The Majestic (also known as the Majestic Apartments) is a
cooperative
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...
apartment building at 115
Central Park West
Eighth Avenue is a major north–south avenue on the west side of Manhattan in New York City, carrying northbound traffic below 59th Street. It is one of the original avenues of the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 to run the length of Manhattan, ...
, between 71st and
72nd Streets, adjacent to
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...
on the
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...
of
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. It was constructed from 1930 to 1931 and was designed by the firm of
Irwin S. Chanin in the
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
style. The Majestic is 30 stories tall, with twin towers rising from a 19-story base. The building is a
contributing property
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...
to the
Central Park West Historic District
The Central Park West Historic District is located along Central Park West, between 61st and 97th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places on ...
, listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
, and is a
New York City designated landmark
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
.
The base surrounds an internal courtyard to the west, and two towers rise from the eastern portion of the base above that level. There are several cantilevered
terraces with Art Deco balustrades. The first three stories are clad in
cast stone
Cast stone or reconstructed stone is a highly refined building material, a form of precast concrete used as masonry intended to simulate natural-cut stone. It is used for architectural features: trim, or ornament; facing buildings or other st ...
, and the remainder of the facade is made of tan and brown brick with multi-paned windows. The floor slabs are cantilevered from a central core, permitting the inclusion of enclosed
solariums at the northeast and southeast corners. There are vertical
piers Piers may refer to:
* Pier, a raised structure over a body of water
* Pier (architecture), an architectural support
* Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name)
* Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...
on several parts of the facade, contrasting with the horizontal solariums. When the building opened, it operated much like a short-term hotel with housekeeping and catering services. There were originally 235 apartments with two to eleven rooms, but several apartments have been split or combined over the years.
The Chanin brothers bought the site in April 1929 and constructed the building from November 1930 to May 1931. The building officially opened on October 1, 1931, and the Chanins lost the Majestic to foreclosure two years later. The New York Majestic Corporation took over the building in 1937 and operated it for twenty years, when the Majestic became a housing cooperative. The Majestic remained an upscale development after its conversion, and it has undergone several renovations throughout its history. The building's residents have included artistic personalities as well as criminals.
Site
The Majestic is at 115
Central Park West
Eighth Avenue is a major north–south avenue on the west side of Manhattan in New York City, carrying northbound traffic below 59th Street. It is one of the original avenues of the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 to run the length of Manhattan, ...
in the
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...
neighborhood of
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
The building occupies the western sidewalk of Central Park West (formerly Eighth Avenue) between 71st Street to the south and
72nd Street to the north.
The Majestic Apartments occupies a nearly rectangular
land lot
In real estate, a lot or plot is a tract or parcel of land owned or meant to be owned by some owner(s). A plot is essentially considered a parcel of real property in some countries or immovable property (meaning practically the same thing) in ...
with an area of .
The land lot has a
frontage
Frontage is the boundary between a plot of land or a building and the road onto which the plot or building fronts. Frontage may also refer to the full length of this boundary. This length is considered especially important for certain types of ...
of along Central Park West, on 72nd Street, and on 71st Street.
Nearby places include
the Dakota
The Dakota, also known as the Dakota Apartments, is a Housing cooperative, cooperative apartment building at 1 West 72nd Street (Manhattan), 72nd Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The Dakota was construc ...
apartment building immediately to the north, the
Olcott Hotel
The Olcott Hotel is on West 72nd Street in New York City's Upper West Side. It was built by the Lapidus Engineering Company beginning in late 1925. The edifice was one of a number of structures constructed at the time from Central Park West to ...
to the northwest,
101 Central Park West to the south, and
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...
to the east.
The Majestic is one of several apartment buildings on Central Park West that are primarily identified by an official name.
Even though a street address was sufficient to identify these apartment buildings, this trend followed a British practice of giving names to buildings without addresses. By contrast, buildings on
Fifth Avenue
Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping stre ...
, along the eastern side of Central Park, are mainly known by their addresses.
Previous structure
The construction of Central Park in the 1860s spurred construction in the
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...
of Manhattan, but similar development in the
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...
was slower to come.
Major developments on the West Side were erected after the
Ninth Avenue elevated line opened in 1879, providing direct access to
Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...
.
The first large apartment building in the area was
the Dakota
The Dakota, also known as the Dakota Apartments, is a Housing cooperative, cooperative apartment building at 1 West 72nd Street (Manhattan), 72nd Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The Dakota was construc ...
, which opened in 1884.
The city installed power lines on Central Park West at the end of the 19th century, thus allowing the construction of multi-story
apartment hotels
An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ...
with elevators.
