52 Riverside Drive: Review and Ratings

Review of 52 Riverside Drive by Carter Horsley

This very handsome, 16-story apartment building at 52 Riverside Drive between 7^th and 78^th Streets was built in 1925 and has 47 co-operative apartments.

The Thompson Construction Company commissioned Deutsch & Schneider to design the building.

It was converted to a co-operative in 1984.

Bottom Line

There are very few pre-war buildings with highly decorative façades in New York and this midblock apartment house is one of the best.

Description

by pilasters topped by urns and a sinuous terracotta pediment and a larger decorative terracotta element on the third floor. The very delicate and ornate terracotta decoration occupies the center portion of the façade on Riverside Drive and is repeated, minus the entrance door, of course, on the façade near the top of the building.

The first floor flowerboxes have attractive terracotta decoration and the façade has a lot geometric terracotta decorative elements.

The one-step-up entrance, which has no canopy, leads to a small vestibule with coffered ceiling and a small step-up lobby.

There is a bandcourse at the base of the building and another in the middle of the first floor.

The building, which has fine views of Riverside Park and the Hudson River, permits protruding air-conditioners and has and no sidewalk landscaping.
 

Amenities

The building has an elevator man and a live-in superintendent, a doorman and storage.  There is a laundry on each floor and the building is pet friendly.

It has no health club, no garage and not balconies.

Apartments

Apartment 6A is a three-bedroom unit with a 17-foot-long entry foyer that leads to a 11-foot-wide gallery that leads to a 24-foot-long living room with a fireplace and a 14-foot-wide ding room next to an enclosed 14-foot-long kitchen and a 10-foot-wide maid’s room.

Apartment 5A is a three-bedroom unit with a 12-foot-long entry foyer that leads to a 22-foot-long living room with fireplace, a 16-foot-wide dining room and a 12-foot-wide kitchen with an 11-foot-wide maid’s room.

Apartment 11B is a one-bedroom unit that has an entry foyer that leads past a 9-foot-long enclosed kitchen to an 18-foot-long living room.