chosen to redevelop the 13,500-square-foot site in 2013. They drew up plans for a 12-floor, 80/20 apartment building with 8,000 square feet of space for the Millennium Dance Company. The project was christened Circa Central Park and an arcing design that embraced the site’s geometry and context was conceived. Building permits later revealed that FXFOWLE are the selected architects who are renowned for their work involving environmental sustainability.
Dan Kaplan, Senior Partner at FXFOWLE, led the design team of Circa. The building’s variegated facades are an immediate response to its context. Overlooking the circle and park are horizontal ribbons of windows shielded by a colorful gradient of fins to reduce solar heat gain. The building cascades down in scale towards its side-streets and its Harlem-facing elevations are clad in brick.
From 111th Street and FDB (FXFOWLE)
After an arduous soil remediation process, the 12-story superstructure began to rise in late 2015 and topped out in January. Sales launched that April on 38 market-rate condos ranging from 647-SF one-bedrooms to 3,348-SF five-bedrooms. Many units offer season-changing panoramas of the circle and Central Park. Later in 2016, a 5-bedroom penthouse went into contract as the most expensive condo sale in Harlem. Also in July of that year, an affordable housing lottery launched on its 10 below-market-rate condos
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Today only 2 homes remain on the market. They are #6F: a 3-bed/3-bath for $3.425M, and #3B: a 2-bed/2-bath for $1.995 million. Just yesterday, a 5-bedroom, 4.5-bath penthouse went into contract with an ask of $7.477 million. The home spans 2,771 square feet of interior space and has a 550-square-foot private terrace overlooking Central Park. All homes have custom kitchens with Italian cabinetry and high-end appliances. Baths have radiant heated floors, double vanity sinks, Duravit bathtub with a separate glass enclosed shower.
Circa’s roster of amenities includes a room for tweens equipped with gaming consoles, a study lounge with computers, a fitness center, and a lounge. Residents can borrow remote-control sailboats, bikes, and picnic baskets when going to the Central Park. Common outdoor spaces include a landscaped courtyard and rooftop terrace with a grill.
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The building and adjacent circle is at the entrance of a revived Frederick Douglass Boulevard which over the years has been transformed into a thriving mixed-use thoroughfare of restaurants, lounges and bars. The Times profiled the artery in 2013, saying, “New York has had its share of neighborhood turnarounds in the last 20 years, but few have been as rapid and transformative as that of Frederick Douglass Boulevard, a formerly blighted corridor of often-abandoned tenements interspersed with rubble-filled lots and tire-repair shops.” As for the circle itself, unlike Central Park’s two southern circles, the roundabout feels sparse with its plethora of hardscape and lack of commercial activity and shops. Perhaps this will change one the Millennium Dance Company opens their storefront in Circa and the trees along its plaza grow in.
Photo credit: Architect: FXFOWLE / Photography: Eduard Hueber
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