Among these early apartment hotels was the original Hotel Majestic between 71st and 72nd Streets,
which opened in 1894.
The hotel was developed by millinery magnate
Victor Henry Rothschild
Victor Henry Rothschild or V. Henry Rothschild (April 6, 1835 – May 16, 1911) was an American businessman.
Biography
Victor Henry Rothschild was one of seven children born to a German Jews, Jewish family on April 6, 1835 in Nordstetten, Baden-W ...
and had been designed by
Alfred Zucker
Alfred J. R. E. Zucker (January 23, 1852 – August 2, 1913)
Guillermo ...
.
The hotel was 12 stories tall with 600 rooms, and it contained amenities that were meant to rival those of the Dakota. The old Majestic had contained an Egyptian-style women's writing room, a ballroom, facilities for bowling and billiards, and a rooftop garden.
The Majestic had been home to personalities such as
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...
and
Edna Ferber
Edna Ferber (August 15, 1885 – April 16, 1968) was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels include the Pulitzer Prize-winning '' So Big'' (1924), ''Show Boat'' (1926; made into the celebrated 1927 musical), '' Cim ...
. When the hotel was sold in 1929, the ''
New York Herald Tribune
The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...
'' described the old building as "one of the best known hotels west of Central Park".
By the 1920s, high-rise apartment buildings were being developed on Central Park West in anticipation of the construction of the
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...
's
Eighth Avenue Line.
Architecture
![Central_Park_West_May_2022_07](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Central_Park_West_May_2022_07.jpg)
The building was designed and developed by
Irwin Chanin
Irwin Salmon Chanin (October 29, 1891 – February 24, 1988) was an American architect and real estate developer, best known for designing several Art Deco towers and Broadway theaters.
Biography
Irwin Chanin was born to a Jewish family, the son ...
, who worked with his firm's architectural director
Jacques Delamarre
Ancient and noble French family names, Jacques, Jacq, or James are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are over ...
.
The futuristic sculptures on the building's facade are by
Rene Chambellan
Rene Paul Chambellan (September 15, 1893 – November 29, 1955) was an American sculptor who specialized in architectural sculpture. He was also one of the foremost practitioners of what was then called the "French Modern Style" and has subseque ...
.
The building is variously cited as being 29,
30,
31,
or 32 stories tall. According to
Emporis
Emporis GmbH was a real estate data mining company that was headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. The company collected data and photographs of buildings worldwide, which were published in an online database from 2000 to September 2022.
On 12 Sept ...
, the building is tall.
The Majestic Apartments was Chanin's first Art Deco residential building;
he also developed
the Century several blocks south in the same style.
Chanin had described the style as "experimental" in a 1985 interview with architectural historian
Andrew Dolkart
Andrew Scott Dolkart is a professor of Historic Preservation at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) and the former Director of the school's Historic Preservation Program. Professor Dolkart is ...
.
The Majestic also incorporates elements of the
International Style and the French Modern Classical style.
The Century,
55 Central Park West
55 Central Park West is a 19-floor housing cooperative located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by the architectural firm Schwartz & Gross, and built in 1929. The building is a contributing property wi ...
, the Majestic,
the El Dorado
The El Dorado (also spelled the Eldorado) is a cooperative apartment building at 300 Central Park West, between 90th and 91st Streets adjacent to Central Park, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was constructed from 1929 ...
,
241 Central Park West, and
the Ardsley constitute a major grouping of Art Deco buildings on Central Park West.
In early promotional materials, the Chanin Organization described the Majestic as being a "Modern American" structure.
The modernistic Art Deco design was intended to appeal to "
new money
''Nouveau riche'' (; ) is a term used, usually in a derogatory way, to describe those whose wealth has been acquired within their own generation, rather than by familial inheritance. The equivalent English term is the "new rich" or "new money" ( ...
" residents, as opposed to the classical designs of
the Beresford
The Beresford is a Housing cooperative, cooperative apartment building at 211 Central Park West, between 81st and 82nd Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was constructed in 1929 and was designed by architect Emery ...
and
the San Remo
The San Remo is a cooperative apartment building at 145 and 146 Central Park West, between 74th and 75th Streets, adjacent to Central Park on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was constructed from 1929 to 1930 and was desi ...
, where many residents were of "
old money
Old money is "the inherited wealth of established upper-class families (i.e. gentry, patriciate)" or "a person, family, or lineage possessing inherited wealth". The term typically describes a social class of the rich who have been able to ma ...
" wealth.
