360 Central Park West: Review and Ratings

Review of 360 Central Park West by Carter Horsley

This 16-story apartment at 360 Central Park West on the southwest corner of 96^th Street was designed in 1929 by Rosario Candela for Vinross Realties of which Morris H. Rothschild was president and Vincent J. Slattery as treasurer.

It was erected on the site of the Second Scotch Presbyterian Church and it incorporated new, 4-story-high facilities for the church on its 96^th Street frontage with a Neo-Gothic façade.

According to “The New York Apartment Houses of Rosario Candela and James Carpenter,
 by Andrew Alpern, Mr. Rothschild and Mr. Slattery “appear to have made something of a mini-specialty of constructing apartment houses incorporating churches on the site of congregations’ former church buildings” adding that “these two men were also responsible for such a structure at 307 West 57^th Street…designed by Candela and another at 127 West 57^th Street…, which may have been designed by Candela.

This building originally had 146 rental apartments and was converted to a condominium in 2015 by Argo Real Estate, which planned to reduce the number of units. According to newyorkyimby.com, “court filings  from 2013 claim the building has 44 rent-stabilized units and 10 rent-controlled ones, but the developer argued 20 of those apartments should be market-rate,” adding that “sources” said that the case was “resolved amicably.” Mark Moskowitz is the head of Argo, which was founded by his father, Henry Moskowitz.

Cetra/Ruddy was the architect for the conversion, which is across 96^th Street from the very handsome, free-standing First Church of Christ that is being converted to residential use.

Bottom Line

A handsome, pre-war, Rosario Candela apartment building incorporating facilities for the church that had occupied the entire site, which is at the east-bound transverse road across Central Park and a subway station.

Description

The beige-brick building has a two-story limestone base with a canopied entrance on Central Park West.  It has multi-paned fenestration and bandcourses above the second and 14^th floors.  It has a balustraded roofline and vertical indentations at the corners of the top floor.

It has a handsome watertank enclosure and is setback on the sidestreet above the church facilities.

Amenities

The building has a “fully attended lobby and a resident manager, a playroom, a fitness center, a pet grooming station, resident storage and bicycle storage.

Apartments

The B line apartments are three-bedroom units with an entry foyer that open into a large living room with a dining alcove and an open kitchen with an island.

The A line apartments at the corner of Central Park West and 96^th Street are two-bedroom units with 12-foot-long entry foyers that lead to a 9-foot-long enclosed kitchen, a 12-foot-long dining area and a 20-foot-long living room.

Apartment 5F is a two-bedroom unit with a 21-foot-long entry foyer that leads to a 20-foot-long living room next to an enclosed, windowed kitchen.

The G line apartments are one-bedroom units with an 8-foot-long entry foyer that lead to a 21-foot-long living room with an enclosed, windowed kitchen.

A studio apartment on the top floor has a foyer that leads past a 9-foot-wide kitchen to a 16-foot-long living area that opens onto a very large wrap-around terrace.

History

In his fine book, “From Abyssinian to Zion, A Guide to Manhattan’s Houses of Worship,” David Dunlap, a reporter for The New York Times, provides the following commentary about the history of this building’s church:

“In a disagreement over what Psalms to use, the Second Presbyterian Church separated from the First in 1756 and called a pastor, the Rev. John Mitchell Mason, from Scotland.  Widely known as the Scotch Presbyterian Church, it built a sanctuary on Cedar Street…in 1786.  In 1836/1837, it constructed a Greek Revival Church on Grand Street…that was sold in 1852 to the Fourth Presbyterian Church.  The Scotch Church mas its home from 1853 to 1894 at 53 West 14^th Street….It then moved far uptown, to 6 West 96^th Street…overlooking Central Park. This church was built in 1893/1984, to designs by William H. Hume & Son, with a grand corner tower and open-air belfry.”   That Romanesque-style church had a 5-step-up entrance to three arched doorways beneath a colonnade and a large rose window.