Gloucester Apartments | apartment building

 apartment building  Add category

210-foot, 19-story modernist cooperative-apartment building completed in 1976. Designed by Schuman, Lichtenstein & Claman, it is clad in red brick. The main entrance is just west of center on the north facade on 79th Street. It has bronze-and-glass double-doors, sidelights, and a transom framed by light grey-brown granite piers. Another set of bulky piers out in front supports the front of the bronze-edged marquee that covers the entry area. To the right of the entrance is a small metal-and-glass storefront and an entrance to the underground parking garage. To the left are two metal-and-glass storefront bays. The ground floor along the avenue has a number of storefront bays, and other bays with brick infill. The three southernmost storefront bays are framed by piers of grey stone, and the next bay to the north is filled by metal louvers. The storefront framed by grey piers continues at the east end of the south facade, which is set farther back from 78th Street. Farther to the west is a service entrance, two bays filled in with red-painted wooden panels, a secondary entrance with a glass-and-metal door, and another garage entrance with a roll-down metal gate.

The upper floors along the avenue span 14 bays, with tripartite windows in all of them except the end bays, which have double-windows. The tripartite bays also alternate between wider and narrower panes. All of the windows have black metal framing and simple stone sills, with black metal air-conditioning vents tucked below one of the corners of each bay. The main roof line is above the 18th floor, and has small corner setbacks that create the effect of turrets at either end of the building along its full-block frontage on Amsterdam Avenue. The 19th floor only exists at these northeast and southeast corners, as well as two units farther back on the roof, flanking a central water tower enclosure.

The north and south facades have, from east to west, a tripartite window bay, two single-window bays, a double-window bay, a wide tripartite bay followed by two narrower ones, another wide tripartite bay, and a single-window bay at the west end. The rear, west-facing facade is a light court in the middle, with the building arranged in a C-shape around it. The north and south wings of the west elevation both have one bay of single-windows. The interior of the light well is lined with mostly tripartite windows. Each facade has subtle brick quoins along the edges.

The building was converted to a co-op in 1988, with 272 apartments. The ground floor along the avenue is occupied by Jing Fong restaurant, and a Duane Reade pharmacy. The small storefront near the west end of the north facade is occupied by Cork & Vine wine shop.