875 Park Avenue: Review and Ratings

Review of 875 Park Avenue by Carter Horsley

Although only 12-stories tall, this building at 875 Park Avenue on the southeast corner at 78^th Street conveys an impressive sense of monumentality with its highly detailed and very decorative façades.

It was erected in 1912 and converted to a cooperative in 1948.

It has 50 apartments.

It was designed by was designed by George and Edward Blum, whose other Park Avenue structures include 555, 591, 830, 840, 940 and 1075.

In his October 17, 1993 “Streetscapes” column in The New York Times, Christopher Gray wrote from “from 1910 and through 1915 they produced a group of startling buildings on Park, West End and other avenues, all emphasizing the texture of the masonry rather than conventional ornament,” adding that “at 875 Park Avenue they used a haunting series of hieroglyph-like medallions.”

Bottom Line

This pre-war building has one of the city’s most richly textured façades and a prime location.

Description

The beige brick building has a two-story limestone base and some attractive flowerboxes with small but nice wrought-iron railings and an interesting roofline that abstractly resembles battlements.

 The building has consistent and attractive multi-paned fenestration and some discrete and protruding air-conditioners.

There is a one-step-up entrance and a five-step-up lobby and the building has some sidewalk landscaping.

There is a bandcourse above the second floor and stringcourses above and beneath the top floor. The building has a balustraded roofline.

The avenue façade is very nicely modulated with two beveled window bays and the top floor has sculpture niches between the windows.

Amenities

The building has a 24-hour doorman, a gym and a laundry, but no garage and no roofdeck. It permits pets.

Apartments

Apartment 5AB is a six-bedroom unit that has an 18-foot-long entrance gallery that leads to a 20-foot-long library, a 28-foot-long living room and a 20-foot-square dining room across from an open 18-foot-wide kitchen with an island and a 14-foot-long breakfast room.

Apartment 3D is a three-bedroom unit that has a 15-foot-long entry foyer that leads to a 14-foot-long library, a 18-foot-long living room with fireplace and a 18-foot-long dining room next to a 10-foot-long pantry that leads to a 17-foot-long, windowed kitchen and a 17-foot-long maids’ room.

Apartment 12B is a three-bedroom unit that has an 11-foot-long entrance gallery that leads to a 17-foot-long library, a 22-foot-long living room with fireplace and an 18-foot-long dining room that is across from a 13-foot-long pantry and a 15-foot-long eat-in kitchen with a 10-foot-long den/media area.  The apartment also has an 11-foot-long office.

Apartment 12C is a two-bedroom unit that has a 17-foot-wide entry foyer that leads to a 28-foot-wide living room with fireplace and a 21-foot-wide dining room next to a pantry, kitchen and maid’s room.

Location

The building is convenient to many boutiques and art galleries along Madison Avenue, numerous restaurants in the area and a local subway station on Lexington Avenue at 77th Street. Cross-town buses run on 79th Street one block to the north and Lenox Hill Hospital is one block south.