444 Central Park West Cooperative (New York City, New York)

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217-foot, 19-story Art-Deco cooperative-apartment building completed in 1930. Designed by Boak & Paris, it is clad in variegated red brick with some grey bricks interspersed (and also some widely-spaced projecting bricks), above a stone ground floor with a mosaic-like pattern of beige sandstone and warmer tan stone. The main entrance is centered on the east facade facing the park. It has wood-and-glass double-doors below a rounded, red canvas canopy extending out over the sidewalk, framed by limestone pilasters with vine ornament and topped by a peaked lintel with a central, bullet-shaped keystone that has a niche with a long-beaked bird. There is a small, round-arched stained-glass window on either side framed by diminutive colonettes. To the north are three bays of paired windows, and to the south a bay of paired windows and two bays of single-windows. The inner bays on each side are shallow-arched, while the outer ones have notched corners. The ground floor is capped by a rounded band course.

The 2nd floor has stone at its base, with the same arrangement of windows, plus two center bays of paired windows. These are separated by thin, 2-story colonettes, with round-arched 3rd-floor windows topped by stone architraves edged in brick. At the outer edge of both bays is a 2-story stone pilaster, and in between the two bays is a 2-story panel of geometric-patterned brickwork. Each of these elements is topped by a stone capital with carved gargoyles, from which the arches spring. Both end bays on the 2nd floor have sandstone surrounds with flat decorative keystones. Beginning at the 3rd floor the inner paired-window bay on both sides changes to a triple- or tripartite window, depending on the floor and side.

Beginning at the 5th floor the two middle bays are framed by slightly-projecting brick piers springing from arrow-shaped stone bases with projecting saucer-shaped sills holding more long-beaked bird statues. The bases are linked by stone panels with more geometric ornament. The brick spandrels between floors in these bays have central, small stone panels with birds in profile. These two bays are capped at the 13th floor by crenelated lintels with projecting bases for more bird niches at the three piers; there are stone surrounds at they bays on the 14th floor, with a pair of projecting bird statues on the piers between the window pairs. The 14th floor is set off to the north and south by a dentiled string course. There are setbacks above the 15th floor at the outer bays, marked by crenelated cornices. The four middle bays continue to the 16th floor (with the outer bays set far back behind), with stone surrounds on the outer window of the pairs in the outer bays, which are topped by balustrades and have further setbacks above. The 17th floor has only the two middle bays, with a tripartite window in the southern one. Shallow setbacks top the 17th & 18th floors, with the middle of the 18th floor having a center bay with a triple-window, flanked by two single-windows on each side, and large, wide windows on the recessed outer bays (also at the 19th floor). The middle of the 19th floor has three single-windows and a blind window filled by a stone panel at the ends of the middle section. The building's attractive rooftop watertank enclosure, at the east end of the roof, has a crenellated top and arched windows with stone surrounds.

The south facade on 104th Street also has a sandstone ground floor, which diminishes in height toward the west due to the slope of the site, with only very short openings on the west half of the facade, most filled by metal vents. The east half has four single-window bays, a secondary entrance with a black metal door below a stone lintel, two more single-windows with notched upper corners, another secondary entrance with a black wooden door, a small, narrow, arched window, and then three more single-windows with notched corners.

The upper floors have nine single-windows in the middle. To the west is a paired-window bay, a triple-window bay, and another paired-window bay. To the east is a paired-window bay, a single-window, a double-window, and two more single-windows. The ornament matches that on the east facade, with the elements of the center bay on the east facade copied here at the two paired-window bays that flank the middle section. There are setbacks with crenelated cornices above the 13th floor at the middle and end sections. In between, the south facade extends to the 14th floor before beginning its terraced setbacks.

The north facade is split into two wings by a central light well. The east wing is faced in beige stucco, except for the top several floors above the first setback, which are the same brick as the main facades. The lower floors have one bay of single-windows, and the top floors have multiple single- and double-windows. The west wing is all beige stucco, except for the top floor. It has two single-windows, and begins a series of small setbacks on both ends, at every floor, above the 10th floor.

The building was converted to a co-op in 1976, with 120 apartments.

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