322 Central Park West (New York City, New York)

USA / New Jersey / West New York / New York City, New York / Central Park West, 322
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177-foot, 16-story Neo-Renaissance (with Gothic elements) cooperative-apartment building completed in 1926. Designed by George & Edward Blum, it is clad in tan brick with beige terra-cotta trim above a 3-story limestone base with a light-grey granite water table. Despite its Central Park West address, the building's main entrance is centered on the south facade on 92nd Street, in a 2-story round-arched surround (with a slight point at the apex) with swirling Renaissance vine ornament edged in a rope molding. It has glass-and-wood double-doors covered by a rounded, green canvas canopy extending out over the sidewalk; at the 2nd floor there are paired round-arched windows within the surround, with a rope roundel above and between them. To the west the ground floor has three single-windows, followed by a pointed-arch wooden secondary door flanked by small, narrow windows, and then another single-window and paired windows at the end bay. To the east are two single-windows, followed by two pointed-arch secondary entrances (one in black metal and the other wood with glass panes), a single-window, a small, narrow window, and a wider single-window in the end bay.

The upper floors have wider paired windows in the center, flanked on either side by five single-windows (the inner three spaced closer together), a smaller, narrow window, and paired windows in the west end bay, while the east end bay has wider single-windows. The base is capped by a dentiled band course.

The five single-windows on either side of the center bay at the 4th floor are round-arched, with pointed-arch brick voussoirs. These sections are very slightly recessed between the center bay and outer bays. At the base of the 4th floor there are short terra-cotta bands on the piers around the center bay and outer bays, with heart-shaped floral ornament. The windows on the floors above have terra-cotta sills with wave motifs. There are floral terra-cotta bands below the recessed single-window bays at the 13th floor, where the center bay and end bays have projecting stone balconies each carried on three brackets, with front walls adorned with swirling foliate ornament. 3-story, keyed stone surrounds frame the 13th-15th-floor windows at these bays, with terra-cotta spandrels featuring square panels of ornament, also seen between the 14th & 15th floors at the single-window bays. An elaborate, 3-story pilaster divides the paired windows in the west end bay. Wide tripartite windows replace the paired windows of the center bay at the 11th & 14th floors, as well as two sets of the eastern single-windows at the 11th floor, and another at the 14th floor. Large arches of terra-cotta crown the center and end bays at the 15th floor, where the single-windows are segmental-arched with terra-cotta voussoirs; the roof line above also follows the undulating swell of these arches. The roof line extends slightly higher at the end bay pavilions and the center bay. The 16th-floor penthouse level is set back from each side, and faced in white stucco.

The east facade facing the park has paired windows in both end bays; in between are a single-window, two more paired window bays, and a small, narrow window, all with iron grilles. The water table grows higher toward the north end. Above the ground floor the south single-window changed to another small, narrow window, and these shift slightly north above the base. A tripartite window replaces the north-middle bay of paired windows at the 3rd floor, with other tripartite windows replacing paired windows at other bays on various floors. The ornament matches the design of the south facade, and there are numerous areas of repairs with a lighter shade of brick.

The building was converted to a co-op in 1962, with 49 apartments.
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Coordinates:   40°47'22"N   73°58'0"W
This article was last modified 5 years ago