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The White House Apartments (New York City, New York)

USA / New Jersey / West New York / New York City, New York / Central Park West, 262
 apartment building, 1928_construction, housing cooperative, Neo-Renaissance (architecture)

190-foot, 15-story Neo-Renaissance cooperative-apartment building completed in 1928. Designed by Sugarman & Berger, it spans the full blockfront, clad in white brick above a 3-story rusticated limestone base with a grey granite water table. The building's mass is broken into three wings by a pair of deep light courts at the rear, west side. It has six entrances - two on the south facade on 86th Street, one of the north on 87th Street, and three facing Central Park West, with the main entrance at the center one. It has wrought-iron-and-glass double-doors with an intricate pattern, covered by a rounded, grey canvas canopy extending out over the sidewalk. The doors are framed by a pale grey-green stone surround with a molding pattern of shallow pyramids, topped by a panel with floral ornament flanking the number 262 inscribed in a wreath, and all surmounted by a modillioned and dentiled cornice. The other two entrances on CPW have black wood-and-glass double-doors below transoms, edged in rope moldings, with small, dentiled cornices on top. There are a pair of very small windows flanking the main entrance, with two bays of paired windows between these and the other entrances. To the outside of these entrances are four more single-windows, and single-window end bays set farther apart.

Above the ground floor there are six bays of paired windows in the center, tripartite windows above the outer entrances, and the same 4+1 single-windows at the ends. Projecting stone balconies front the tripartite windows at the 3rd floor, carried on pairs of console brackets, with balusters. A dentiled cornice caps the base at the 3rd floor.

The brick floors above have regular brick quoins framing the end bays. Black metal air-conditioning vents are cut below many of the windows. More balconies front the tripartite windows at the 12th floor, and the two center bays at the 10th floor. A double-string course sets off the 12th floor, running between the balconies, and a modillioned white terra-cotta cornice tops the 13th floor. The main roof line is at the 14th floor, with the penthouse level set back behind it. From the middle of the center wing rises a tall, square water tower enclosure with a round-arched opening on each side and a shallow-sloped metal roof on top. Paired pilasters flank the openings on each side.

The south facade on 86th Street has doorways matching the outer ones on the east facade, with wood-and-glass doors in the western one and wrought-iron doors in the eastern one. There is also an iron gate enclosing the alleyway at the west end of the building. Between the entrances are two bays of paired windows flanking a central single-window bay. The end bays have tripartite windows. These all continue on the upper floors, with additional bays of paired windows above the entrances. A wide stone balcony fronts the three middle bays at the 10th floor.

The north facade on 87th Street has wood-and-glass doors in its one entrance, near the west end. The end bays again have tripartite windows, and there are wide double-windows next to them. Five evenly-spaced center bays have single-windows. A stone balcony fronts the middle three at the 10th floor. Another gate enclosed the north end of the alleyway.

The rear, west-facing facades are clad in beige brick. The north and south wings have a central bay of small paired windows flanked by a single-window bay on either side. The center wing has a single-window at its north end, and then two bays of triple-windows and a double-window. The two penthouse apartments fill most of the north and south wings.

The building was converted to a co-op in 1960, with 83 apartments.
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   40°47'8"N   73°58'9"W
This article was last modified 3 years ago