Form
On the Majestic's 19-story base, the
massing
Massing is a term in architecture which refers to the perception of the general shape and form as well as size of a building.
Massing in architectural theory
Massing refers to the structure in three dimensions (form), not just its outline from ...
fills its lot line on the north, east, and south, and there is an interior courtyard.
The interior courtyard was designed as a "garden court" and contained foliage.
There are
setbacks starting at the 14th story,
which contain terraces enclosed by metal railings.
These setbacks were intended to emphasize the horizontal lines of the facade,
and they also allowed the terraces to blend in with the massing. When the building opened, there was high demand for apartments with large terraces, particularly before
air conditioning
Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...
became popular.
Above the 19th story, two towers rise from the eastern portion of the base.
Though the towers are designed to appear identical, the north tower is slightly wider than the south tower. The Majestic is one of four buildings on Central Park West with a twin-towered form; the others are the Century, the San Remo, and the El Dorado.
By splitting the upper stories into twin towers, as opposed to a single bulky tower, the developers could increase the amount of space that was near a window.
The massing of the Majestic, and those of similar buildings, was shaped primarily by the
Multiple Dwelling Act of 1929. Under this legislation, the "street walls" of apartment buildings could rise one and a half times the width of the adjacent street before they had to set back. On lots of more than , the street walls could rise three times the width of the adjacent street.
In practice, this meant that buildings on Central Park West could rise 19 stories before setting back.
The legislation also mandated courtyards in large apartment buildings.
Facade
The lowest three stories contain a light-gray facade of
cast stone
Cast stone or reconstructed stone is a highly refined building material, a form of precast concrete used as masonry intended to simulate natural-cut stone. It is used for architectural features: trim, or ornament; facing buildings or other st ...
, placed above a
water table
The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated.
T ...
of polished rose-and-black granite. There are entrances facing all three streets, each of which contain polished granite frames.
Some of the windows are separated vertically by
piers Piers may refer to:
* Pier, a raised structure over a body of water
* Pier (architecture), an architectural support
* Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name)
* Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...
, which contain notches above the 3rd story.
On each elevation, the piers divide the facade into
bays
A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...
and rise through the upper sections of the facade.
Each of the entrances is flanked by several piers.
![Central_Park_West_May_2022_14](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Central_Park_West_May_2022_14.jpg)
Above the 3rd story, the facade is covered in yellowish brick.
The corners of the building were outfitted with windows wrapping around the edge at a 90-degree angle, which Chanin referred to as
solariums.
Chanin wanted residents to be able to remove the glass panes during summer so they could use the corners as outdoor terraces.
This was part of Chanin's effort to provide apartments with more "light and air". The corner windows are separated vertically from adjacent windows by
striated brickwork panels. Some of the bays are separated vertically by the brick piers; the windows within these bays are separated horizontally by curved
spandrel
A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fill ...
panels.
The vertical piers were intended to provide a sharp contrast with the horizontal lines on the remainder of the facade.
Many of the windows are divided into two or three panes, although the windows in the tower stories are single panes; each pane is also divided horizontally into three sections.
The tops of the towers are simpler than those at the Century.
The east elevations of the towers are topped by square-headed abstract decorations.
Conversely, the west elevations are topped by rounded stone decorations.
In 2007,
Christopher Gray
Christopher Stewart Gray (April 24, 1950 – March 10, 2017) was an American journalist and architectural historian,Schneider, Daniel B (August 27, 2000)"F.Y.I. Hell's Kitchen in the Raw" ''The New York Times''. March 4, 2010. noted for his week ...
of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' described the rounded structures on the western portion of the roof as being akin to "a giant dynamo" from the film ''
Metropolis
A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications.
A big c ...
''.
Interior
The Majestic is divided functionally into five sections, and staff must go outdoors to travel between each section. The building has 12 elevators.
The first story has a main lobby and a restaurant, as well as private lobbies for the different sections of the building. In addition, an entrance to the
72nd Street station of the
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...
was placed at the building's base.
The lobby was designed in an
Art Moderne
Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design ...
style
with white-metal walls and terrazzo floors.
''The New York Times'' wrote in 1966 that "even partisans agree
tis something of a horror".
When the building opened, it operated like a short-term hotel with housekeeping and catering services.
There was also an "emergency help and valet" service for residents.
Most elevators were staffed by
elevator operator
An elevator operator (North American English), liftman (in Commonwealth English, usually lift attendant), or lift girl (in British English), is a person specifically employed to operate a manually operated elevator.
Description
Being an effec ...
s.
