956 Fifth Avenue: Review and Ratings

Review of 956 Fifth Avenue by Carter Horsley

The 15-story, limestone-clad apartment building at 956 Fifth Avenue on the southeast corner at 76^th Street is one of the most impressive smaller luxury apartment buildings on Fifth Avenue. 

Erected in 1926 by I. N. Phelps-Stokes as an 8-story structure to conform with a 1920 rezoning, it was enlarged to its present size by Nathan Korn after the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York overturned the rezoning and permitted a return to the previous zoning that permitted buildings on the avenue to rise as high as 150 feet. Korn was the architect also of 944 Fifth Avenue. 

The building was converted to a cooperative in 1956 and has 25 apartments. 

Bottom Line

This is one of the most desirable areas of Fifth Avenue because it is beside one of the loveliest sections of Central Park and is removed from the heavy cross-town traffic. It is close to major museums and the art galleries and fashion boutiques of Madison Avenue.

Description

This finely detailed building has an unusual and interesting "bird-cage" rooftop watertank enclosure. 

Designed in Italian-Renaissance-palazzo style, the building has a very elegant, canopied entrance with attractive bronze doors. 

Amenities

The building has a doorman and elevator attendants and permits washers and dryers and pets.

Apartments

The 10^th floor apartment is a three-bedroom unit that has an 18-foot-long entrance gallery that leads to a 39-foot-long living room/library with a fireplace and an 18-foot-long dining room and a 17-foot-long kitchen. 

Apartment 6A has a 13-foot-wide entrance hall that leads to a 25-foot-long corner living room with a fireplace, and a 19-foot-long dining room, both facing on Fifth Avenue, two bedrooms and a 17-foot-foot-long kitchen. 

Apartment 12A has a 13-foot-wide entry foyer that leads to a 25-foot-long corner living room with a fireplace that opens onto a 17-foot-long dining room adjacent to a 16-foot-long kitchen.  The apartment also has a 15-foot-long library, an 18-foot-long office/guest room and a 16-foot-long bedroom. 

Apartment 2A is an one-bedroom maisonette that has a 10-foot-long entry foyer that leads to an elliptical, 25-foot-long living room and a 7-foot-long kitchen.

History

This building's site was once occupied, according to Jerry E. Patterson in his book, "Fifth Avenue, The Best Address," (Rizzoli International Publications, 1998), by a very large, domed building with a broad front flight of stairs designed by William Arnold Brunner and Thomas Tryon in 1899 for Temple Beth-El, which eventually merged with Temple Emanu-el, which is now located on the northeast corner of 65th Street and Fifth Avenue.