The Bolivar, 230 Central Park West: Review and Ratings

Review of 230 Central Park West by Carter Horsley

This quite handsome, 15-story building at 230 Central Park West on the north corner at 83^rd Street was designed by Nathan Korn in 1926 and converted to a cooperative in 1984.  

It has 156 apartments.

With its attractive terra-cotta trim and corner, this red-brick, Neo-Georgian-style building is typical of the high quality of design and construction of the 1920's when many similar buildings were erected on Park Avenue and West End Avenue. They, of course, do not have the Bolivar's greatest asset, wonderful views of Central Park. Just a block north of the great Beresford apartment building, the Bolivar is only a few blocks north and south of subway stations and cross-town buses on a fairly quiet stretch of Central Park West. 

Bottom Line

An elegant apartment building with lively façades two blocks north of the Beresford on Central Park West in a neighborhood that abounds with restaurants.          

Description

This red-brick building has quoins and white terra cotta window surrounds on its lower three and top two floors, bandcourses above the first, fourth and 13^th floors and a canopied entrance.

Amenities

The building has a full-time doorman and allows pets.

Apartments

Apartment 6D is a four-bedroom unit with an 18-foot-long entry foyer that leads to a 10-foot-wide dining room and an enclosed 8-foot-long kitchen and a 19-foot-long living room and 17-foot-wide den.

Apartment 12D is a three-bedroom unit with a 15-foot-long entrance gallery that leads to an 11-foot-wide hall that opens onto a 24-foot-wide living room with a decorative fireplace, a 20-foot-long dining room, a 20-foot-long library, a 17-foot-wide hall and a 23-foot-long enclosed and windowed kitchen.

Apartment 8A is a two-bedroom unit with a 14-foot-wide entry foyer that leads past a 9-foot-long, enclosed kitchen to a 16-foot-wide dining room and a 16-foot-square living room with a wood-burning fireplace.

Apartment 15G is a two-bedroom unit with a 14-foot-long living room and a 9-foot-long, pass-through kitchen.

History

Jerry Seinfeld, the comedian, lived in a two-bedroom apartment with a fireplace in the building from 1990 to 2006 when he sold it for more than $2 million while he was living a block south at the Beresford.

Joseph Ravitch, who was president of the Ravitch Brothers Construction Corporation that was involved in building the Beresford and San Remo apartment buildings, lived in the building.

Irving Maidman was the high bidder at $990,000 “net” for the Hotel Bolivar in 1950.

The site was formerly occupied by two 7-story apartment buildings.

In his excellent book, “Upper West Side Story: A History and Guide,” Peter Salwen noted that the building’s name “seems to honor Simon Bolivar, the great South American liberator; in fact, it commemorates an equestrian statue of Bolivar that was unveiled atop Summit Rock, the nearby hill in Central Park, by President Harding in 1921.  The statue, by Sally James Farnham, is now with those of other South American heroes at Central Park South and Sixth Avenue….”