Orwell House Apartments

 apartment building, 1906_construction, Beaux-Arts (architecture)

133-foot, 12-story Beaux-Arts residential building completed in 1906, and originally named Central Park View. Designed by Mulliken & Moeller, it was completed a year earlier than its mirror-image twin to the south, Rossleigh Court. Both are clad in red brick with terra-cotta trim above a 2-story banded limestone base. On Central Park West, the delineation between the two buildings is marked at the upper floors by a vertical band of quoins. While Rossleigh Court has its entrance on the side street (West 85th), Orwell House's residential entrance is on Central Park West, with a commercial entrance on West 86th. Both buildings wrap around open courtyards facing into each other. The Orwell House's lack of the crowning copper gables on the top floor is the other notable difference between the two.

The commercial entrance is centered on the north facade, with a small set of granite steps and a ramp down to the left with a black iron railing. The metal-framed glass doors, and surround are deeply recessed in a segmental-arch. A large, suspended canopy of black metal cover the entry. Gold lettering on the front announces the building's alternate address of 2 W. 86th, while lettering on the sides spells out Mount Sinai Doctors, occupants of the commercial space in the base. There is a large, segmental-arched window on either side. Farther to the west is a light-grey metal service door atop three small stone steps and below a splayed lintel, and then a double-window and a single-window. At the east end are three bays of single-windows. The 2nd floor has three center bays with square window openings, fronted by shallow stone balconies and decorative iron railings. To the west is a paired-window bay, another double-window bay (also with a shallow balcony) and a single-window end bay. To the east is a small bathroom window, a single-window, a double-window (with balcony) and a single-window end bay. There are keystones over the five wider bays, and a stone band course caps the base.

The 3rd floor is transitional, with textured terra-cotta banding across the brick. The window arrangement conforms to the pattern established at the 2nd floor, with textured terra-cotta quoins framing each bay, as well as quoins at both ends that continue up to the 11th floor. Some of the wider bays in the middle have double-windows, as do the wider outer bays. At the 3rd floor these five bays have scrolled keystones and are flanked by large console brackets supporting projections of the stone band course above this floor. At the 4th floor the three center bays and the wider outer bays have stone surrounds with a row of roundels across the top, and smaller console brackets carrying pediments (rounded at the three middle bays, and triangular at the ends) enclosing cartouches. Balustrades front the outer two of the three center bays. The other windows at the upper floors have splayed brick lintels, keystones and stone sills, except for the small bathroom windows between the eastern of the three middle bays. A simple, flat band course runs across the top of the 4th floor, linking the pediments. At the 5th floor these five bays have narrower stone surrounds with bead moldings, and have scrolled keystones flanked by splayed blocks. From the 6th-10th floors these bays have bracketed, projecting stone sills and eared stone lintels with keystones and splayed blocks.

A projecting band course sets off the 11th floor, where the windows have stone surrounds and the piers have horizontal, terra-cotta banding. The wider bays have splayed keystones and are framed by large brackets supporting a projecting stone cornice with modillions and dentils; a flourish of ribbon frames each bracket where it meets the cornice. The top floor has a brick roof parapet, without the copper band and gables seen on the south building.

Facing Central Park West, the east facade takes up half the blockfront, with the south half filled by the mirror-image facade of Rossleigh Court. Above the ground floor the center bay has wide single-windows. To either side is a paired-window bay, a bay of either tripartite windows or double-windows (depending on floor) and end bays with single-windows. A bay of small bathroom windows in inserted to the right of the center bay. The residential entrance is in the 4th bay from the north, simpler than the entry on the north facade, has a wrought-iron-and-glass door below a rounded, green canvas canopy extending out over the sidewalk. The 2nd bay from the south has a secondary entrance with a metal-and-glass door. Shallow stone balonettes front the three wider bays at the 2nd floor, with small brackets and wrought-iron railings. All of the ornament follows the design established on the south facade.

At the rear, west-facing facade, the edge quoins wrap around the corner. The entire west elevation is red brick. The front section has two bays of single-windows. The south half is slightly recessed and has another single-window, and paired window bay, a bay of small bathroom windows, and a south end bay with double-windows. The only ornament of this facade consists of stone sills and splayed brick lintels with keystones.

The building contains 68 apartment units.

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