799 Park Avenue: Review and Ratings

Review of 799 Park Avenue by Carter Horsley

This white-brick, 21-story building at 799 Park Avenue on the northeast corner at 74^th Street was erected in 1961, the year the city enacted a major new Zoning Resolution to encourage more public spaces.

It was designed by H. I. Feldman for Kimmel Brothers. Among Mr. Feldman’s many other Manhattan buildings are the Park Lane Tower at 185 East 85^th Street, the Parker Crescent on East 36^th Street, Berkeley House at 120 Central Park South, 12 Beekman Place and 1025 Fifth  Avenue.

It has 74 co-operative apartments.

Bottom Line

A white-brick building with a very attractive polished black-granite one-story base and an elevator operator and doorman.

Description

The building has a one-story, polished black-granite base and a canopied entrance.

It has very broad windows at the south end of its avenue frontage and its 16^th and 17^th floors are chamfered with windows at the corner with the sidestreet. The 19^th floor has a cantilevered and angled balcony beneath a larger one on the 20^th floor.

The building has some bay windows and discrete air-conditioners.

Amenities

The building has a 24-hour doorman, an elevator operator, a live-in superintendent, a gym, a garage, storage and a laundry.

It permits pets.

Apartments

Apartment 18A is a two-bedroom unit with a 9-foot-wide entrance gallery that leads to a 23-foot-long living room that opens onto a 20-foot-wide solarium that opens on the west to a 18-foot-long terrace that wraps to a 48-foot-long terrace and also opens on the east to a 12-foot-wide terrace.  The apartment also has a 17-foot-long dining room and a 16-foot-long kitchen.

Apartment 14A is a three-bedroom unit with a 14-foot-wide entrance gallery that leads to a 22-foot-long living room and a 17-foot-long dining room next to an 11-foot-long pantry and a 13-foot-long kitchen.

Apartment 8D is a two-bedroom unit with an entry foyer that leads to a 14-foot-long gallery that opens onto a 24-foot-long living room with a decorative fireplace and a 20-foot-long dining room next to a windowed, 18-foot-long kitchen.

History

Given its superb location close to many of the most exclusive and glamorous buildings on the avenue, this simple, glazed-white-brick cooperative did not win a lot of kudos from architecture critics. In his book, "Park Avenue, Street of Dreams," (Atheneum, 1990), James Trager maintains that this building was "perpetrated by H. I. Feldman," and "replaced two tenement houses, one of which had, in turn, replaced three stables."