180 Riverside Drive: Review and Ratings

Review of 180 Riverside Drive by Carter Horsley

The handsome, 13-story building at 180 Riverside Drive on the northeast corner at 90th Street is one of several along the drive that have a slightly curved façade facing Riverside Park.

The red-brick apartment building was erected in 1922 and converted to a cooperative in 1962. It has 90 apartments.

The developer was Harry Shiff.

The architect was Schwartz & Gross.

Bottom Line

An elegant, red-brick building with many large apartment layouts and a few awnings.

Description

With its chamfered, windowed corner, attractive cornice and pronounced lower bandcourse, which aligns with one on the adjoining building to the north, and decorative trim at the top, the building presents an appealing and stately composition.

It has a canopied, side-street, two-step-up entrance with sconces that leads to a step-up lobby. The building has some protruding air-conditioners, consistent fenestration and sidewalk landscaping.

There are window surrounds on the lower two stories and the 11^th and 12^th floors with a stringcourse above the 2th floor and the 13^th floor has window surrounds beneath a small cornice.  There is a bandcourse above the third floor.

There are some awnings.

This is an attractive and convenient section of Riverside Drive. Excellent crosstown bus service is not far away at Broadway and 86th Street where there is also a local subway station.

Amenities

The building has a full-time doorman, a playroom, storage and a laundry, but no garage, no roof deck and no garage.

Apartments

Apartment 5F is a four-bedroom unit with a 19-foot-long entrance gallery that leads to a 21-foot-long living room and a 24-foot-longdining room next to an 18-foot-long pantry and a 19-foot-long kitchen.

Apartment 9F is a three-bedroom unit with a 9-foot-long entry foyer that leads past an office to a 27-foot-long corner living room with a fireplace, a 25-foot-long kitchen with a 10-foot-long breakfast area and a 14-foot-long maid’s room.

Apartment 2B is a three-bedroom unit with a 12-foot-long entry foyer that leads to a 21-foot-loong living room next to a 21-foot-long dining room that is adjacent to a 14-foot-long breakfast area and a 14-foot-long kitchen and an 8-foot-long maid’s room.

Apartment 6A is a three-bedroom unit that has a 10-foot-long entry foyer that leads to a 19-foot-long living room, an 18-foot-long dining room, and an 18-foot-long library across from a 16-foot-square eat-in kitchen.

Apartment 1B is a three-bedroom unit with a 14-foot-long entry foyer that leads to a five-sided, 19-foot-long living room next to a 14-foot-long dining room adjacent to an 18-foot-long kitchen and a 14-foot-long pantry.

Apartment 12B is a three-bedroom unit with a 12-foot-wide entrance gallery that leads to a 27-foot-wide living/dining room adjacent to a 15-foot-wide kitchen and a 9-foot-long maid’s room.

History

In his October 3, 1993 “Streetscapes” column in The New York Times, Christopher Gray noted that this building “staged a micro-revival of the floppy striped-canvas artifacts whose disappearance is still hard to explain.”

“Canvas awnings began to supplant wooden shutters in the mid-19^th Century, and by 1900 summer awnings were nearly universal.