200 Central Park South (New York City, New York)

 high-rise, cooperative, apartment building, 1963_construction, Modern (architecture)

318-foot, 34-story modernist cooperative-apartment building completed in 1963. Designed by Wechsler & Schimenti, it is most notable for its curving facade, banded by balconies, and is clad in beige brick and glass. The building is lined with terraces that taper in, then curve, and taper out as they wrap around the two faces of the building. The setback tower that occupies the top 14 floors is not curved, but has angled corner windows to maximize views. The tower's façade has a horizontal fenestration pattern that continues the banding motif of the base, albeit without balconies.

The main entrance is at the northeast corner, with glass double-doors. The 2-story base has projecting, white metal piers that angle outward at the tops between each bay. Next to the angled entrance, there are five such bays on the north facade along Central Park West, set behind some granite planters, and two more bays at the west end that are clad in beige brick. The end bays has tripartite windows on every floor, stretching up to the 20th floor. The next bay over has a wider band of windows on the ground and 2nd floors, with recessed balconies from the 3rd floor up, but separated from the long curve of the main balconies by a narrow brick pier. The east facade along the avenue has eight glass bays divided by the white metal piers to the south of the angled entrance. Farther south, there is another brick-clad section with three bays. They have storefronts at the ground floor. Above, there are wide window bands in the south bay, tripartite windows in the next, and recessed balconies in the 3rd bay, again separated from the main swath of glass-enclosed balconies by a narrow brick pier.

More storefronts line the ground floor of the south facade on 58th Street, with an entrance and exit for the underground parking garage at the far west end. The end bays have tripartite windows. There is a bay with narrower tripartite windows next to the east end bay, and wide ribbon bands of windows in the middle, with the floors divided by continuous brick spandrels. While the north and east facades rise to a common lower roof line at the 20th floor, the south facade has lower sections the west end. The end bay above the garage entrance is recessed, and it and the next bay set back above the 10th floor, and again above the 11th & 12th. Glass railings line the setbacks except for at the end bay, and another glass railing lines the 12th floor. A set-back 13th floor forms the lower rooftop of this west wing. The rest of the ribbon bands of windows extend to the 18th floor, where they have a small setback on the west half. There is another roof line at the 20th floor, from which the upper tower rises.

The 14-story upper tower is situated near the southeast section of the base, with rounded corners at the northwest and northeast. Ribbon bands of windows wrap around the north facade and most of the east facade, with brick spandrels in between the floors. The bands wrap only around the northwest corner before ending short of a small light well with double-windows. The west facade bulges out south of the light well, in two sections of curved bay windows. There is an angled bay at the southwest corner, with tripartite windows, and wide bands of windows along the west half of the south facade. At the east end of the upper tower's south facade there is a bay of tripartite windows, wrapping around the another such bay at the south end of the east facade. One more bay of tripartite windows separates the south end bay from the ribbon bands to the north. The upper tower is crowned by a large mechanical penthouse and water tower enclosure, clad in brick.

The building was converted to a cooperative in 1984, with 309 apartments. The ground floor at the south end is occupied by Cafe Serafina, Central Park Bike Tours, and Faust Harrison Pianos, with some medical offices on the north side.

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