Apartments
, the
New York City Department of City Planning
The Department of City Planning (DCP) is the department of the government of New York City responsible for setting the framework of city's physical and socioeconomic planning. The department is responsible for land use and environmental review, p ...
cites the Majestic as having 238 residential apartments and 15 non-residential units.
[ Originally, there were 235 apartments in the building.] There were originally maisonette
An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are man ...
apartments, originally intended for physicians, on the first floor. On the lower stories, each apartment generally had three to fourteen rooms, arranged in either one-story simplexes or two-story duplexes. The apartments in the towers had either four, six, or ten rooms. Originally, all the tower units were supposed to have ten rooms, but some of the units were subdivided during construction to make them easier to sell during the Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. After the building became a housing cooperative in the 1950s, apartments ranged from two to eleven rooms. A typical eight-room apartment had three bedrooms, two maids' rooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a foyer. The smallest suites had a single bedroom and a small dining alcove, while larger apartments had several bedrooms, a solarium, library, dining room, and servants' rooms. Chanin also included penthouse apartments and a solarium on the roof.
The walls between apartments were soundproofed. All apartments included high ceilings, foyers, large bathrooms with dressing rooms, and ventilated kitchens. The foyers were known as "galleries" because they were unusually large, measuring up to . The galleries in the simplex units were only slightly higher than the rest of the apartment; those in the duplex units were between and stories tall. To accommodate this, some galleries were depressed below the rest of the apartment. The galleries had wood-burning fireplaces, while the dining rooms and other spaces had electric fireplaces. The bathrooms in each apartment contained colored tiles and custom plumbing fixtures. The living rooms, dining rooms, galleries, and library rooms were all covered in walnut flooring, as Chanin believed the material was less susceptible to creaking. About 100 types of fixtures were manufactured for the building.
Several tenants hired their own architects to renovate their units. For example, in the 2000s, Philippe Starck
Philippe Starck (; born 18 January 1949) is a French industrial architect and designer known for his wide range of designs, including interior design, architecture, household objects, furniture, boats and other vehicles.
Life
Starck was born on ...
renovated a pair of apartments for entrepreneur Ian Schrager
Ian Schrager (born July 19, 1946) is an American entrepreneur, hotelier and real estate developer, credited for co-creating the "boutique hotel" category of accommodation. Originally, he gained fame as co-owner and co-founder of Studio 54.
Ear ...
, which were decorated with such details as a large marble bathtub, an imitation of an exposed steel column, and walls paneled in makore wood. Also in the 2000s, Annabelle Selldorf
Annabelle Selldorf (born 1960) is a German-born architect and founding principal of Selldorf Architects, a New York City-based architecture practice. She is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA) and the recipient of the 2016 AIA ...
renovated another pair of apartments that were occupied by businessmen George Malkemus and Anthony Yurgaitis.
Mechanical features
About of steel was used in the Majestic's superstructure
A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships.
Aboard ships and large boats
On water craft, the superstruct ...
. The largest column weighed about . The floor slabs were cantilevered from "heavy central columns" inspired by those in several German buildings. The cantilevered floor slabs allowed the inclusion of the solariums at each corner, since there were no corner columns like in typical buildings. Because of increasing public opposition to soot and dust emissions from apartment buildings, the Majestic did not have its own steam plant as older buildings did. The building instead contains a fuel tank, and its roof includes six water towers.
History
By the late 1920s, high-rise apartment buildings were being developed on Central Park West in anticipation of the completion of the New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...
's Eighth Avenue Line, which opened in 1932. Central Park West was concurrently widened from . Under the Multiple Dwelling Act of 1929, this allowed the construction of proportionally taller buildings on the avenue.
Irwin Chanin was an American architect and real estate developer who designed several Art Deco towers and Broadway theaters. He and his brother Henry designed their first Manhattan buildings in 1924, including the Chanin Building Chanin is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
*Alabama Chanin, American fashion designer
*Irwin Chanin (1891–1988), American architect
*Jack Chanin (1907–1997), US-based Ukrainian magician
*Jim Chanin (born 1947), American attor ...
. They then built and operated a number of theaters and other structures related to the entertainment industry, including the Roxy Theatre and the Hotel Lincoln. Among the Chanins' Broadway theaters was the Majestic Theatre Majestic Theatre or Majestic Theater may refer to:
Australia
* Majestic Theatre, Adelaide, former name of a theatre in King William Street, Adelaide, built 1916, now demolished
*Majestic Theatre, Launceston, a former cinema in Tasmania designed by ...
