The Hawthorne, 128 Central Park South: Review and Ratings

Review of 128 Central Park South by Carter Horsley

This handsome, midblock, 16-story, apartment building was erected in 1924 and converted to a cooperative in 1984. It has 56 units.

This block, between the Avenue of the Americas and Seventh Avenue, is the most elegant on Central Park South as it boasts the great Art Deco rooftops of the Trump Parc building on the east end and the Essex House midblock as well as the spectacular, green mansard roof of Hampshire House midblock and the imposing Italian-Renaissance-palazzo-style New York Athletic Club on the west end.

This Italian-Renaissance-palazzo-style building has good-size apartments and great vistas of Central Park and the skylines of Upper Fifth Avenue and Central Park West. Although it has inconsistent fenestration, its façade is quite attractive with large picture windows clustered in the center of its façade. It has a canopied entrance with a nice two-story decorative surround. There are balustraded balconies on the fourth floor and a few on the 12th floor. The building has a canopied entrance with flanking lanterns and sidewalk landscaping and a doorman. Its limestone façade has handsome quoins at its sides and the building has a modern lobby and permits protruding air-conditioners. It has no garage, and no health club. Good public transportation is nearby as well as excellent shopping and numerous restaurants.

Historically, Central Park South was for many decades an surprisingly unattractive location despite its great location because of its narrow sidewalks, high traffic, a proliferation of street people who patronized guests at its many hotels and a lack of normal residential neighborhood amenities. At the end of the 20th Century, however, its ambiance improved significantly with the erection of several new luxury towers nearby and the opening of new restaurants and a supermarket not too far away and the long-delayed redevelopment of the New York Coliseum site at its western terminus.

With the elegant stores of Fifth Avenue and the boutiques of Madison Avenue nearby to the east and the varied attractions of the Lincoln Center district a few blocks away to the west, this location is very prime.