Features

While Rosario Candela is often considered synonymous with prewar buildings in New York City, J.E.R. Carpenter created some of the apartment buildings that attracted wealthy tenants to avenues on the rise and set new standards for architecture all over the city. At the beginning of the 20th century, before Candela was even practicing, Mr. Carpenter worked as both an architect and a vice president of Fullerton-Weaver, a real estate development company. His position as an investor and partial owner of some buildings brought a unique perspective to the buildings he designed.

In the words of Geoffrey Lynch, partner at H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture, “J.E.R. Carpenter was the master of restraint, but very elegant.” Refined Georgian elegance was his signature style, one that continues to distinguish his Park Avenue buildings. Inside, floor plans recall the ambiance of a town house with grandly proportioned layouts and distinctive areas for living and entertaining. For these reasons, architecture critic Carter Horsley describes him as “the city’s foremost architect of luxury apartment buildings of his generation.”

Today, many of Mr. Carpenter’s buildings appear in Apartments for the Affluent, Andrew Alpern’s influential compilation of Manhattan’s most famous apartments. They also undoubtedly appear on several informal wish lists of those dreaming of a prewar Park Avenue pad. Life in these buildings today is similar to when they first rose - right up to the part where a prospective buyer needs both the right social standing along with the right amount of money to get into some of New York's most distinguished and selective co-ops.

This 5-room residence is ideally situated on the 16th floor, with sunny open views, including an oblique view of Central Park from the master bedroom. Features include charmingly scaled rooms, nearly 10-foot ceilings, and well-designed divisions between public and private space. Read more.

580 Park Avenue is an elegant, Italian Renaissance pallazzo-style, full-service cooperative built in 1923 by famed architect James E. R. Carpenter. In this stately, gracious apartment, an elegant entry gallery leads to the entertaining rooms; a beautifully proportioned living room with wood-burning fireplace that overlooks the tree-tops and architecture on Park Avenue to the east, and an expansive square dining room right off of the kitchen. Read more.

Step off the apartment's private elevator landing into a formal gallery that serves as the heart of the apartment, leading to both the sprawling public spaces and intimate bedroom wing. Both the living room and dining room highlight the high ceilings, grand proportions, and abundance of windows that make 635 Park one of the Avenue's grandest residences. Read more.

Encompassing the entire fourth floor, this tremendous 14-into-10 room simplex apartment affords picturesque western views over tree-lined Park Avenue and sunny northern exposures over East 66th Street. Accessed via a private elevator landing, the immensely gracious full floor apartment is filled with sunlight throughout from four exposures. Read more.

This exceptional residence truly defines luxury and elegance in apartment living. Accessed via a private elevator landing, the immensely gracious full floor apartment is filled with sunlight throughout from four exposures. Read more.

Sun filled, charming and cheery three bedroom apartment in a prestigious, elegant 1924 J.E.R. Carpenter-designed building. The beautifully scaled rooms boast hardwood floors, hand-carved moldings, high ceilings and wonderful overlooks onto evergreen gardens from both East and West exposures. Read more.

From your own private elevator landing, you'll enter this meticulously maintained apartment in an elegant Italian Renaissance palazzo-style building and be immediately dazzled! The beautiful marble entry foyer has 10-foot ceilings and custom doors opening into a large, sunny, side-by-side living and dining room spanning over 40 feet in length. Read more.

This gracious and elegant 12-room residence occupies the building's entire facade along Park Avenue (a span of 90 linear feet) with two major entertaining rooms along 82nd Street. This sprawling home offers grand scale rooms, ten foot ceilings and spectacular light streaming in through oversized windows. Read more.