22 Riverside Drive: Review and Ratings

Review of 22 Riverside Drive by Carter Horsley

The handsome 19-story, apartment building at 22 Riverside Drive on the northeast corner at 74^th Street was converted to condominiums in 2005.

It was built in 1931 by the Guide Realty Corporation and designed by William Paris of Boak & Paris with Elizabethan and Gothic detailing.

James, Bradley and Milton S. Rinzler are the principals of the sponsor of the conversion, 22 Riverside Drive Owners LLC.  The non-eviction plan was submitted to the New York State Attorney General’s Office in January and the offering for tenants amounted to $45,820,456 and to non-tenants $53,747,595.

At the time of the plan’s submission, there were 3 rent-controlled apartments and 13 rent-stabilized units in the 33-unit building although that number has subsequently shrunk.

Bottom Line

A rather delightful, thin tower at a prime Riverside Drive location not far from the express subway station at Broadway and 72^nd Street.

Description

The brown-brick building has a sandstone base and a two-story sandstone entrance surround on the side-street.

The building has some corner windows and there are metal grills on the first floor windows.  It has no entrance canopy.

While it has a nice frontage on a quite windy corner, its side-street frontage is very narrow. The building has protruding air-conditioners and sidewalk landscaping and impressive views of Riverside Park and the Hudson River.

According to Dwellingsnyc.com, “a double-leaf wood and plate glass door is environed by a white, corbic step-styled door surround.”  The top portion of the structure, it continued, “is highlighted with irregular setbacks, iron railings, gabled peaks, embrasures and escutcheons” and “additional detailing on the façade includes hood molds, fleurs-de-lis, escutcheons, floriated spandrels, balconies and wrought-iron window grilles at the first level.”  The report indicated that in 2005 the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved a proposal to create a new line of window openings at the second through sixteenth floors at the Riverside Drive façade to provide “balance and retain the same shape and pattern as the original double hung windows on the primary face.”

The building is in the West-End Collegiate Historic District.

Amenities

The building has a full-time doorman, a live-in superintendent, a bicycle room, sidewalk landscaping and storage.  The building is pet friendly.

Apartments

The apartments have sunken living rooms with brass handrails on bronze balusters.

There are ashlar water tables at the 16^th and 17^th floors and cast stone and terra cotta frames around windows on the 2^nd, 3^rd, 12^th and 15^th through the 19^th floors.

The triplex penthouse has a fireplace and Community Board 7 approved in June, 2005, a plan to add a metal greenhouse on the south side of the roof to match an existing original greenhouse on the north side.

Apartment 13B is a two-bedroom unit with a small entry foyer that opens onto a 12-foot-long dining area next to a 9-foot-square enclosed kitchen and a one-step-down, 26-foot-long sunken living room with a large bay window.  The master bedroom is angled and has bay windows.

History

The site was formerly occupied by the 22-room, 5-story building that was built for George H. Macy, banker, by Harvey Murdock from plans by Cass Gillbert and subsequently owned by John Lochrie, a mining engineer.

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