Towers on the Park III, 301 Cathedral Parkway: Review and Ratings

Review of 301 Cathedral Parkway by Carter Horsley

This residential complex consists of twin 20-story towers, each with two 9-story wings, at the northwest corner of Central Park.

Designed by Bond Ryder James, the large complex has 599 condominium apartments of which 257 are in this building that was erected in 1987.

At the intersection where Central Park West becomes Frederick Douglass Avenue, the project offers spectacular views of the park and the Upper East Side skyline.

An important anchor gateway to Harlem, it is very close to the Cathedral Church of St. John The Divine, the third largest church in the world, which is a couple of blocks to the west on a bluff overlooking Morningside Park on Cathedral Parkway (which is the west end of 110th Street).

In their superb book, "The A. I. A. Guide to New York City," (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988), Elliot Willensky and Norval White described these buildings as "crisp, but bland," adding "they bow, however, to the circle and consciously make a corner for the park."

Pleasant as they are, they pale in comparison to the Arthur A. Schomburg Plaza complex at the northeast corner of Central Park at Fifth Avenue and 110th Street. That development consists of twin, octagonal, 35-story apartment towers, designed by Gruzen & Partners and Castro-Blanco, Piscioneri & Feder, that were built in 1975 and were among the finest apartment towers erected in the city after World War II and a distinguished gateway to Central Park.

Bottom Line

Two large towers with low-rise wings are angled at the northwest corner of Central Park at Frederick Douglas Circle with fabulous views, good public transportation and proximity to Columbia University and the Episcopal Cathedral Church of St. John The Divine.

Description

According to “New York 2000, Architecture and Humanism Between the Bicentennial and the Millennium” by Robert A. M. Stern, David Fishman and Jacob Tilove this complex is a “brutally scaled and brutally detailed pair of apartment towers anchoring the northwest corner of Central Park on a two-acre urban renewal site occupying the northwest and southwest corners of Frederick Douglass Circle, the intersection of 110^th Street and Eighth Avenue.”

“The parcel had previously been slated for low-income housing, but that project was canceled I light of the anticipated high cost of site work.  Plans were revived in 1982 with the help of the HUDC and the New York City Housing Partnership, a private civic group founded the year before and chaired by David Rockefeller to help the city build 5,000 new units of housing on city-owned land for moderate- to middle-income residents….Both buildings provided retail spaces at ground level, and the north tower was abutted by a 100-car garage, while the southern tower snaked across its site to enclose a south-facing courtyard along 109^th Street.”

Amenities

The buildings have a doorman and a concierge, community rooms for parties, meeting space, laundry space, storage space, bicycle storage and a garage.  It has no roof deck and no fitness center.

Apartments

Apartment 7N is a three-bedroom unit with a 24-foot-long living/dining room with a 7-foot-long kitchen.

Apartment 7G is a two-bedroom unit with an angled, 24-foot-long living/dining room with a 10-foot-wide kitchen.