120 Riverside Drive: Review and Ratings

Review of 120 Riverside Drive by Carter Horsley

This strongly handsome, 9-story building at 120 Riverside Drive on the northeast corner at 84^th Street was erected in 1907 and has 55 rental apartments.

It was built at the same time as the adjoining 12-story, 100-unit building at 125 Riverside Drive with which it shares a common entrance and similar architecture treatment.

The buildings, which were designed by S. B. Ogden & Company and were once known as the Turrets Apartments, are owned by GreenOak Real Estate Partners.  The buildings were purchased in 2014 by GreenOak and Thor Equities for about $85 million and GreenOak bought out Thor’s interest in May, 2017 in a transaction that valued both buildings at a combined $190 million, according to a May 16, 2017 article at therealdeal.com by Mark Maurer.

Bottom Line

A very distinctive 1907 building with large rounded window bays in living rooms and it has a 9-story south wing, 120 Riverside Drive, and a 12-story north wing, 125 Riverside Drive, with a shared entrance and very bold bandcourses.

Description

This 9-story wing of the two-building complex is shorter but has an elegant entrance surround with a four-step-up stoop and sidewalk landscaping.

It has a fire-escape that is partially over its entrance surround.

The building has a one-story rusticated limestone base over a granite bottom and three thin stringcourses above the first, second and eighth floors. 

There are very bold bandcourses above the 4^th and 8^th floors that are blank except for vertical extensions of the thin window surrounds.

The second-floor façade is also limestone and the light-brown third and four stories have ribbed rusticated.  The upper floors have a beige-brick façade with continuous, narrow and vertical surrounds.

The top floor has arched windows beneath a small scalloped cornice.

It permits window air-conditioners.

The north wing is 12-stories high and has a deep light court on Riverside Drive.

Amenities

The building has a 24-hour doorman, a live-in superintendent and a laundry.

Apartments

Apartments have washers and dryers and high ceilings.

Apartment AB on the 8^th floor is a four-bedroom unit with an entry foyer that leads to a large living room with a large, 3-windowed bay next to a windowed dining room and a long enclosed and windowed kitchen.

Apartment 10A is a three-bedroom unit with a 5-foot-wide entry foyer that leads past an open kitchen with an island to a 25-foot-foot living room with a large, 2-windowed bay next to a master bedroom with an angled window wall.

Apartment 6Y is a one-bedroom unit with a curved entry foyer that leaves to an 18-foot-wide living/dining room with three windows on a curved wall next to a large enclosed and windowed kitchen.

Apartment 6D is a two-bedroom rear apartment with an entry foyer that leads to a 15-foot-wide living dining room in one direction and a large enclosed and windowed kitchen in the other.