Landmark Apartments

 high-rise, apartment building, 1971_construction, housing cooperative

354-foot, 35-story modernist cooperative-apartment building completed in 1971. Designed by Liebman & Liebman Architects, it was the first major new tower to be erected at the Manhattan entrance to the Queensborough Bridge, which it overlooks. It is clad in pre-cast beige concrete and black metal. The main slab is set back behind low, red-brick walls and planters, and at the south end, just past the tower, a 1-story commercial extension rises up, also clad in red brick, with a stone coping and metal railing along the top.

Along Second Avenue there is one break in the brick wall near the north end, and two more toward the south, with short sets of stairs leading up to the tower plaza. The 1-story south wing has three bays along the avenue, each with paired show-windows. The south facade of the 1-story extension has glass double-doors flanked by a window on either side at the west end, followed by a bay of paired show-windows, and an entrance to the underground parking garage. To the east of the 1-story section is a short but wide set of steps and a narrow walkway leading back to the tower.

The north facade of the tower, on 59th Street, has another entrance at the center of the recessed ground floor, and another parking garage entrance at the eastern of its four bays. Each bay is recessed between the piers. Above the ground floor, matching the south facade, the middle two bays have four windows (slightly narrower at the ends) above a band of black metal vents. The end bays have shallow, projecting balconies with black metal railings fronting two windows and, at the outer end, sliding glass double-doors.

The west facade spans eight bays, with the end bays matching those on the north and south facades. The middle bays each have triple-windows above metal vents. The east facade has seven total bays, with the three middle bays having three windows and the next bays having four windows. The end bays match those on the other facades.

The building was converted from rentals to a cooperative in 1983, with 224 apartments. The 1-story south section is occupied by Urbangreen furniture.