980 Fifth Avenue: Review and Ratings

Review of 980 Fifth Avenue by Carter Horsley

The 26-story tower at 980 Fifth Avenue on the northeast corner at 79^th Street was erected as a cooperative in 1966 on the site of a chateau-like mansion that had been erected by Isaac Vail Brokaw in 1887. Located on Museum Mile, 980 Fifth Avenue sits across from Central Park, and is one block away from world-class shopping and restaurants on Madison Avenue. Pieds a terre permitted, as are pets (1 dog or 1 cat per apartment, with board approval).

The controversial demolition of the Brokaw mansion was a factor in the city's creation of a landmarks preservation law as it happened about the same time as the demolition of the former Pennsylvania Station in midtown and help to arouse the public to the loss of important architectural monuments. 

The building was developed by Campagna Construction Corporation. 

The 45-unit building was designed by Paul Resnick and H. F. Green.

Bottom Line

This handsome dark tower has great views and one of the city’s best plazas and its replacement of a large mansion built by Isaac Vail Brokaw helped lead to the creation of the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Description

Its dark, grayish brown brick façade would be somber if it were not enlivened by the slightly projecting limestone window bays, one on each of its façades. The composition gives the tower a strong sense of verticality, accentuating its already dramatic break with the traditional 15-story cornice line of the avenue's apartment houses. 

The thin framing in light-colored material of the large, broad windows also adds a touch of delicacy to this large tower.

Amenities

The building has a doorman, a garage, a driveway, an entrance marquee and excellent sidewalk landscaping and seating. 

Apartments

Apartment 10A is a two-bedroom unit with a foyer that leads to a 16-foot-long gallery that opens onto a 20-foot-long corner living room that opens onto a 20-foot-long dining room next to a 19-foot-long enclosed windowed kitchen.  The apartment also has a 20-foot-long library and an 11-foot-long staff room. 

Apartment 23B is a large two-bedroom unit that has a entry foyer that leads to a 36-foot-long living room with a small curved wall and a 17-foot-long dining room next to a 23-foot-long angled kitchen and a 12-foot-long staff room.  

Apartment 3B has a 13-foot-long foyer that leads to a 16-foot-long gallery that opens onto a 25-foot-long living room and a 20-foot-long dining room with a 35-foot-long terrace adjacent to a 14-foot-long kitchen with a 14-floot-long breakfast room.  The two-bedroom unit also has a maid’s room, a 8-foot-long laundry room and a 17-foot-long hall. 

Apartment 9A has a 13-foot-long foyer that leads to a 15-foot-long gallery that opens onto a corner 25-foot-long living room and a 19-foot-long dining room next to a 19-foot-long kitchen with an 11-foot-long breakfast area.  The three-bedroom unit also has a 11-foot-long staff room and a laundry room. 

Apartment 20 B is a two-bedroom unit has a 13-foot-long entry foyer that leads to a 16-foot-long gallery that opens onto a 25-foot-long living room and a 21-foot-long dining room next to a 13-foot-long kitchen with a 10-foot-long breakfast room. 

History

Because of the notoriety associated with the demolition of the Brokaw mansion, this tower has not been popular in many architectural circles. 

It is, however, quite handsome and one of the better apartment towers to have been erected in the city after World War II. 

Although 825 Fifth Avenue several blocks to the south was significantly higher than its neighbors, it was stylistically contextual whereas this tower's modernity and minimalism was in sharp contrast to its neighbors. 

Furthermore, this tower achieved its height by providing a plaza that enabled it to use a zoning "bonus." The creation of a plaza on a broad cross-street such as 79th Street, to say nothing of being directly across from Central Park, could be construed superfluous, unnecessary and disruptive of the area's traditional street grid. 

Subsequently, the city would change its zoning and create an historic district to prevent such incongruities along much of the avenue's frontage on the park. 

The plaza and the building's height, understandably shattered much of the elegant ambiance of the avenue just as Plaza 900 and 733 Park Avenue would soon do on Park Avenue. These projects significantly altered, for the worse, the consistent ambiance of both avenues and, indeed, the heart of the Upper East Side. 

This tower is the best of the lot as it is well-proportioned with very handsome, large picture windows with thin and attractive limestone reveals, a dramatic entrance and a large, nicely landscaped plaza with large planters with seating areas. 

Indeed, the plaza and its arcade are among the most attractive in the city and in retrospect have the added benefits of broadening the view of the great mansion row on the south side of the street from across the avenue and also easing bus stop crowding at the intersection. 

Interestingly, another, very similar tower - 985 Fifth Avenue - quickly adjoined it just to the north on the avenue and at first glance both buildings read as one because the second building s driveway adjoins 980's plaza and both buildings are setback from the avenue. venue and Wechsler & Schimenti were the architects for Bernard Spitzer of 985 Fifth Avenue, which also rose on the site of a former Brokaw mansion. 

In his fine small book, "Touring the Upper East Side, Walks in Five Historic Districts," (New York Landmarks Conservancy, 1995), Andrew S. Dolkart remarked that "these two apartment buildings are not only excruciatingly banal works of architecture, but they rudely break the plane of the Fifth Avenue street wall." "They replaced six townhouses, including four erected for clothier Isaac Brokaw and his children that were demolished, despite pleas for their preservation, in February, 1965....The ensuing New York Times editorial, entitled "Rape of the Brokaw Mansion," decried the 'weekend stealth...[of] the despoilers' who demolished these buildings and noted that if the city did not pass pending landmarks legislation there would be no landmarks left to save. This outcry influenced Mayor Robert Wagner's, decision, two months later, to sign the law creating the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission," Dolkart wrote. 

The Brokaw houses were impressive but not important examples of the turn-of-the-century urban mansion, and some might argue that these two towers should not be slighted since they were instrumental in getting the city to enact a landmarks law, even if it was decades late. Of course, ideally all the mansions along the avenue should probably have been saved and the elegant tall apartment buildings erected along Madison Avenue, but that should have been an earlier battle. 

In his excellent book, "New York's Fabulous Luxury Apartments With Original Floor Plans from The Dakota, River House, Olympic tower and Other Great Buildings," (Dover Publications, Inc., 1987), Andrew Alpern noted that 980 Fifth Avenue "offers large and expensive accommodations, the biggest being a 16-room duplex penthouse which originally cost $418,000." "Many of the original details used throughout the building - gold-plated bathroom fixtures, bidets, domed ceilings - were removed by some of the 43 owner-occupants. The large number of changes suggests a stern re-evaluation of what people of means want in their apartments," he continued. 

The building, which now has 45 apartments, has spectacular views to the west and the south and has a garage and a driveway. It no longer is such a standout on the Upper East Side skyline and its plaza is very pleasant.