(built alongside the Royale Theatre
The Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre (formerly the Royale Theatre and the John Golden Theatre) is a Broadway theater at 242 West 45th Street (George Abbott Way) in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1927, the theate ...
and Theatre Masque); the theater and apartment building do not appear to be related, despite the similarity in name and developer. The Majestic Apartments is the older of two Art Deco apartment houses on Central Park West that the Chanins developed; the other is the Century Apartments, completed in 1931. Both developments were named after the buildings that had formerly occupied their respective sites.
Development
In December 1928, the Hotel Majestic was sold to a developer who planned an apartment complex on the site. In April 1929, Frederick Brown bought the Hotel Majestic and an adjacent plot for $5 million. The assemblage measured 200 feet along Central Park West, on 71st Street, and on 72nd Street. Brown quickly resold it to the Chanin brothers, who planned to build a 45-story apartment hotel on the site, costing $16 million. The Chanins planned to complete the hotel in October 1930. The hotel closed on October 1, 1929, when the Chanins took title to the site, and demolition began two weeks afterward. About half of the new building was planned to be studio apartments, maisonettes
An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ...
, and duplexes
A duplex house plan has two living units attached to each other, either next to each other as townhouses, condominiums or above each other like apartments. By contrast, a building comprising two attached units on two distinct properties is ...
with six to fifteen rooms. The rest of the building would contain kitchenette
A kitchenette is a small cooking area, which usually has a refrigerator and a microwave, but may have other appliances. In some motel and hotel rooms, small apartments, college dormitories, or office buildings, a kitchenette consists of a small ref ...
apartments with five or fewer rooms. Also to be included in the new building were meeting rooms, a ballroom, large dining rooms, and a full service kitchen. According to a later account by ''The New York Times'', the apartments would have had 11 to 24 rooms.
The original plans were changed due to the Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
and the passage of the Multiple Dwelling Act. In June 1930, following the Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...
, the Chanins reduced the project to 29 or 30 stories, and the sizes of the apartments were downsized. At the time, they were still considering which materials to use. Shortly thereafter, the Chanins received a $9.4 million first mortgage loan
A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law jurisdicions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners to raise funds for any p ...
from the Straus National Bank and Trust Company, which then issued bonds. By that July, foundation work was underway, and Hay Foundry and Iron Works had received the contract for the structural steel. Initially, Irwin Chanin had hoped to start erecting the superstructure over a 12-week period starting in August 1930. By that November, construction had not started, but Irwin Chanin announced that he would hire 3,000 workers to construct the Majestic and Century. In so doing, Chanin planned to take advantage of low material and construction costs.
On November 19, 1930, the Chanin brothers drove the first rivets into the Majestic's superstructure, manufactured specifically for the occasion from the Hotel Majestic's structural steel. The project employed up to 1,400 workers at any time. The building topped out
In building construction, topping out (sometimes referred to as topping off) is a builders' rite traditionally held when the last beam (or its equivalent) is placed atop a structure during its construction. Nowadays, the ceremony is often parlaye ...
during May 1931, at which point the brickwork and masonry of the Majestic were nearly complete. Even so, Chanin said the work was not half done because a "vast amount of interior equipment" was required for apartment buildings, particularly in comparison to office buildings. By that September, the Majestic Apartments were ready to open; the building had cost $10 million. Though the Chanins had previously developed over 80 projects, the Majestic was the first to be developed entirely by subsidiaries of the Chanin Organization instead of subcontractors. At the building's opening, Chanin predicted that the Majestic would be obsolete in fifty years and that it would be replaced by a glass tower. Chanin said at the time: "If the new Majestic is in existence after 1981, it will be somewhat of an architectural curiosity." He embedded an envelope within the Majestic's wall containing photos and plans of the old, current, and future buildings on the site; the envelope would be removed if the building was demolished.
Rental house
The first tenant to move into the building was cartoonist Harry Hershfield
Harry Hershfield (October 13, 1885 – December 15, 1974) was an American cartoonist, humor writer and radio personality. He was known as "the Jewish Will Rogers". Hershfield also was a columnist for the ''New York Daily Mirror''. His books ...
, who moved into his apartment on September 29, 1931, two days before the official opening date on October 1. A promotional brochure for the Majestic proclaimed that the building was a solution to "the complexities—physical, psychological and social—of modern New York life". At the time, only about 45 of the 205 apartments were finished, and the building was not complete even in March 1932. In addition to residential tenants, the Explorers Club
The Explorers Club is an American-based international multidisciplinary professional society with the goal of promoting scientific exploration and field study. The club was founded in New York City in 1904, and has served as a meeting point fo ...
moved its library and clubhouse to the building in 1932. Most of the earliest leases were for smaller apartments, but the larger units were being leased at a rate of one per day by September 1932. Two years after the building opened, nearly all of the seven-room and eight-room suites had been leased.
