The Kenilworth (New York City, New York)

 apartment building, 1908_construction, housing cooperative, Beaux-Arts (architecture)

139-foot, 12-story Beaux-Arts cooperative-apartment building completed in 1908. Designed by Townsend, Steinle & Haskell, it is clad in red brick, limestone, and terra-cotta, with a 2-story rusticated limestone base as well as basement level behind a dry moat. The monumental, 2-story entrance portico at the center of the east facade on Central Park West displays carved banded columns inspired by late 16th century French prototypes. Between them the ground floor has an iron-and-glass double-door and transom with an elaborate drip molding, topped by a band of garlands alternating with shields, and surmounted by a dentiled pediment broken by a cartouche. A rounded red canvas canopy over the doors extends down a couple of steps and out onto the sidewalk. The 2nd-floor single-window above the doors is flanked by two panels with lions' heads from which hang fruit and floral pendants. Above this, the entablature carried on the large columns has carved lettering reading "KENILWORTH", flanked by triglyphs, and topped by a projecting stone cornice. The bay to either side forms the ends of the portico, set back from the two main columns, but still projecting slightly from the rest of the facade. There is a single-window on both floors of both bays, with are bordered by a pair of engaged, squared columns, also banded, but without the extravagant detail seen on the center columns. The ends of the entablature and cornice extends out to these side columns, completing the portico. There are two more bays to either side, the inner ones with tripartite windows and the end bays with single-windows. Those on the 1st floor have splayed lintels with large scrolled keystones (flanked by garlands at the outer bays of the portico). At the two outer bays on each side, the keystones (along with pairs of small brackets) support shallow stone balconies with wrought-iron railings at the 2nd-floor windows, which are topped by splayed lintels with simple keystones. There are basement windows at each bay; the dry moat in front of them is enclosed by a very low stone wall topped by a rounded iron railing.

The 3rd floor is brick with limestone banding, and stone quoins at the edges that continue onto the upper floors. On all the upper floors there are seven total bays, with single-windows in the center and end bays, and tripartite windows in the others. The 3rd-floor windows have stone surrounds and are flanked by pairs of console brackets carrying stone balconies at the 4th floor, each with a stone balustrade between stone end posts. The bays of the 4th-5th floors are grouped together by 2-story stone surrounds with keyed edges, and the stone spandrels in between floors are adorned with garlands and pendants. At the 5th floor the single-window bays are topped by triangular pediments with small cartouches, and the other have broad, rounded pediments broken by larger cartouches; the larger pediments are carried on brackets with hanging pendants at the ends. Similar keyed surrounds frame the windows at the 6th-8th floors. Between the floors the single-window bays have spandrels with cartouches between triglyphs and the wider bays have spandrels with oversized keystones. Across the top of the 8th floor there is an intricate band of garlands, interrupted by scrolled keystones at the wider bays. The garlands underline a band course that sets off the 9th floor, which has stone surrounds and simple keystones in each bay, and pairs of oversized console brackets between bays that support a stone cornice. The 10th-11th floors also have stone surrounds; the spandrels between floors have escutcheons between triglyphs at the wider bays, and simpler ornament at the single-window bays. The 11th-floor windows are segmental-arched, with keystones interrupting a band of dentils at the base of another stone cornice. The top floor has stone dormers set in a convex, slate French Second Empire mansard roof which is crowned by elegant cooper crestings. The single-window dormers have triangular pediments, and the other are topped by rounded pediments, with every bay having a cartouche, and hanging pendants at the sides.

The south facade on 75th Street is divided into two wings by a light court. The stone wall enclosing the dry moat has an opening to access a small courtyard, down a set of steps. The rear wall of the facade has two bays of single-windows with a very narrow window bay in between. At the basement level there is a service entrance in the eastern bay. The east-facing side wall of the light court has a bay of small, square windows near the front, and two more bays of narrow windows farther back, the last one being taller. The west-facing side wall has a single-window bay at the front, and two smaller, narrower windows at the rear. To the right of the light court is the wider east wing, spanning four bays (single-window end bays and tripartite window middle bays). The narrower west wing has two single-window bays. The materials, design, and ornament matches those seen on the east facade.

There is an alleyway behind the building, enclosed by an iron gate. The south half of the west elevation is clad in red brick, with the only ornament being the stone quoins at the edges. There is a single-window bay at the south end, followed by a paired window bay and another single-window bay, all with simple stone sills and lintels. The north half is set farther back and clad in buff-colored brick. It has a paired window bay, followed by two single-window bays with a bay of smaller bathroom windows in between.

The north elevation is clad in red brick at the east end, with one single-window bay near the front. Farther west, there is an angled bay of single-windows and another single-window bay, and then a light court that has double-windows flanked by single-windows at its rear wall. The side walls have double- and single-windows. The west end of the north facade has two bays of single-windows.

The building was converted to a co-op in 1957, with 39 apartments.