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One Fifth Avenue Cooperative (New York City, New York)

USA / New Jersey / Hoboken / New York City, New York / Fifth Avenue, 1
 cooperative, Art Deco (architecture), apartment building

270-foot, 27-story Art Deco cooperative-apartment building completed in 1927 for developer Joseph G. Siegel. Designed by Helmle, Corbett & Harrison with Sugarman & Berger initially as a hotel, the plans were changed to a residential building. It is clad in buff-colored brick above a 4-story stone base. There are eight bays on each facade (one of them being a double bay on the north and south sides, and two double bays at the center of the west side, above the main entrances). The entrances are framed by full stone surrounds with rope moldings, and have green canvas canopies extending out to the street. There are 1-bay chamfered corners at both the northwest and southwest. The 4th floor (the top level of the base) has small stone balconies at the windows, which are topped by Gothic stone arches at the middle bays. At the outer bays, the base is capped by dentiled band courses.

Vertical accents are made by band courses carried up between the windows, and the ornament, although contemporary, is largely reminiscent of past styles. Above the 16th floor, the tower undergoes a number of setbacks, rising to a skinny central tower. Each setback has a set of small Gothic stone arches and pointed finials.

Certain isolated details on 1 Fifth Avenue take cues from other buildings in the immediate area. Among other items, the paneling in the lobby recalls that in the prior Greek revival house on the site and the Gothic-style quatrefoil designs on the lanterns at the main entrance refer to the Church of the Ascension nearby.

This was not a conventional apartment house but an apartment hotel of two to three-room units, each with a serving pantry for food brought up by service elevator from a central restaurant on the ground floor. In fact, the apartment hotel was a widespread fiction of the period; "non-housekeeping" residential buildings could be built taller and deeper than regular multiple dwellings because they were considered commercial buildings -- tenants usually set up full kitchens in the serving pantries.

The building was acquired by NYU in the early 1960s to provide rental income and additional housing for students and faculty. It was converted to cooperative apartments in 1986. The ground floor contains and Otto - a restaurant noted for its gelato.

www.condopedia.com/wiki/One_Fifth_Avenue
www.nytimes.com/1992/10/04/realestate/streetscapes-1-fi...
1940s.nyc/map/photo/nynyma_rec0040_1_00550_0022#16.86/4...
gvshp.org/blog/2015/09/28/art-deco-in-the-village/
usmodernist.org/AR/AR-1927-04.pdf
usmodernist.org/AM/AM-1936-05.pdf
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   40°43'54"N   73°59'46"W
This article was last modified 3 years ago