The Beresford Apartments

 high-rise, apartment building, 1929_construction

280-foot, 20-story Renaissance-revival cooperative-apartment building completed in 1929. Designed by Emery Roth, it replaced a 6-story hotel of the same name that dated from 1889. Seen from Central Park Lake, the apartment building rises like a grand castle with three illuminated towers at three of the corners, two main facades (facing south and east) and three separate main entrances (at 211 Central Park West, 1 West 81st, and 7 West 81st). Each of the octangonal towers has huge arched windows topped by oval windows in broken pediments. The asymmetry distracts from the building's massive bulk while adding a memorable and intriguing skyline. One of the three towers conceals the building's water tank. Terra cotta ornamentation was fabricated by the Federal Seaboard Terra Cotta Co.

The building is roughly a U-shape in plane, with an opening at the middle of the west side entering into a central courtyard, with a fountain and garden. The main faces are clad in buff-beige brick above a 3-story rusticated limestone base; the rustication is heavier at the ground floor, above a grey granite water table, and the ground floor is capped by a band course, and another band course caps the base. Band courses comprised of two terra-cotta moldings appear between the 9th & 10th floors, the 12th & 13th, and the 13th & 14th. Typical windows have two metal casements beneath a single-paned transom. Narrower windows are interspersed on the ground floor between some of the bays, casement windows with three lights and a tripartite transom appear at the 19th floor, and the rear elevation has a variety of broader casement windows. The building rises to the 14th floor in an uninterrupted block, constructed to the building line. The setbacks above articulate the corner pavilions that are surmounted by 2-story penthouses and the corner towers.

Despite its great size, the building is relatively intimate, at least for its residents, as it is divided, internally, into three distinct structures, each with their own separate, one-step-up entrances and three-step-up vestibules with marble cartouches. Each entrance is flanked by pilasters decorated with classical urns and floral motifs. Lobby windows overlooking the courtyard are art glass panels depicting medieval characters and symbols.

The east facade on Central Park West is 29 bays wide with windows in groupings to the 14th floor: 3-3-5-3-3-5-3-4. At the 14th floor a balustraded terrace 16 bays wide is located between corner pavilions, 6 (south) and 7 (north) bays wide. The central 16-bay portion continues to the 17th floor above which are two further setbacks at the 19th & 20th floors. The corner pavilions on this elevation are 6 bays wide (south) and 7 bays wide (north) at the 14th & 15th floors; 5 bays wide each up to the 18th floor and 3 larger bays each at the 19th. The two penthouse floors appear above these corner pavilions under the observation rooms and watertank covering.

The main entrance on Central Park West is located between the 15th & 16th bays, with a rounded, grey canvas canopy on bronze supports, flanked by ground-level plantings behind low, simple metal guard rails. The double-doors are glazed with plain bronze muntins and mullions, and bronze-and-glass lanterns flank the doorway. There is a limestone enframement with a scrolled keystone and carved relief panels to each side, depicting Renaissance-style stands composed of acanthus leaves, symmetrically disposed and supporting a winged frontal figure of an angel playing a horn. Above, there is a broken lintel with a central large scrolled cartouche, with floral festoon. At the 2nd floor, a yellow marble panel has a limestone enframement, with a winged cherub head in relief above a festoon suspended from rosettes, all beneath a lintel. Two office entrances are also located halfway down each side, set within reveals, with single-doors of bronze with glazed upper panels and glazed transoms.

A stone balustrade above the 3rd floor spans the middle two bays, resting on eight modillions. There is a decorative plaque and cartouches above the 4th floor. The two inner cartouches frame the plaque with festoons, guttae, and scrolls; it is inscribed "Erected 1929". Above the main entrance there is another cartouche at the 14th floor, large scale with scrolls, set in the center of a wider balustrade; it is held by flanking half-figures on winged cherubs, with cherub heads atop and below the cartouche scrolls.