In June 1932, two of the mortgage bondholders sued the Chanins and requested that the building be put into receivership
In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"—especially in ca ...
, but a New York Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...
judge denied the request. The Continental Bank and Trust Company, successor to the Straus National Trust Company, sought to foreclose
Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan.
Formally, a mortg ...
on the building in March 1933. It began collecting rents from the Majestic; at the time, a ten-room apartment in the tower was listed for as little as $6,500 annually. The foreclosure proceeding was still ongoing when three individual bondholders sued in early 1935 to have the building reorganized. Later that year, several former Straus officials were accused of fraud, since the building had not been completed when the bond issue was made. Separately, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...
was investigating allegations that Straus was coercing its own salesmen to sell the building's mortgage bonds quickly. Ultimately, a state judge approved a plan to replace the existing bonds at face value
The face value, sometimes called nominal value, is the value of a coin, bond, stamp or paper money as printed on the coin, stamp or bill itself by the issuing authority.
The face value of coins, stamps, or bill is usually its legal value. Howe ...
.
The New York Majestic Corporation took over the building in 1937, and it received a loan of $2.5 million from the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York
The Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York (also known as Mutual of New York or MONY) was the oldest continuous writer of insurance policies in the United States. Incorporated in 1842, it was headquartered at 1740 Broadway, before becoming a wh ...
that November. By then, 91 percent of the apartments were rented. The New York Majestic Corporation obtained a $2.435 million first mortgage loan from an "out-of-town" company in 1940. Shortly thereafter, the building's managers contracted with the New York Steam Corporation to provide steam for the building due to a shortage of oil during World War II. The journalist Peter Osnos
Peter L.W. Osnos (born October 13, 1943) is an American journalist who is the founder of PublicAffairs Books.
Early life
Osnos was born in India to a Jewish refugee family from Warsaw, Poland. He is the son of Joseph Osnos and Marta Osnos, wh ...
wrote that the Majestic and other Central Park West apartment houses contained many Jewish residents during the 1930s and 1940s, since these buildings were not "restricted", unlike others on the East Side.
The building's lobby had been renovated by 1952, when decorator Gladys Miller removed "superfluous decoration" from the lobby. In 1957, Vincent "The Chin" Gigante shot mobster Frank Costello
Frank Costello (; born Francesco Castiglia; ; January 26, 1891 – February 18, 1973) was an Italian-American crime boss of the Luciano crime family. In 1957, Costello survived an assassination attempt ordered by Vito Genovese and carried out by ...
, a Majestic resident, in the lobby during a failed assassination attempt. Costello survived, but the shooting damaged a section of the lobby's wall, which was covered by a laminated panel.
Cooperative conversion
In September 1957, it was announced that the Majestic would become a cooperative apartment
A housing cooperative, or housing co-op, is a legal entity, usually a cooperative or a corporation, which owns real estate, consisting of one or more residential buildings; it is one type of housing tenure. Housing cooperatives are a distinc ...
house with 235 apartments, and a new entity called the 115 Central Park West Corporation started selling shares to existing residents. At the time, there were 1,200 residents. Some tenants opposed the conversion and sued in the New York Supreme Court in an attempt to halt it; the lawsuit was settled out of court. The 115 Central Park West Corporation took title to the Majestic in July 1958. The Majestic was one of twelve apartment buildings on Central Park West to be converted into housing cooperatives in the late 1950s and early 1960s, as well as one of the largest such cooperatives on the street. The co-op board received a $3 million mortgage loan for the building in 1964.
By the mid-1960s, the Majestic had around 235 apartments, ranging from two to eleven rooms. A typical eight-room apartment cost $50,000 to $65,000 with monthly maintenance costs of $350 to $385. Many of the Majestic's newer residents were families with several young children, who wished to occupy large apartments but were unwilling or unable to buy a more expensive apartment on the Upper East Side. Around 1968, the Majestic replaced the directors on its co-op board with a set of committees that oversaw different parts of the building's operation. The building remained an upscale development, with apartments selling at an average of $46,130 per room in 1980. Around that time, the building's board allowed tenants to replace windows in their apartments. Rosenblum/Harb Architects renovated the lobby in 1984, restoring the original design.
A new service entrance was built in the 1990s; at that time, the building's residents largely worked in law, medicine, or finance. During that decade, ''Crain's New York
Crain Communications Inc is an American multi-industry publishing conglomerate based in Detroit, Michigan, United States, with 13 non-US subsidiaries.
