52 Park Avenue: Review and Ratings

Review of 52 Park Avenue by Carter Horsley

This distinguished, red-brick, mid-block apartment building at 52 Park Avenue between 37^th and 38^th streets was designed by David Kenneth Specter & Associates and is one of the most attractive and elegant "modern" buildings in the city and is notable for the interesting treatment of its balconies. Its design is not so much a "modern" statement as a sophisticated "in-fill" building that discreetly asserts itself while maintaining good contextual relations with its neighbors. 

The 22-story building has only 17 condominium apartments!

Bottom Line

A very neat and attractive mid-block building that is one of the best post-war buildings in Murray Hill.

Description

According to architect Specter, who also designed the Galleria, one of the city's major mixed-use towers at 115 East 57th Street, "although architectural references to the neighborhood and to the adjoining buildings have been incorporated in the design, this contextual solution does not attempt to copy literally, but to establish relationships in subjective feeling, rhythm and scale." 

"For example," he continued, "the characteristic combination of brick and limestone is suggested by the use of brick and exposed architectural concrete. The brick selected does not match a particular building, but fits within the neighborhood's range of brick colors. The richness of detail common to many of the older Park Avenue buildings is interpreted here by creating complex shadow patterns on the façade. The strong, architecturally reinforced parapet above the seventeenth floor is intentionally close in height, but does not exactly align with the adjacent building;' other horizontal banding relates to specific architectural features of the neighboring structures. The building has strongly defined and articulated top and bottom, and extends the characteristic street wall façade. The 'as-of-right' building that could have been built under the zoning ordinance could not have been responsive to some of the architectural considerations described above; by qualifying for Housing Quality Standards under the New York City Zoning Resolution the design is far more successful as an example of contextual design." 

The building's avenue façade is crisp and very elegant. 

The building has a prime location in the heart of the Murray Hill district and is convenient to Lord & Taylor, two large computer stores, the Pierpont Morgan Library and public transportation. It is also a few blocks south of Grand Central Terminal.

Amenities

It has a concierge and a doorman and a roof decj, but no garage and no health club.

Apartments

The triplex penthouse has two bedrooms on the lower floor, a 27-foot-long living room, a 15-foot-long enclosed kitchen, a 9-foot-wide foyer and a 12-foot-long dining room on the upper floor and a 26-foot-long roof terrace. 

The ninth floor has an 8-foot-wide foyer with a 22-foot-long living/dining room with an enclosed 14-foot-long kitchen and two bedrooms, one with a narrow greenhouse. 

The 6^th floor is a two-bedroom unit that has a 9-foot-wide foyer that leads to a 22-foot-wide living/dining room with an open 13-foot-wide kitchen with an island. 

Apartment 23 has an 8-foot-wide entry foyer that opens onto a 14-foot-wide dining room next to an enclosed 14-foot-wide kitchen with a greenhouse and a 22-foot-wide living room with a fireplace and a 13-foot-wide alcove on the lower floor and three bedrooms on the upper floor.

History

It was originally developed with 10 duplex apartments by the Sybedon Corporation of which Edward Glickman was a principal, but it was ultimately acquired at auction by some Iranian interests who changed many of the layouts to "simplexes" and eventually it was opened, several years after it had been topped out, in 2001 by Ian Bruce Eichner.  It originally had been scheduled for occupancy in 1985. 

An article by Ingrid Eisenstadter in the May 31, 1998 edition of The New York Times noted that “it was one of the last sliver buildings to go up before the city banned them.”  In mid-1992 the building was sold at auction to a new owner, a company named Miri Holdings. Miri repaired water damage in the long-empty building and converted many of the duplexes into lower-priced one-floor apartments.  Miri Holdings even paid more than $100,000 for improvements to the island of greenery in the middle of Park Avenue, a payback for some zoning concessions the development received."