The Belnord, 225 West 86th Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 225 West 86th Street by Carter Horsley

On September 18, 2008, Extell Development hosted a very large party in the enormous courtyard of the Belnord apartment building to celebrate its centennial.  Extell bought the full-block apartment complex that is bounded by 86th and 87th Streets and Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue in 1994.

The party had many black-tie musicians, many hors-d'oeuvres and two sushi bars as well as a tent that surrounded two-thirds of the wide walks around the lushly landscaped courtyard that has a very large central fountain.

One of a handful of full-block apartment buildings in the city with major garden courtyards, the Belnord was designed by H. Hobart Weekes in the Renaissance Revival-style.

In 2015, Ziel Feldman of HFZ Capital Group brought the building from Extell for $575 million and is converting it to a condominium with a sellout goal of $1.35 billion that was approved by the New York State Attorney General’s Office.  Mr. Feldman has been a partner with Extell and the Property Markets Group in 1994 to buy the building for $14 million.

According to an August 15, 2017 article by E. B. Solomon at therealdeal.com, “as of April, there were 95 vacant apartments – out of 215 – primed for conversions.”  The other units will be converted as rent-stabilized tenants vacate.  The plan calls for adding a gym and central air-conditioning.

Robert A. M. Stern is the architect overseeing the conversion.  Hollander Design is redesigning the courtyard.

Bottom Line

This very impressive and very handsome, pre-war, full-block apartment palazzo has a very large central courtyard and two impressive, vaulted, arched entrances on West 86^th Street.

Description

The courtyard is actually more interesting than the exterior because of its immense sale and different façade treatment. The façades are entirely rusticated except for double stacks of bay windows in the center of the east and west walls and two single columns of bay windows on both the north and south façades that also have one column of high windows in their centers.

Some observers have viewed such courtyards as pathetic attempts to introduce the Holy Grail, from an urban planner's viewpoint, of "light and air." They seem to think that the Roman atriums and Parisian and Venetian courtyards were refined because they were largely suffused with warm sunlight because the buildings themselves were low-rise. When exploded to the modest mid-rise height of 12 to 15 stories in New York, however, these observers have bemoaned the benefits of such courtyards, arguing that the walls are so high that the "light and air" are limited.

In his book, "The City Observed, New York, a Guide to the Architecture of Manhattan," Vintage Books, 1979), Paul Goldberger, for example, made the following observation in his commentary about the Belnord, the Apthorp and the Astor Court buildings:

"All of the buildings share the liability of courtyard apartment houses, which is poor light in all too many of the units, but they also share the ability of all good courtyard buildings to create - far more than conventional buildings could - a sense of a private, secure world."

The Belnord is the largest of these and its scale is such that one must imagine that its courtyard had to be considered one of the great urban wonders in its early years just as John Portman's atrium hotels of the 1970's were the commercial bedazzlements of American architecture.

In his fine book, "Luxury Apartment Houses of Manhattan, An Illustrated History," (Dover Publications Inc., 1992) Andrew Alpern noted that "The Belnord boasted the largest interior court in the world - 94 feet wide by 231 feet long - and an underground delivery tunnel for trucks and wagons reachable via a ramped driveway from West 87th Street. Architecturally nowhere near as successful as the Astor buildings, the Belnord, with is vast number of very large apartments, did not reach full occupancy until World War II."

The east and west façades are nicely proportioned and quite grand, but the south and north façades, which have an asymmetrical sprinkling of very small windows amid the otherwise symmetrical fenestration, are very long and merely imposing. The windows on the sixth through the 12th floors have slightly arched tops, which is an interesting touch.

The vaulted ceilings of the 86^th Street entrances have very attractive mosaics and the entrance gates have gilded accents.

Amenities

The building has a doorman, a courtyard fountain, a gym and central air-conditioning.

Apartments

Apartment 1112 is a five-bedroom duplex with an entry foyer that leads in one direction to a 30-foot-long living room with a fireplace and in the other to a 28-foot-long dining room with a fireplace next to a 20-foot-long, windowed and enclosed kitchen that is next to a 15-foot-long family room, a 15-foot-long master bedroom, and a service hall with a 12-foot-long maid’s room on the lower level and four bedrooms on the upper level.

Apartment 201 is a four-bedroom unit with a 13-foot-wide entry foyer that leads to a 30-foot-long living room that opens onto an 18-foot-wide dining room that is next to an enclosed and windowed 20-foot-long kitchen with an 8-foot-long utility room and an 18-foot-long parlor. 

Apartment 908 is a four-bedroom unit with an 11-foot-wide entry hall that leads to a 14-foot-long gallery that opens onto a 27-foot-long living/dining room and a 20-foot-long, enclosed and windowed kitchen with a 10-foot-long laundry.

Apartment 217 is a four-bedroom unit with a 25-foot-long entry hall that opens onto a 36-foot-long living/dining room next to an enclosed and windowed, 20-foot-long kitchen.  Two of the bedrooms have bay windows.

Apartment 206 is a four-bedroom unit with a 16-foot-long entry foyer that leads to a 17-foot-long living room with a 17-foot-long dining area that is next to an 18-foot-long enclosed and windowed kitchen.

Apartment 605 is a four-bedroom unit with an entry foyer that leads to a 21-foot-long gallery that opens onto a 28-foot-long living/dining room next to a 19-foot-long enclosed and windowed kitchen and an 18-foot-long family room.

Apartment 910 is a four-bedroom unit with a 10-foot-long entry foyer that opens onto a 29-foot-wide living room with a 14-foot-long dining area next to an enclosed 14-foot-long kitchen.

Apartment 304 is a four-bedroom unit with 3,104 square feet with a large entry hall, a large gallery, a very large living and dining room with a fireplace and a large enclosed and windowed kitchen with an island.

Apartment 209 is a three-bedroom unit with 2,534 square feet that has a 15-foot-wide entry foyer that leads to a 19-foot-long living room with a 16-foot-wide dining area next to a 9-foot-long pantry and an 11-foot-wide, windowed and enclosed kitchen and a 10-foot-wide parlor and a 14-foot-wide second parlor.