History
Gustavus Dedman (G.D.) Crain, Jr. ( Gustavus Demetrious Crain, Jr.; 1885–1973), pre ...
'' described the Majestic, Beresford, and El Dorado as having "become brand names that grow in strength as noted personalities move in". Walter B. Melvin Architects renovated the facade in 2007 at a cost of $2.5 million. By then, there were 238 apartments, which ranged in price from $2.5 million to $25 million. The co-op board sued two contractors in 2014, alleging that their negligence had resulted in leaks throughout the building.
Notable people
According to a 1996 article in ''New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
'' magazine, many brokers classified the Majestic as one of several "second tier" apartment buildings on Central Park West. These buildings were slightly less prestigious than other structures such as 88 Central Park West, 101 Central Park West, the Dakota
The Dakota, also known as the Dakota Apartments, is a Housing cooperative, cooperative apartment building at 1 West 72nd Street (Manhattan), 72nd Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The Dakota was construc ...
, and the Beresford. Notable residents have included:
* Kathleen Battle
Kathleen Deanna Battle (born August 13, 1948) is an American operatic soprano known for her distinctive vocal range and tone. Born in Portsmouth, Ohio, Battle initially became known for her work within the concert repertoire through performances ...
, soprano
* Milton Berle
Milton Berle (born Mendel Berlinger; ; July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002) was an American actor and comedian. His career as an entertainer spanned over 80 years, first in silent films and on stage as a child actor, then in radio, movies and tel ...
, actor
* Alan Hawley, aviator
* Harry Hershfield
Harry Hershfield (October 13, 1885 – December 15, 1974) was an American cartoonist, humor writer and radio personality. He was known as "the Jewish Will Rogers". Hershfield also was a columnist for the ''New York Daily Mirror''. His books ...
, cartoonist
* Marc Jacobs
Marc Jacobs (born April 9, 1963) is an American fashion designer. He is the head designer for his own fashion label, Marc Jacobs, and formerly Marc by Marc Jacobs, a diffusion line, which was produced for approximately 15 years, before it was d ...
, fashion designer; grew up in the building
* Ted Lewis, orchestra leader
* Zero Mostel
Samuel Joel "Zero" Mostel (February 28, 1915 – September 8, 1977) was an American actor, comedian, and singer. He is best known for his portrayal of comic characters such as Tevye on stage in ''Fiddler on the Roof'', Pseudolus on stage and on ...
, actor
* Victor Moore
Victor Fred Moore (February 24, 1876 – July 23, 1962) was an American actor of stage and screen, a major Broadway star from the late 1920s through the 1930s. He was also a writer and director, but is best remembered today as a comedian, play ...
, actor
* Conan O'Brien
Conan Christopher O'Brien (born April 18, 1963) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is best known for having hosted late-night talk shows for almost 28 years, beginning with ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' (19 ...
, television host
* Edward R. Pressman
Edward Rambach Pressman (April 11, 1943 – January 17, 2023) was an American film producer and founder of the production company Edward R. Pressman Film Corporation.
Pressman was born to a Jewish family in New York City, the son of Lynn and J ...
, film producer; grew up in the building
* Samuel Roxy Rothafel
Samuel Lionel "Roxy" Rothafel (July 9, 1882 – January 13, 1936) was an American theatrical impresario and entrepreneur. He is noted for developing the lavish presentation of silent films in the deluxe movie palace theaters of the 1910s and 1 ...
, theatrical impresario
* James Toback
James Toback (; born November 23, 1944) is an American film director and screenwriter. His screenplay for '' Bugsy'' won the 1991 Los Angeles Film Critics Association award for best screenplay of the year and was nominated for both the Academy Aw ...
, film director; grew up in the building
* Carmen Marc Valvo
Carmen Marc Valvo (born July 3, 1963) is an American designer who specializes in evening wear and high-end cocktail dresses for a line of the same name, founded in 1989. He also has an eyewear collection, a lingerie collection, a swimsuit line ...
, fashion designer
* Susan Weber, historian
* Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell (April 7, 1897 – February 20, 1972) was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and co ...
, columnist
Ian Schrager bought two 19th-story apartments in 1997 for $9 million in what was the most expensive sale at a co-op on Central Park West at the time. Despite having hired Philippe Starck to renovate his apartment, Schrager never lived at the Majestic; instead, Susan Weber bought Schrager's apartment in 2006.
The Majestic has also been home to some of the former heads of the Luciano crime family (later called the Genovese crime family
The Genovese crime family, () also sometimes referred to as the Westside, is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City and New Jersey as part of the American M ...