2-story groupings of windows are framed by terra-cotta at the 10th-11th floors, above a bandcourse with pseudo-balustrades. Between these two floors is a ribboned cartouche flanked by winged cherub heads and scrolled brackets, and there is a rosette above the central 11th-floor window of each grouping. Located at the first setback level are window groupings with rosettes beneath each window, a balcony projecting at the central bay, and an octagonal frame around the rosettes. The 2-story composition here is enframed by brick pilasters supporting a triangular broken pediment, with an ornamental grille at the center. At the 14th floor is a curved broken pediment, with a ram's head at the center, supporting festoons and a scroll above. The 15th-floor central window has a cartouche and flanking festoons. At the 19th-20th floors, set in the corner pavilions, 2-story window compositions are enframed and separated by a balustrade. Pilasters at the 20th floor rest on console brackets under a curved broken pediment, with a central segmental-arched dormer with a round-arched opening containing a grille. At the 20th floor, above the central window, is a winged cherub head on a tablet, with festoons. The 17th floor also has an elaborate scrolled and ribboned cartouche, continuing the central composition above the main entrance, also signalizing chimneys above; it has a ram's skull at the base, with a festoon. Set at the corners of the 20th-floor balustrades, urn-shaped finials rise at the penthouses.

The octagonal corner towers have broader faces set rectilinealy, and narrower faces set diagonally. They have four double-height round-arched windows above a balustrade, each flanked by engaged columns on console brackets, supporting a lintel and broken triangular pediment with a central bull's-eye opening with surmounted winged cherub head. Half-figures of cherubs emerging from foliate ornament flank and hold an urn with a ram's head below. Drapery swags suspended from rosettes flank a central scrolled keystone. These are Iiterspersed by four square-headed blind windows surmounted by triangular broken pediments with central winged cherub heads in panels above. Beneath the windows, console brackets support simple obelisk shaped finials. Copper and glass lanterns surmount the roofs.

The south facade on 81st Street has two main entrances and three office doors, spanning 30 bays with the windows grouped in threes except in the outermost bays where there is a single pair at the east end and two pairs at the west, up to the 14th floor, where the setbacks begin. From the 14th-17th floors the center of the facade is 15 bays wide, flanked by 8 bays to the west and 7 to the east. Terraces appear at the 18th-20th floors at the center, and a large chimney rises from the 17th floor beneath the western tower. Like the main entrance on Central Park West, these two have canopies on bronze supports, flanked by plantings behind guard rails. The double-doors and enframements also match, as do the office doors. There are cartouches above the 4th floor at the 6th, 12th, 18th, and 24th bays. The windows groupings and ornament is similar to that on the east facade, as the respective floors. In addition, there are two windows with eared enframements at the 20th floor, surmounted by a central cartouche.

The north facade on 82nd Street has 29 bays in groupings of three with two additional bays at the west. A series of graduated setback terraces with curved parapet wall and metal railings appears at the westernmost five bays beginning at the 9th floor and continuing to roof level. There is also a residential entrance on this facade, at the 7th bay from the west. It has a single-door, flanked by small glass-and-bronze lanterns, and is surmounted by a cartouche set on the door enframement. A glazed transom, with metal grille, is enframed and surmounted by a garland, winged cherub head, and scroll. There is an office door directly adjacent to this entrance, on the right, and three more spaced out along the rest of the ground floor. Ornament and windows are similar to the two main facades, with cartouches above the 4th floor and a balustrade at the 14th. There is a gated service entrance in a small, 1-story extension at the far west end, with a round-arched gateway.

The rear, west-facing elevation is clad in brick and lacks the ornament seen on the rest of the building, although it does have several window bays.

The building was converted to a co-op in 1962, with 175 apartments. The Beresford has been home to many celebrities including violinist Isaac Stern, singers Beverly Sills and Diana Ross, columnist Leonard Lyons, comedian Jerry Seinfeld, tennis player John McEnroe, anthropologist Margaret Mead, actors Rock Hudson and Tony Randall, and Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit.

daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-1929-beresfo...
s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/1520.pdf
usmodernist.org/PA/PP-1930-01.pdf