The Paramount, 315 West 99th Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 315 West 99th Street by Carter Horsley

This 8-story, mid-block apartment building at 315 West 99^th Street between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive was erected in 1920 and is known as The Paramount. The building has 33 co-operative apartments.

Bottom Line

This is a former very handsome, pre-war hotel property with a moat that became a Single-Room-Occupancy property and was converted to co-operative apartments in 1981 and is missing its attractive and large cornice on a pleasant block very close to Riverside Park.

Description

The beige-brick building has a two-story rusticated stone base with a two-rail moat, a three-step-up entrance flanked by bollards topped with landscaping.

Above the entrance is a large, balustrade balcony supported by four large and ornate brackets.

Above the second floor is a handsome, balustraded bandcourse.  There is a second bandcourse above the seventh floor and the eight-floor has handsome decorative elements between the windows.

The building is missing is large, bracketed cornice.

Above the third floor there are some very handsome wrought-iron Juliet balconies.

The fifth floor has a center balcony.

The building has some protruding air-conditioners.

Amenities

The building has a doorman, a canopied entrance, a bicycle room, and a live-in superintendent.

It permits pets.

Apartments

Apartment 4A is a three-bedroom unit with a 9-foot-wide entry foyer that leads past a 9-foot-long open kitchen to a 19-foot-wide living/dining room.

Apartment 3C is a three-bedroom unit with a small entry foyer that leads past an enclosed 13-foot-long kitchen to a 20-foot-wide living/dining room.

Apartment 2B is a two-bedroom unit that has an open 8-foot-long kitchen that opens onto a 16-foot-long dining area that opens onto a 20-foot-wide living room.

Apartment 5D is a two-bedroom unit that has a long entry foyer that leads to an 18-foot-long living room with a bay window and a 12-foot-long dining area next to a 12-foot-long enclosed kitchen.

History

A March 4, 1990 article by Kathleen M. Berry in The New York Times noted that the building was “said to have given the founders of the Hollywood film company their idea for a name.”

However, an earlier article indicated that Ms. Berry was mistaken.

An article by Sydney H. Schanberg in the October 23, 1984 edition of The New York Times said that the building had been renamed the Paramount after the conversion in 1981 by Alan Sackman and his wife, Barbara, of Sands Point, N.Y., his partner Teddy Krain, his three realty companies and four other people of the former single-room occupancy Hamilton Hotel."