CPW Towers, 400 Central Park West: Review and Ratings

Review of 400 Central Park West by Carter Horsley

The attractive, red-brick slab apartment tower at 400 Central Park West at 100^th Street is the northeast building of the original Park West Village quadrangle that stretches down to 97^th Street.

It is just to the east and slightly to the north of 392 Central Park West. Neither building has a name while the two south buildings around the green, 372 and 382 Central Park West, are known, respectively, as The Vaux and The Olmsted, and are named after the designers of Central Park, Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted.

These four slab towers run from east to west.

The Park West Village complex comprises seven, red-brick apartment houses of 16 to 20 stories between 97^th and 100^th streets.

The other three Park West Village buildings 784 Columbus Avenue, 788 Columbus Avenue and 792 Columbus Avenue. They are mid-block slab towers that run north to south and 788 Columbus Avenue is further to the west than the other two. This trio of towers is just to the west of the Whole Foods store and 29-story apartment tower at 808 Columbus Avenue that are part of the Columbus Square development by Joseph Chetrit and Lawrence Gluck who had acquired Park West Village in 2000. The mid-rise towers were completed in 2011.

The original Park West Village development was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the architects of Manhattan House on the Upper East Side and Lever House on Park Avenue while the Columbus Square buildings were designed by Costas Kondylis.

Park West Village was one of the city’s most controversial urban renewal projects and was known initially as Manhattantown and then West Park Apartments.

It was built by Webb & Knapp, the development company of William Zeckendorf, and the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) and took more than a decade to complete in 1960 as scandals relating to its development resulted in a major reconsideration of “slum clearance” programs.

The renaissance of the Upper West Side north of 86^th Street in the 2000's made the enclave much more desirable and popular.

For an extensive recap about the building and the development’s history, see CityRealty.com’s entry for the Olmsted at 382 Central Park West.