The Park Laurel (New York City, New York)

 condominiums, interesting place

440-foot, 40-story Postmodern residential building completed in 2000. Designed by Beyer Blinder Belle and Costas Kondylis & Partners, it incorporates the 1931, 5-story landmarked facade of the old trade school building that was built by the YMCA next door, called the McBurney School.

The landmarked base is clad in limestone on the lower two floors, and variegated red brick on the upper three, with the stone cladding extending up to the upper floors at the end bays; it is symmetrical with the exception of a paneled service door inserted into the far east end of the ground floor. The middle of the ground floor has two square-headed windows with screens of metal quatrefoils. On either side is a round-arched entrance with glass-and-metal double-doors; the eastern doors are flanked by narrow sidelights. The pilasters that frame the entries have capitals with carved figures engaged in commerce, including automobile repair. There is a foliate molding along the inside of the arch, above the rounded transom, and metal light fixtures are mounted to either side of the pilaster capitals, the easternmost one being above the service door.

The 2nd floor has paired windows above the arches, with notched upper corners and joined sills, separated from each other by simple rounded columns. Small cornices top these windows. In the middle there are two taller, round-arched windows with bracketed sills. They have metal grilles across their bases, and are edged in polychrome terra-cotta in foliate designs. A dentiled cornice caps the center part and edges of the 2nd floor.

The limestone extends up at the end bays on the 3rd & 4th floors, where there are single-windows. These bays match the western end bay of the YMCA Building next door, with notched upper corners at the 4th floor, a red terra-cotta and brick spandrel between the windows, and matching cornices where the end bays set back. The brick-clad center portion of the 3rd & 4th floors have three bays of paired windows. The 5th floor has a single bay in the center, with round-arched double-windows fronted by a projecting balcony. The base is crowned by a peaked pediment with a corbel table.

The west elevation of the base is of modern construction, and is clad in rusticated limestone. It has a double-height opening for triple-windows at the 2nd-3rd floors (with black metal framing), and another triple-window at the 4th floor.

The modern tower rises up behind the base, offset to the east, and cantilevers partly over the YMCA Building on the east side; it is clad in red brick. The front, south-facing facade has four bays of paired windows up to a stone cornice above the 11th floor. The floors above have double-windows instead, the outer bays being slightly wider. This section has another cornice above the 25th floor, and sets back above the 27th. Double-height windows join the 26th & 27th floors, and there is white stone cladding at the 27th. Here the south facade sets back to the main tower mass, which extends farther to the east. Its south facade has a bay of single-windows and a bay of triple-windows continuing up past the end of the projecting front section to a cornice above the 30th floor (with double-height windows at the 29th-30th). The east-facing side elevation of the projecting front section has triple-windows. Above the second cornice, the 31st-32nd floors have white horizontal banding, and double-height windows - with triple-windows in the end bays and double-windows in the two middle bays. There is a very shallow setback above the 32nd floor. The 33rd-37th floors all have white glass spandrels between the piers instead of brick, with another cornice above the 37th floor. The 38th floor is banded, and the 39th is clad in stone. At both of these floors the middle two bays are separated by a white glass pier instead of brick. There is a final shallow setback to the stone-clad top floor, which has three bays of three windows, crowned by a low-sloped metal lattice pyramidal top.

The wider east facade overlooking the YMCA Building has two bays of double-windows flanked by two bays of triple-windows, with an extra bay of triple-windows at the north end, very slightly recessed. The design elements all match those on the south facade. The north bay ends at the 32nd floor, with a roof deck on top. At the 40th floor there are three windows in the middle bay, but four in the end bays.

The north facade has a bay of double-windows flanked by triple-windows, all ending at the 32nd floor. Set back at the west side is another bay of double-windows. Above the projecting 3-bay section, the upper floors are like those on the south facade, with double-windows in the middle bays and triple-windows in the end bays.

On the west elevation, the projecting section at the south has three bays of single-windows. To the north, the west-facing side of the north-projecting section has a bay of triple-windows. Above the setbacks of these two lower sections, the main upper floors have two bays of single-windows at the 29th-30th floors, with a shallow recessed notch between these bays. These change to triple-windows beginning at the 31st floor and continue up to the top floor, where both bays have four windows.

The first 11 floors are devoted to the Y, used for expanded exercise rooms, offices and 67 units of subsidized housing. Condominiums begin at the 14th floor, with 53 units.