South Park Apartments (New York City, New York)

 apartment building, 1963_construction, Modern (architecture)

148-foot, 17-story modernist residential building completed in 1963. Designed by Philip Birnbaum & Associates, it is clad in white glazed brick. The facade has recessed end bays; the west one has double-windows and a door from the side wall opening onto a white concrete balcony with white metal railings - the balconies project out to the main building line. At the ground floor, below the balconies, is an entrance to the underground parking garage. The east end bay is wider and recessed further back, with two sets of double-windows, the eastern one being attached to a glass door opening onto the projecting balconies - these do not reach forward all the way to the building line. There is a bay of single-windows at the front of the east elevation, in front of the balconies.

Between the recessed end bays are, from east to west, a bay of double-windows, a bay of tripartite windows, four wide bays of windows consisting of two double-windows joined by a wider center pane, and then another bay of tripartite windows. They all have black metal framing and air-conditioning vents below them. At the eastern three bays the lower two floors have white granite cladding framed by black granite; the ground floor here is slightly recessed, with green marble piers and wall separating plate-glass windows above concrete planter boxes, and (to the left, in the wide bay) the main entrance with glass double-doors below a rounded green canvas canopy extending out over the sidewalk.

The three western bays (including the recessed end bay) and the two eastern bays (not including the end bay) as well as half of the first wide bay set back above the 14th floor, creating terraces with metal railings. The former wide bay now has double-windows above the setback, and there are also double-windows on the east- and west-facing sidewalls. The recessed east end of the top three floors has four bays of single-windows, and the west end has two bays of tripartite windows and a bay of double-windows.The farther-recessed east end bay with the balconies continues up to the roof line.

The exposed upper part of the east elevation has one bay of single-windows and a bay of paired windows near the center. A mechanical penthouse rises up from the east side of the roof. The rear, north-facing facade has a projecting wing at the east end, next to a bay of tripartite windows. The north end of the wing has a bay of double-windows and a bay of tripartite windows, and the east-facing side of the wing has another bay of double-windows. The west-facing side of the wing has a bay of double-windows and a bay of paired windows. The main north facade has eight bays - from east to west with double-windows, a wide bay of two double-windows joined by a center pane, five bays of tripartite windows, and an end bay of double-windows. There is a shallow setback above the 13th floor, and a wider setback above the 14th. The building contains 275 apartment units.