355 Riverside Drive: Review and Ratings

Review of 355 Riverside Drive by Carter Horsley

This attractive 14-story apartment house at 355 Riverside Drive on the southeast corner at 108^th Street was designed by William Tuthill, who was the architect of Carnegie Hall.

Erected in 1925, the 37-unit building was converted to a cooperative in 1983.

The building is just to the north of the very handsome Children's Museum at 351 Riverside Drive on the northeast corner at 107th Street that had been built in 1909 for cigarette magnate Morris Schinasi, whose brother had bought the Isaac Rice mansion at 20 Riverside Drive the year before. The Children's Museum building housed a girls' finishing school in the 1930s and then was operated as a day-care center by Columbia University.

Bottom Line

A pleasant, pre-war apartment building designed by William Tuthill, the architect of Carnegie Hall.

Description

The red-brick building has an entrance with a two-story limestone surround with urns and sconces and fluted pilasters on the side-street where it also has some fire-escapes and protruding air-conditioners.

It has a two-story, rusticated masonry base with very handsome and large decorative spandrels between the first and second floors and a handsome bandcourse above the second floor.

Its top floor has very handsome, balustrade window surrounds surmounted by very handsome decorative spandrels.

The building has no sidewalk landscaping.

Amenities

The building has a doorman, but no roof deck, no garage and no fitness center.

Apartments

Penthouse W is a one-bedroom unit with an entry foyer that leads past an 8-foot-long office to a 17-foot-long lounge with a fireplace next to a 13 foot-long kitchen and a 10-foot-long laundry. The unit is surrounded by three stepped terraces that are 24, 42 and 33 feet long.

Apartment14 is a three-bedroom unit with a long entry hall that leads to a 23-foot-long living room that opens onto a 20-foot-long dining room next to a large kitchen and pantry.

Apartment 6W is a three-bedroom unit with an 11-foot-wide entry foyer that leads to a 22-foot-long living room next to a 16-foot-long dining room adjacent to a staff/office, 10-foot-long room and a 16-foot-long, windowed kitchen.

Apartment 2W is a three-bedroom unit with an 11-foot-wide foyer that leads to a 28-foot-long living/dining room next to a 14-foot-long enclosed, windowed kitchen and a 15-foot-long maid’s room.

Apartment 1W is a three-bedroom unit with a small foyer that leads to a 11-foot-wide dining room adjacent to a 12-foot-wide, windowed, kitchen and a 14-foot-wide living room.

The building, which has excellent views of Riverside Park and the Hudson River, has consistent fenestration and some decorative balconies.