Chatillion, 214 Riverside Drive: Review and Ratings

Review of 214 Riverside Drive by Carter Horsley

With its angled façade and very impressive entrance, this 7-story building at 214 Riverside Drive on the southeast corner at 94^th Street is one of the most distinctive on Riverside Drive.

Built in 1901, the 103-unit building was converted to a cooperative in 1985.

Its name, Chatillion, is chiseled into the limestone above its entrance. It is also known as 318 West 94^th Street.  The name comes a from a Parisian suburb.

According to a New York Times article, it was designed by J. Cleveland Cady, who also designed the Metropolitan Opera House on 39^th Street and Broadway, and buildings for the American Museum of Natural History, Presbyterian Hospital and Yale University.  He was also president of the National Federation of Churches.

Mr. Cady lived in the building but a designation report for the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1989 said that the building's architect was Stein, Cohen & Roth and that the developer was Bernard S. Levy.

It also said that the site was once "part of the grounds of Mt. Aubrey,  a mansion built by Jacob C. Mott (later the property of Richard L. Schieffelin) that was destroyed by fire in 1877."

Bottom Line

A quirky and interesting, mid-rise building with a very impressive but angled entrance, a rounded corner and fire-escapes.

Description

The building has a two-story, rusticated limestone base with a four-step-up, colonnaded and angled entrance with a handsome balustrade balcony above the second story, a rounded corner with rusticated pilasters and fire-escapes on the side-street.  There are window surrounds on the third and fourth floors facing the drive.

Amenities

The building has a part-time doorman, a live-in superintendent, a roof deck and a laundry.

Apartments

Apartment 204 is a one-bedroom unit with a 25-foot-long living room and an open kitchen.

Apartment 409 is a one-bedroom unit with a very long entrance hall that leads to a 17-foot-long living room next to an enclosed kitchen and a six-sided bedroom.

Apartment 608 is a one-bedroom unit with a 19-foot-long living room and a seven-sided bedroom.

Apartment 709 is a one-bedroom unit with a 37-foot-long hall that leads past an enclosed kitchen to a 19-foot-long living room.

Apartment 113 is a one-bedroom unit with an 18-foot-long living room with an open kitchen and a 25-foot-long terrace.

Apartment 111 is a studio unit with a 20-foot-long living/dining room with a decorative fireplace next to a 7-foot-long enclosed and windowed kitchen.

History

A former resident was John Dos Passos, the author.

An August 15, 1916 article in The New York Times noted that “a heavy gale” lifted off a third of the building’s roof and also blew ashore a “big French armored cruiser” that had been lying at