The Lex 54 Condominium, 135 East 54th Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 135 East 54th Street by Carter Horsley

This 16-story apartment building at 135 East 54th Street was designed by Rosario Candela and Paul Resnick.

The owners on the original filing were Julius and Minnie Glover but in 1951 Anthony and Joseph Campagna became the developers.

The building is on the northwest corner at Lexington Avenue just to the south of the Central Synagogue that was designed by Henry Fernbach in 1872 and is "the oldest building in continuous use as a synagogue in New York," according to Norval White and Elliot Willensky in their great book, "The A.I.A. Guide to New York City Architecture, Fourth Edition." Executed in "rough-hewn Moorish style," the building is "dour on the exterior, except for the star-studded cupolas," but it has "an interior gaily stenciled with rich blues, earthy reds, ocher and gilt," according to the authors. (The building was seriously damaged by a fire in 1998, but was fully restored.)

The second floor of this building is rented out for commercial uses. The building s apartments have central entrance foyers and considerable closet space.

The building, which is known as The Lex 54 Condominium, has 141 apartments. It was converted from a rental in 1985.

Its rooftop watertank enclosure is highlighted by five thin steel bands.

The building's top five floors have terraces and the building permits protruding window air-conditioners. It has no sidewalk landscaping but is convenient to Citicorp Center and the midtown business district.

There is good public transportation in the area.

Candela is generally regarded as the finest architect of the city's most luxurious pre-war apartment buildings.