444 Central Park West
At The Northwest corner of East 104th street
Key Details
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Year Built 1929Converted Year 1976Building Type CooperativeNeighborhood Central Park West
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Total Apartments 123Total Floors 19Doorman FT Doorman
Description
This handsome 19-story red-brick apartment building at 444 Central Park West, was erected on the northwest corner of 104th Street in 1929.
It has 123 apartments and was converted by Curtis Katz to a cooperative in 1976.
It was designed by Boak & Paris whose other buildings include 5, 22, 100 and 315 Riverside Drive, 5 West 86th Street, 336 West End Avenue, 45 Christopher Street, and the Brevoort East Apartments.
A July 15, 2001 article in The New York Times by Christopher Gray was devoted to Boak & Paris. It said that Russell M. Boak and his partner Hyman F. Parisworked both worked as draftsmen in the office of Emery Roth and that's how they ended up founding their own firm in 1927.
"Their early work included the apartment house at the northeast corner of 106th Street and Broadway. In the 1930's, though, their work became more inventive. They gave 315 Riverside Drive (designed in 1930 at 104th Street) definite Art Deco overtones, including strips of half-round molded brick running up the façade and unusual window grills with stylized floral motifs. In 1932 Boak & Paris designed a pink and black terra cotta movie house on Broadway near 99th Street - now the Metro Theater, formerly the Midtown."
He continutes: "In 1933 they did their first building for Samuel Minskoff, an apartment house at 3 East 66th Street. Many elements of their later work appear there: elegant window grills of iron with brass trim; multicolored terrazzo floors of geometric style; varicolored marble lobby fireplaces; dropped living rooms; neo-Classical details reworked in modern style; sophisticated molded plaster ceiling decoration; and elaborate iron and brass entry doors, also in modern style."
Unfortunately, Boak and Paris split up in 1942. Gray notes that Boak entered into a new partnernship with Thomas O. Raad in 1944, two years after his original partner retired. Gray notes that the new duo also contributed some inventive architecture to the city, specifically the "angular sawtooth-plan apartment buildings at 430 and 440 East 56th Street, designed for the Doelger family in the 1950s."
Building Amenities
- FT Doorman
- Hi Rise
- Pre War
- Basement Storage
- Elevator
Broker & Buyer Comments