1 East End Avenue: Review and Ratings

Review of 1 East End Avenue by Carter Horsley

This elegant apartment building was erected in 1929 and occupies a thin, trapezoidal plot along the East River and the FDR Drive.

The 14-story building was designed by Pleasants Pennington and Albert W. Lewis and has 33 units.

The building, which is one of the most attractive on East End Avenue, used to also front on Marie Curie Avenue, which was removed to accommodate the FDR Drive.

The building is only 29 feet wide at the south end, where there is an entrance to the FDR Drive, and 51 feet wide at the north end, which is only a few blocks from the very attractive Carl Schurz Park, which contains Gracie Mansion, the Mayor's Residence, and a riverfront promenade.

The building has façades of soft orange brick and limestone and the East River side has four projecting bay windows.

According to a "Streetscapes" column in the September 2, 2007 edition of The New York Times by Christopher Gray, "each floor was  divided itno three, a  duplex in the central section flanked by simplexes north and south."

"The narrow southern end of the building looks like a ship's prow.  The living rooms there are 27 feet across, and each one must feel like the bridge of an aircraft carrier," Mr. Gray observed, adding that "walking past the back of 1 East End Avenue, there is still a whiff of the ambition of the place," noting that "an elegant set of marble stairs leads down to what was originally a yacht landing."

Some of the city's finest private schools are also nearby.

The building has fine East River views, of course, but also many good views to the south and west because the nearby buildings are low-rise.