417 Park Avenue

 apartment building, historical layer / disappeared object

131-foot,13-story cooperative-apartment building completed in 1916 for Bing & Bing. Designed by Emery Roth, it is clad in limestone above a grey granite water table. The completion of Grand Central Terminal and the covering of the railroad tracks north of it on Park Avenue led to its rapid redevelopment as a grand boulevard of luxury apartments. Most of the contextual buildings soon gave way to new office towers; 417 Park Avenue is the last survivor of at least 13 luxury apartment houses, most of them built before World War I, along this section of the avenue, that were the prototypes for the residential development on the avenue north of the commercial district.

The building has a tripartite from, with band courses separating the 3-story base, 7-story midsection, and 3-story crown, with the top floor further delineated. The main entrance is actually on 55th Street, where the facade is six bays wide. Recesssed, bronze-and-glass double-doors are framed by an egg-and-dart molding topped by a cartouche. A pair of scrolled brackets supports a dentiled cornice, and a rounded green canvas canopy extends out over the sidewalk. A pair of light fixtures are mounted on either side of the entrance. The bay to the left has paired windows, the next bay has a window paired with a black wooden door and fanlight, and the east end bay has a wider window. There is also a very small window between the two bays left of the entrance. To the west of the entry is a bay of paired windows and an end bay with a wider single-window, with another small window between these bays. All the windows at the ground floor have decorative wrought-iron grilles. The floors above all have paired windows in the middle bays, and wide single-windows in the end bays, each topped by egg-and-dart lintels. At the 3rd floor there are small stone balconettes on three modillions, with low iron railings featuring iron urns above the modillions. The windows are framed by beveled edge panels with simple roundels at the centers.

At the end bays, scrolled brackets above the lintels carry projecting stone balconies at the 4th floor featuring cartouches. Engaged, rounded columns framed the 4th-floor end bays, supporting plinths that support stone balconettes at the 5th floor, above carved friezes, and topped by ornate wrought-iron railings. These 5th-floor windows have full stone surrounds topped by small cornices and cartouches. There are simpler stone surrounds and cornices at the end bays of the floors above. The 11th floor has another set of stone balconies at the end bays, carried on brackets, and with rosettes on the undersides of the balconies. They have stone balustrades, and the windows are topped by peaked pediments with cartouches. The top floor has outlined panels between each bay.

The west facade on the avenue has four main bays, with paired windows at the center and wide single-windows at the ends. Intermediate bays of smaller single-windows are located between the end bays and center bays; at the ground floor these have glass doors to the storefronts, surrounded by stone enframements and small cornices. The other bays have plate-glass show-windows at the ground floor, with sloped white canvas awnings. There is a pair of decorative wrought-iron panels between the two middle bays.

The upper floors on the west facade have the same design details as their counterparts on the north facade. The one notable addition is the wide balustraded stone balcony spanning the middle bays at the 10th floor; it is carried on console brackets and has rosettes on its underside. Both the main facades are crowned by a boldly projecting, bracketed copper roof cornice with rounded corners that extend for a short return on the east facade, and also onto the west portion of the south elevation, over to a light court.

The south elevation is clad in white brick, with three bays of single windows at the west end. There are additional bays of single-windows lining the light court, and at the east end. The east elevation is also brick, with several bays of single-windows. The ground floor along the avenue was most recently occupied by Walter Steiger shoes.

417 Park was converted in 1946 from a rental building to a full-service cooperative. It contained 28 apartments. The building was demolished in 2022 after being purchased by Klövern AB and GDS Development.

hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015006777018?urlappend=%3Bseq...