2 Fifth Avenue: Review and Ratings

Review of 2 Fifth Avenue by Carter Horsley

This 20-story, 343-unit building, designed by Emery Roth & Sons, occupies a prime residential plot in Greenwich Village just to the north of Washington Square Park at the base of Fifth Avenue.

It stretches from the north edge of Washington Square Park to the area's "Main Street" - West Eighth Street.

When the project was first announced, it was reported on the front page of The New York Times.

"It was a call to battle. The eleven old Rhinelander brownstones that fronted on Washington Square North and along Fifth Avenue to Eighth Street had been an obvious target for development since the 1920's, but had occasioned several defaults and the defeat of a thirty-story tower planned by another developer," wrote Tom Schactman in his book, "Skyscraper Dreams, The Great Real Estate Dynasties of New York," (Little, Brown and Company, 1991).

"The Rhinelander buildings contained a church, several clubs, a former stable, and a handful of choice residential apartments, one occupied by an editor of the Herald Tribune who spearheaded a campaign to prevent development. The Tribune editor recruited the Washington Square Association, the Municipal Art Society, the City Planning Commission, and every other group that could express outrage over the idea....Opposition swelled when it was learned the Roses and the Minskoffs had bought nearby sites and made plans that might transform the small-scale residential character of the area," Schactman noted.

On its park frontage, the developer, Samuel Rudin, attempting to blend in with the surrounding older townhouses, erected a low-rise wing faced in red-brick with white trim. This five-story wing, whose height is actually smaller than the adjacent, and much grander, townhouses, was the result of a major controversy with the community, many of whose civic leaders protested the original plan to put the 20-story tower flush with the street fronting the park. The bulk of the building, a white-brick slab setback from the avenue with two bays that project out closer to the avenue, is not set back from Eighth Street where it deadens, somewhat, that steet's chaotic but lively retail activity.

In his superb book, "Shaping the City, New York and the Municipal Art Society," (Clarkson Potter, 1995), Gregory G. Gilmartin recounts that when news of the proposed development of 2 Fifth Avenue broke, "Horrified Villagers formed the Committee to Save the Rhinelander Houses and called on the city to buy and preserve the old houses" that then occupied the site.

"Rudin's building was perfectly legal, but the City Planning Commission was appalled by its scale, and, as Harvey Wiley Corbett put it, 'of its own volition, without fanfare or publicity, arranged for a meeting of a few men representing both sides to sit down and talk the matter over.' Corbett was one of them. He helped work out a compromise in which the building's bulk was redistributed.' Corbett helped architect Richard Roth Jr. rework his plans and praised him: 'No architect could make a more serious and conscientious effort to preserve the north side of the Square,' Corbett told his colleagues at the Municipal Art Society," according to Gilmartin.

"Roth's intentions," Gilmartin continued, "were better than his client's, however, and the Committee to Save the Rhinelander Houses soon told MAS that the design had been changed. The new building's cornice no longer quite aligned with those of its neighbors, the small entrances were gone, and balconies had appeared. When MAS learned of this, it suddenly reversed course and called on the city to purchase the Rhinelander Houses. Use them for some public purpose, MAS said, or transfer them to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. That didn't happen. Two Fifth Avenue might easily have been a better building, but even in its compromised form it remained a kind of triumph for the Municipal Art Society, for [Jerry] Finkelstein [then chairman of the City Planning Commission], for the planning commission, and even for Sam Rudin, who was spared the odium of having utterly ruined Washington Square."

The gray brick façade of the tower has a subtle modulation from the rounded short brick columns between the windows and the fence around the low-rise building's landscaping has a pleasant rectilinear form rather than traditional spikes.

There s a war waging behind the pale façade of one of the Gold Coast's most iconic - and celebrity-studded - co-ops. At the stately Two Fifth Avenue,

A May 27, 2011 article in New York Magazine said that the building's brick exterior has been crumbling for years."

"It's an exterior problem that's been solved by temporary fixes, but now that the board is contemplating a wildly expensive permanent solution, the Two Fifth's interior is imploding. Amid allegations of fraud and nepotism, the building that bold-faced names like Ed Koch, Bella Abzug, Larry Kramer, and the heir to the Marshall Fields fortune have called home, ousted its cooperative board earlier this month, replacing it with all new members."

"At issue is a $40 million renovation of the building's façade that residents say could cost them anywhere from $90,000 to $300,000 each, depending on the size of their apartment. 'It has been complete hell,' said one shareholder, who declined to be named for fear of isolating herself from her neighbors. 'We know values are going to drop until this whole thing gets sorted out.'

"The saga began two years ago, when lower Fifth Avenue was shut down after bricks on the seventeenth floor of the building bulged and threatened to come loose. Like many buildings with glazed white bricks, residents of the 343-unit high rise, at the northwest corner of Washington Square Park, knew it would eventually have to replace the façade. But as engineers began to probe, it became clear that loose bricks were the least of the problems. Relieving angles were missing, ties were disintegrating, and support beams that were erected with the building in 1951 needed mending. Each terrace must be replaced, and costly pipe scaffolding must be erected."

"In October, a pandemic of panic took hold when the board announced the scope of the work that was needed. Residents took issue with the consultant who was hired to oversee the project and her $300,000 fee, and a complicated nineteen-page survey meant to determine which owners could afford to pay the assessment further ruffled feathers. Angry e-mails began to circle, and ad hoc committees were formed to rally neighbors and organize an opposition."

"In the wake of such antagonism, not one member of the old board ran for reelection. This included Rudin Management Co., which built the building and continues to own several rental units there. Until this month, Rudin has always maintained a seat on the board. 'There was just a great deal of concern and anxiety on the part of the shareholders,' said Phil Coltoff, the former chief executive of the Children's Aid Society who was voted in as the new board president. 'Many of us felt we were being left in the dark, and the board was not providing sufficient leadership.'"

"Adelaide Polsinelli, a real estate executive who has lived in the building since 1986, has been on the coop board for ten years, most recently as president. Her brusque style alienated many residents, and in a letter announcing her decision not to seek reelection, she alleged some of the building's residents had 'a personal vendetta' against her."

She said the "board had put in place financing and was prepared to start work renovating the façade in September. 'No one is more capable than I am to solve this problem,' she said. 'The fact is, however, I'm dealing with the average lay person who hears how much it will cost and panics.'"

The new board said it is getting up to speed on the project, which is expected to take at least two years to complete. It filed plans with the Department of Buildings."