850 Park Avenue: Review and Ratings

Review of 850 Park Avenue by Carter Horsley

This attractive, 12-story building at 850 Park Avenue on the southwest corner at 77^th street was designed by Rouse & Goldstone for George A. Johnson.

The architects were best known for their design of the Montana apartments at 375 Park Avenue on the site of the Seagram Building and their other Park Avenue buildings are 45 Park, a hotel, and the apartment buildings at 760 and 876.

It was erected in 1914 and converted to a cooperative in 1920.

It has 51 apartments.

Bottom Line

A solid pre-war across from the Lenox Hill Hospital with numerous three-bedroom apartments.

Description

The building has some arched windows on its second floor and garlands at the bottom of the third story and also around the top of its façade.

In his May 16, 2004 “Streetscapes” column in The New York Times, Christopher Gray wrote that the building is “an educated design by Rouse & Goldstone, which has a mottled, roughened brick with a subtlety and a handmade quality that evokes a craft tradition."

The building has a very impressive, Wedgewood-style lobby and a canopied, two-step-up entrance flanked by light sconces and sidewalk landscaping.

The center windows on the third and 11^th floors have attractive window surrounds with entablatures.

The building is missing its cornice and has some protruding air-conditioners.

Amenities

The building has a doorman.

Apartments

Apartment 11/12C is a duplex with a 25-foot-long entrance gallery on the lower level that leads to a 23-foot-long living room with a wood-burning fireplace and a 20-foot-long dining room next to a 32-foot-long kitchen.  The lower level also has a 17-foot-long bedroom and a 24-foot-long family room.  The upper level has an 18-foot-long gallery, a 17-foot-long library with a wood-burning fireplace and five bedrooms.

Apartment 12D is a two-bedroom unit with an 8-foot-long foyer that opens onto a curved 15-foot-wide gallery that leads to a 23-foot-long living room with fireplace that leads to a 19-foot-long dining room next to a 12-foot-long windowed pantry and an18-foot-long windowed and curved kitchen next to a 12-foot-long staff room and a 16-foot-long study.

Apartment 6C is a two-bedroom unit that has a 16-foot-wide entrance gallery that leads to a 23-foot-long living room with a wood-burning fireplace with French doors to a 23-foot-long dining room next to a pantry and a 13-foot-long kitchen that connects to a 19-foot-long den/library.

Apartment 4A is a three-bedroom unit with a 19-foot-long entrance gallery that opens onto a 23-foot-long living room with a wood-burning fireplace and a 21-foot-long dining room next to a 16-foot-long pantry that opens onto a 13-foot-long library and a 10-foot-long maid’s room and leads to an 18-foot-long windowed and angled kitchen.

Apartment 10B is a three-bedroom unit that has a 25-foot-long has an 8-sided entrance  gallery that opens onto a 25-foot-long living room with a wood-burning fireplace that leads to an enclosed 22-foot-long dining room next to a pantry and a 21-foot-long, eat-in kitchen, and two maid’s rooms.

Apartment 1DR is a two-bedroom unit that has a 9-foot-wide entry foyer that leads to a 12-foot-wide open dining area next to a 12-foot-long kitchen and  a 20-foot-long living room with a fireplace and a wet bar.

History

According to James Trager, the author of "Park Avenue, Street of Dreams," (Atheneum, 1990), the building replaced four row houses, three stables and two vacant lots.

Location

The building is across Park Avenue from Lenox Hill Hospital and is also close to many fashionable restaurants, boutiques and art galleries along Madison Avenue as well as a local subway station on Lexington Avenue at 77th Street.