950 Fifth Avenue: Review and Ratings

Review of 950 Fifth Avenue by Carter Horsley

This very attractive, slim apartment building at 950 Fifth Avenue on the northeast corner at 76^th Street was designed by J. E. R. Carpenter, the foremost architect of luxury residential buildings in the city of his generation.

This is one of his most sumptuous designs. His other buildings on Fifth Avenue include 810, 825, 907, 920, 988, 1030, 1035, 1060, 1115, 1120, 1143, 1150, 1165 and 1170 as well as 2 East 66th Street.

Erected in 1926 as a cooperative, the 14-story building has only 7 apartments.

Bottom Line

A very handsome and elegant all-limestone façade contains mostly only a handful of multi-floor luxury residences in this prime Fifth Avenue location close to the idyllic boat pond and away from major cross-town streets.

Description

The finely detailed, Italian-Renaissance-palazzo style structure has an elegant entrance marquee, a four-story rusticated limestone base with a bandcourse above the third floor and a stringcourse above the fourth floor, arched window top surrounds on the fifth floor, another stringcourse above the eleventh floor, a large bandcourse above the 12^th floor and a cornice above the 13^th floor that also has arched window top surrounds.

Its quiet location is convenient to the many cultural institutions, art galleries, restaurants and boutiques of this prime Upper East Side location along Fifth Avenue's "Museum Mile."

This very desirable, limestone-clad building has superb Central Park views, which led the owner of several of the higher apartments to create very large panoramic windows facing the park and giving this pre-war building inconsistent fenestration.

Amenities

This Neo-Italian Renaissance-style building has an elevator operator, a doorman and a very handsome entrance marquee.  It is pet friendly and also has basement storage.

Apartments

This building has a doorman and ceilings as high as 10 feet 9 inches.

In 1929, the penthouse triplex was formed, but then subdivided into a duplex and a simplex in 1937.  The triplex was recreated in 1971 for Steven Ross, who subsequently sold it to Mortimer Zuckerman.  In 2000, a duplex on the 10th and 11^th floors was sold to Dennis Kozlowski for $18 million by Stephen Schwartzman who moved to 740 Park Avenue.

The duplex on the 8^th and 9^th floors has a 27-foot-long entrance gallery and staircase to the upper floor and leads to a 23-foot-wide living room with a wood-burning fireplace.  The gallery also leads to a 22-foot-wide dining room with a fireplace next to a 34-foot-long eat-in kitchen with a breakfast room and a 9-foot-long maid’s room. The upper floor has a 22-foot-long library, a 13-foot-long gym and three bedrooms and the apartment has an 8-foot-long storage room at the lobby level. In 2010, Robert Hurst, the former president of the Whitney Museum of American Art and chairman emeritus of The Jewish Museum and former vice chairman of Goldman Sachs, sold the apartment for $25 million.

In the original plans, a typical duplex had a 21-foot-long entry foyer across from the staircase to the upper level and a 24-foot-long drawing room with a fireplace facing the avenue.  The foyer also lead in the other direction to a 15-foot-library and a 15-foot-long gallery to the 24-foot-wide dining room with a fireplace adjacent to an 10-foot-long pantry and the enclosed, 17-foot-long kitchen that also lead to a 12-foot-long servants hall, and four maid’s rooms.  The upper level has four large bedrooms.

The second floor has a 17-foot-wide entrance foyer that leads to the east to a 24-foot-living room with a fireplace that opens onto a 24-foot-wide dining room next to a 14-foot-long kitchen and a 12-foot-long media room.  To the west of the foyer are two bedrooms.

History

Other residents have included Jonathan Tisch, Chief Executive Office of Loews Hotels.

The building once stood across 76^th Street from Temple Emanu-El, which subsequently relocated several blocks further south on the avenue.