15 East 70th Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 15 East 70th Street by Carter Horsley

The limestone mansion at 15 East 70^th Street has been merged with the similar limestone mansion at 11 East 70^th Street to create several residential condominiums and one large commercial condominium that for many years was occupied by the Berry-Hill Galleries.

The art gallery occupies space in both structures and some of the residential condominiums are above it and entered from 15 East 70^th Street.

11 East 70^th Street used to be just to the east of the Widener Mansion that was purchased by the Frick Collection at 1 East 70^th Street and demolished for a large, formal, mid-block garden.  The Widener family was one of the three major donors responsible for the bulk of the old-master collections at the National Gallery of Art in Washington.  The other two were Andrew Mellon and Samuel Kress.

The Frick Collection was the former home of Henry Clay Frick and its relatively small collections are world-class.

The building at 11 East 70^th Street was built in the French Classical manner by John Duncan in 1910 and was originally occupied by an heiress to the Lorillard tobacco fortune and the conversion of its ground floor and basement spaces to an art gallery was designed by the architectural firm of I. M. Pei. 

Bottom Line

When your handsome mansion building adjoins the formal mid-block, side-street garden of The Frick Collection, you can be assured your dinner guests will be impressed.

Description

The building at 15 East 70^th Street has a four-step-up entrance with the lower three steps slightly rounded and flanked by sidewalk landscaping and sconces.  It has a very impressive lobby.

The one-story base is rusticated and there is a large balcony at the third story.

The building at 11 East 70^th Street has a flaring 6-step-up entrance with cast-iron balustrade and a handsome, recessed, arched doorway.

Amenities

The building has a concierge.

Apartments

Apartment 3 has a entry on the staircase landing that leads to a 22-foot-wide living room with wood-burning fireplace with steps up to the 31-foot-wide formal dining room/library with a wood-burning fireplace that is next to a 15-foot-wide kitchen and a 22-foot-wide octagonal gallery that leads to the 22-foot-long master bedroom with wood-burning fireplace and its 20-foot-long dressing room and 22-foot-wide den/office.  The apartment also has two other bedrooms.

The fifth-floor apartment has an 8-foot-wide entry foyer that opens onto an 11-foot-long kitchen and a 21-foot-long living room with a wood-burning fireplace and a 12-foot-square bedroom.  The unit also has access to a 20-foot long terrace overlooking The Frick Collection and Central Park.