7 Park Avenue (New York City, New York)

USA / New Jersey / West New York / New York City, New York / Park Avenue, 7
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187-foot, 17-story Neo-Romanesque residential building originally built as two separate buildings now connected. The earlier one was completed in 1930, designed by Emery Roth, wrapping around the Bacon Residence, which stood at the corner of Park and East 34th Street. The adjoining corner building was completed in 1954, to a more modern style, designed by David Moed, at which point the sections became interconnected. They have matching roof lines, and are the same width on the west facade, each with two bays of double-windows.

They are clad in beige brick, with a 3-story limestone base at the north half and a 1-story stone base at the south building. The entrance is in the north half's south bay, with elaborate wrought-iron-and-glass double-doors flanked by paneled pilasters with foliate capitals and covered by a rounded, dark-red canvas canopy extending out over the sidewalk. The doorway is set in a 2-story projecting section, edged by spiral moldings and topped by a scalloped cornice. Within this projecting section the 2nd floor has three narrow round-arched windows separated by engaged colonnettes with carved architraves. The north bay of the ground floor has a small storefront with a glass door and window. The 2nd & 3rd floors have square double-windows, and the stone base is capped by a dentiled string course.

The north building's 5th floor has projecting stone balconies at both bays, carried on foliate carved brackets and bearing medallions with bearded faces on the stone balcony fronts. The upper corners of these windows have stone imposts in the form of crouching figures. Adorning the piers are various forms of stone shields at the 7th, 9th, and 11th floors. The 13th-14th floors have the windows split out into pairs separated by 2-story engaged columns. At the 13th floor they are fronted by stone balconies with balustrades, and at the 14th floor the windows are round-arched, with the pairs crowned by encompassing arches with wreaths and foliate ornament. The stone spandrel panels between these two floors are ornamented with rosettes. There is a carved panel between the bays at the 15th floor, and a main roof line with a brick parapet stepped up at the ends. There is a deep setback to the small 16th & 17th floors, topped by a shallow pyramidal roof.

The older building's south facade on 34th Street is about the same width as the newer section to the west. It has a 2-story base with stone, metal, and glass storefronts on the ground floor, and a central entrance with glass double-doors below a rounded, brown canvas canopy extending out over the sidewalk. The 2-story entrance surround is like that seen on Park Avenue. The upper floors have two single-windows above the entrance, and to either side is a double-window (paired windows at the 3rd floor), two single-windows, and double-window end bays (again, paired windows at the 3rd floor). The 3rd-floor paired windows are separated by colonnettes and flanked by pilasters that carry round-arches above the windows, with foliate carved architraves. Like the west facade, there are projecting, balustraded balconies and 2-story enframements with round-arches at the 14th-15th floors. The outer bays set back with dentiled cornices above the 16th floor, while the middle four bays extend up to the 18th, with more arches and scalloped cornice. The upper roof line is crowned by a large, octagonal mechanical penthouse and water tank, capped by a pyramidal tiled roof.

The corner building's west facade has a pair of tripartite windows at the ground floor, with bronze and iron screens featuring Greek fret patterns. There is no ornament at the upper floors. There is a setback above the 15th floor, with another above the 16th. The longer south facade on 34th Street has various metal, stone, and glass storefronts along the ground floor. The upper floors have two wide bays of tripartite windows at the west third, a narrow and a wide tripartite window bay at the middle third, and a double-window and narrow tripartite window at the eastern third. The outer sections have setbacks above the 15th floor, and the middle section sets back above the 16th floor.

The north elevation is clad in beige brick at the front edge, with red brick farther back. There is a bay of single-windows near the front edge, and two bays of smaller bathroom windows farther back. The ground floor at the avenue is occupied by Johnathan Services, Inc., and an impressive multi-level lobby that is a masterpiece of marble, terrazzo and trompe l’oeil. The ground floor along 34th Street is occupied by Greenleaf Gourmet Deli, Deja Vu barber shop, and Murray Nail & Spa. The building contains a total of 236 apartment units.
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Coordinates:   40°44'49"N   73°58'50"W
This article was last modified 7 months ago