5 Riverside Drive: Review and Ratings

Review of 5 Riverside Drive by Carter Horsley

This handsome, red-brick apartment building at 5 Riverside Drive on the southeast corner at 73nd Street was built in 1937 and converted to co-operatives in 1965

The 20-story building has 109 apartments.

It was designed by Boak & Paris for Simon Brothers.

Bottom Line

An imposing Art Deco tower with modest styling and sunken living rooms at a prime Riverside Drive location.

Description

The Art Deco-style building has a very handsome asymmetrical façade with subtle detailing.

It has a one–story, fluted limestone base with a one-step-up entrance and an ornate, protruding entrance surround with a broken pediment enclosing a large urn.  The entrance also has green marble sides with built-in light fixtures.

The second story has several limestone window surrounds that are not placed symmetrically over the entrance, which has sidewalk landscaping.

The main façade has a group of three projecting piers with limestone spandrels that end in limestone bases at the third story and there are two other similar piers without spandrels at the southern end of the façade and one at the northern end.

The three center piers have large decorative limestone caps that rise above the 15^th floor roofline with has limestone trim.

The 16^th floor has broader roofline trim at the sides with an angle center section that two more stories.  The 19^th floor has an angled center limestone parapet and the watertank enclosure has two discrete piers facing Riverside Park.

There are corner windows at 73^rd Street.

There is inconsistent fenestration and the building has discrete and protruding air-conditioners.

The building has a handsome lobby with a wood-paneled concierge desk and a fireplace.

Amenities

The building has a doorman, a live-in superintendent, a laundry and a bicycle room.

Apartments

Apartment 18A is a two-bedroom unit with a small entry foyer that leads into a 14-foot-long gallery that is has an open and curved 9-foot-loong dining area next to a10-foot-long kitchen and the gallery also leads to a sunken 23-foot-loong living room with an angled wall and a fireplace.

Apartment 18C is a two-bedroom unit with an 8-foot-wide entry foyer across from a 12-foot-long kitchen and the foyer leads to a 24-foot-long living room with a corner window and a small terrace and a decorative fireplace.

Apartment 18B is a one-bedroom unit with an 11-foot-wide entry foyer that leads to a 10-foot-long, enclosed kitchen next to a 23-foot-long living room with an angled wall and a 13-foot-long dining area with two angled walls.

Apartment 13C is a two-bedroom unit with an entry foyer that leads to a 15-foot-wide center gallery that leads to a 9-foot-long enclosed kitchen and down one one-step to a 23-foot-long living room with a wood-burning fireplace.

Apartment 12A is a two-bedroom unit with a 19-foot-long entry foyer that leads to a 24-foot-long living room with a fireplace and an 18-foot-wide dining room next to a 10-foot-long kitchen and an 8-foot-long dinette.

Apartment 12F is a studio unit with an 8-foot-long dining foyer next to an enclosed 8-footplong kitchen and a one-step-down, 13-foot-long living room next to a 12-foot-wide sleeping area with sliding doors that is next to a one-step-up, 9-foot-long office.

Apartment 1C is a one-bedroom unit with an 11-foot-wide entry foyer next to an 11-foot-long dining room and a 22-foot-living room with a fireplace and a 11-foot-wide library.

History

When a one-bedroom unit on the 8^th floor came on the market for the first time in more than four decades it was, according to photographs in the August 14 2013 edition of ny.curbed.com a mini-day-glo palace of pink that prompted one commenter to observed that “it’s got a very Studio 54 vibe: that moment when Art Deco was just coming back into people’s conscious in the 1970s.’