The Park Imperial, 230 West 56th Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 230 West 56th Street by Carter Horsley

This mixed-use tower contains the headquarters of Random House, the publishing company, on its lower floors and 101 residential condominiums on its upper floors.

The base is clad in polished gray granite and the top is clad very handsomely in reflective glass and layer vertically in slabs. 

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill was the architect and Ismael Leyva and Adam D. Tihany did the interiors.

It was developed by the Related Cos.

The building was completed in 2002.

Bottom Line

When this was erected, the area was pretty lackluster.  Now it’s one of the hottest in the city with many new buildings, and great convenience to Central Park, Columbus Circle, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the Theater District.

Description

Many mixed-use projects do not clearly identify their various parts, but this is an exception.  The granite-clad base contains office space and the reflective-glass top contains the luxury apartments.

Interestingly, much of the top of this tower top is very visible from Central Park even though there are plenty of tall buildings in its neighborhood.

With just a few setbacks on Broadway and near the top, the architects have given this reflective-glass portion of the tower a very elegant and subtle massing of shifted slabs of slightly varying heights.

It has no balconies and no sidewalk landscaping.

Amenities

The building has a full-time doorman, a full-service garage and a health club.

The Imperial Club on the 47^th floor has a terrace that overlooks Central Park and a fitness center.  The building also has a residents’ lounge and a business center. 

It is pet-friendly.

It has no roof deck.

Apartments

Apartments have ebony-stained mahogany floors, 10-foot-high ceilings, individual climate controls, some kitchens with windows and some marble bathrooms with flatscreen televisions.

Apartment 48E is a two-bedroom unit with a 20-foot-long terrace accessed from the master bedroom and the living room and a 16-foot-long terrace accessed from the second bedroom.

Apartment 49B is a two-bedroom unit with a gallery that leads to a 22-foot living room and an enclosed kitchen.

Apartment 52A is a three-bedroom unit that has an entrance foyer that leads past an enclosed kitchen to a 25-foot-long living room.

Apartment 64A is a six-bedroom, full-floor unit with an entry hall that leads into a “reading lounge” adjacent to the corner living room next to a large open kitchen with island that leads to a dining room that opens onto a gallery that opens onto a sunset corner room that is adjacent to an office and a library.

Apartment 65B is a three-bedroom unit that has a 18-foot entrance gallery that leads past an enclosed kitchen to a 27-foot-living room.