1136 Fifth Avenue: Review and Ratings

Review of 1136 Fifth Avenue by Carter Horsley

This handsome though scarred apartment house at 1136 Fifth Avenue on the southeast corner at 95^th Street was built in 1925 and converted to a cooperative in 1959.

It was designed in neo-Renaissance-style by George F. Pelham Jr., the architect also of 785 Park Avenue and 1120 Park Avenue and the very handsome Hudson River Gardens and Castle Village developments a few blocks north of the George Washington Bridge.

The 15-story building, which has fine views of Central Park, has 43 apartments.

A large children’s playground is nearby one block to the north in the park.

This Carnegie Hill stretch of Fifth Avenue is very attractive as it was fully developed before World War II and has a very consistent architectural character, interrupted only by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum's famous curved building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright several blocks south at 89th Street.

Bottom Line

This is one of the quietest areas of Fifth Avenue. The side-streets between Fifth and Madison Avenues are very handsome here. This area has many private schools and there are several nice restaurants nearby on Madison Avenue. Cross-town bus service is at 96th and 97th Streets.

Description

The building has a three-story rusticated limestone base beneath an acanthus-leaf-and-rosette frieze and a modillioned cornice beneath a brown masonry façade with rusticated piers and a top floor with terracotta trim. 

The entrance canopy has a dentiled cornice surround and the top of the windows on the first floor have lunettes and the wood-and-glass doors and some first-story windows have crossed-arrow black and gold iron grilles.

The cornice on Fifth Avenue has been partially removed and the “Carnegie Hill Architectural Guide” book prepared by Members of Carnegie Hill Neighbors noted that “Presumably to provide a better view of Central Park from a rooftop garden,” adding that “the removal of damaged ornamental balconies in 1962 left residual scars.”

Amenities

The pet-friendly building has a full-time doorman, an elevator operator and storage but has no roof deck and no garage and no balconies.

Apartments

Some of the apartments have wood-burning fireplaces.

Apartment 3A is a three-bedroom unit that has an entry foyer that leads to a 26-foot-long living room and a 26-foot-long gallery that leads to a circular 13-foot-diameter dining room off a 12-foot-breakfast room next to a 16-foot-long kitchen and two maid’s rooms.

Apartment 5A is a three-bedroom unit that has a 13-foot-long entry foyer that leads to a 23-foot-long gallery that leads a 26-foot-long living room with a wood-burning fireplace, a 9-foot-wide library, a 17-foot-long enclosed dining room, a 14-foot-wide kitchen and a 15-foot-wide maid’s room.

Apartment 1E is a one-bedroom unit that has an 18-foot-long entry foyer that leads past a 17-foot-long kitchen to a 19-foot-long living room.

Apartment 7C is a two-bedroom unit that has a small entry foyer that opens into a 27-foot-living room with a wood-burning fireplace that opens into a 17-foot-long library and a 20-foot-long dining room next to a pantry, a maid’s room and an eat-in, 20-foot-wide kitchen with an island.

History

One of the building’s former residents was Joseph Durst, founder and retired president of the Durst Organization, one of the city’s leading developers.  He died in his apartment in 1974 at the age of 92.  After a career in dress manufacturing he became a vice president of the Capital National Bank and in 1926 purchased for $7 million the old Temple Emanu-El site on the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 43^rd Street and leased adjacent land to build a 33-story bank and office building on the site.