520 Park Avenue: Review and Ratings

Review of 520 Park Avenue by Carter Horsley

520 Park Avenue is a very elegant, 54-story, mid-block tower between Park and Madison avenues that is 779 feet 6 ½ inches feet high and contains 34 luxury condominium apartments.

It was developed by Zeckendorf Development, Global Holdings of which Eyal Over is a principal and Park Sixty LLC, of which Raphael and Ezra Nasser are principals.  Global Holdings was also a partner with Zeckendorf at 15 Central Park West, 18 Gramercy Park South and 50 United Nations Plaza.

Robert A. M. Stern, whose other projects include 15 Central Park West and 220 Central Park South, is the architect.

The building, which is also known as 45 East 60^th Street, is scheduled for completion in 2018.  Christ Church on the northwest corner of Park Avenue at 60^th Street sold its air rights to this project and is also known as 520 Park Avenue.

Bottom Line

The Upper East Side’s answer to 15 Central Park West on the Upper West Side one block further away from Central Park but taller and with significantly fewer apartments: another stunning winner from architect Robert A. M. Stern and the Zeckendorfs.

Description

The building is clad in Indiana limestone and has an asymmetric top that is similar but larger than the much lower top at 515 Park Avenue, another Zeckendorf development. Its top is also open and a very formal and attractive watertank enclosure.

The building has a double-height lobby that leads to a large garden with fountains and a vaulted loggia.  It also has a bronze canopy with an arched fanlight and sidewalk landscaping and hanging sconces.

Amenities

The building has a doorman, a concierge, a 25-foot-high lobby with coffered ceilings and two limestone fireplaces, a two-story, 8,000-square-foot health club with a swimming pool with coffered ceilings and trellised walls, bicycle storage, wine storage, resident storage, a library

Apartments

The building has 23 full-floor, four-bedroom apartments with about 4,600 square feet and 225 square feet of exterior space, seven duplex, six-bedroom apartments with about 9,100 square feet and a triplex apartment with 12,400 square feet and 1,150 square feet of exterior space.  The latter unit reportedly had a $130 million sale price.

The duplexes and the triplex will have large elliptical galleries with vertiginous staircases.

Master bedrooms have two full baths.  The building’s website contains a rendering of a free-standing bathtub with a headrest near a large and tall bay window.

The 8-bedroom triplex penthouse has a top floor with a 36-foot wide salon with grand staircase, a 24-foot-wide sitting room ad a 53-foot-wide terrace.

Six-bedroom duplexes on the 38th, 40th, 42nd, 44th, 46th and 50th floors have elliptical, double-height galleries with grand staircases that lead to 36-foot-long living rooms with two bay windows, 21-foot-long corner libraries with a bay window, 23-foot-long dining rooms, 31-foot-long kitchens and 21-foot-long corner family rooms. 

Four-bedroom units on the 14th through the 20th floors have 28-foot-long galleries that lead to 27-foot-long corner living rooms with two bay windows adjacent to 18-foot-square dining rooms, 16-foot-square kitchens ad 15-foot-long corner family/breakfast rooms.

Three-bedroom units on the 21st through the 36th floors have 27-foot-long galleries that lead  to 29-foot-long corner living rooms with two bay windows, 16-foot-wide libraries, 16-foot-wide dining room, 16-foot-wide kitchens and 16-foot-wide, corner family rooms.

History

The building obtained a $450 million construction loan from the Children’s Investment Fund in London.

The developers purchased 70,000 square feet of air rights from Christ Church, a United Methodist church, on the northwest corner of Park Avenue and 60^th Street for $40 million and the right to cantilever over much of the Grolier Club on 60th Street between Park and Madison avenues.

The June 12, 1910 edition of The New York Times published a rendering of a very handsome, 12-story apartment building at 520 Park Avenue on the northwest corner at 60^th Street designed by W. A. Boring.

A March 26, 1929 article in The New York Times reported that Anthony Campagna purchased from Frederick Brown the westerly block front between 60^th and 61^st streets on Park Avenue consisted of the12-story apartment building and the adjoining 9-story building on the southwest corner of 61^st Street that housed the Brearley School that was then about to move to a new location near Carl Schurz Park on the Upper East Side.