), including Lucky Luciano
Charles "Lucky" Luciano (, ; born Salvatore Lucania ; November 24, 1897 – January 26, 1962) was an Italian-born gangster who operated mainly in the United States. Luciano started his criminal career in the Five Points gang and was instrumenta ...
, Frank Costello
Frank Costello (; born Francesco Castiglia; ; January 26, 1891 – February 18, 1973) was an Italian-American crime boss of the Luciano crime family. In 1957, Costello survived an assassination attempt ordered by Vito Genovese and carried out by ...
, and Meyer Lansky
Meyer Lansky (born Maier Suchowljansky; July 4, 1902 – January 15, 1983), known as the "Mob's Accountant", was an American organized crime figure who, along with his associate Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the development of the ...
. Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, a founding member of the New York syndicate, along with Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano, and head of its security arm, Murder, Inc.
Murder, Inc. (Murder, Incorporated) was an organized crime group, active from 1929 to 1941, that acted as the enforcement arm of the National Crime Syndicatea closely connected criminal organization that included the Italian-American Mafia, the ...
, lived in apartment 17J in 1933. In addition, Bruno Hauptmann
Bruno Richard Hauptmann (November 26, 1899 – April 3, 1936) was a German-born carpenter who was convicted of the abduction and murder of the 20-month-old son of aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The Lindbergh kidnap ...
worked as a carpenter in the Majestic in 1932 before he was convicted of killing the son of Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. On May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance o ...
and Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Anne Spencer Morrow Lindbergh (June 22, 1906 – February 7, 2001) was an American writer and aviator. She was the wife of decorated pioneer aviator Charles Lindbergh, with whom she made many exploratory flights.
Raised in Englewood, New Jers ...
.
Impact
Architectural critic Lewis Mumford
Lewis Mumford (October 19, 1895 – January 26, 1990) was an American historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, and literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a wr ...
regarded the modernist designs of the Century and Majestic apartment buildings as "merely a thin veneer" with their corner windows, terraces, and water towers. According to Mumford, "even the relatively plain facades do not authenticate these structures". Conversely, during the 1980s, ''New York Times'' architectural critic Paul Goldberger
Paul Goldberger (born in 1950) is an American author, architecture critic and lecturer. He is known for his "Sky Line" column in ''The New Yorker''.
Biography
Shortly after starting as a reporter at ''The New York Times'' in 1972, he was assign ...
called the Century and Majestic "two of the city's most beloved Art Moderne apartment houses" and said the apartment layouts "have a sense of spaces neatly interlocked". A member of the Art Deco Society of New York described the Century, El Dorado, and Majestic as "distinguished" Art Deco buildings in 1984. According to architectural historian Anthony W. Robins, "The comparison of Chanin's Century and Majestic with Emery Roth
Emery Roth ( hu, Róth Imre, July 17, 1871 – August 20, 1948) was an American architect of Hungarian-Jewish descent who designed many of the definitive New York City hotels and apartment buildings of the 1920s and 1930s, incorporating Beaux-A ...
's San Remo is stunning." In addition, the design for what is now Deutsche Bank Center
Deutsche Bank Center (also One Columbus Circle and formerly Time Warner Center) is a mixed-use building on Columbus Circle in Manhattan, New York City. The building occupies the western side of Columbus Circle and straddles the border between ...
at Columbus Circle
Columbus Circle is a traffic circle and heavily trafficked intersection in the New York City borough of Manhattan, located at the intersection of Eighth Avenue, Broadway, Central Park South ( West 59th Street), and Central Park West, at the so ...
was inspired by those of the Century and the Majestic.
The building is a contributing property to the Central Park West Historic District
The Central Park West Historic District is located along Central Park West, between 61st and 97th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places on ...
, which was recognized by the U.S. National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
when its nomination was accepted on November 9, 1982. In 1984, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
(LPC) hosted hearings to determine whether the Century, Majestic, San Remo, Beresford, and El Dorado should be designated as city landmarks. Manhattan Community Board 7
The Manhattan Community Board 7 is a New York City community board encompassing the neighborhoods of Manhattan Valley, Upper West Side, and Lincoln Square in the borough of Manhattan.
It is delimited by Central Park West on the east, northern ...
supported all five designations, though the Majestic's co-op board was concerned about whether the landmark designation would potentially hinder the building's maintenance. The LPC designated the Majestic as a city landmark on March 8, 1988. The Majestic is also part of the Upper West Side Historic District, which became a New York City historic district in 1990.
See also
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References
Notes
Citations
Sources
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Majestic, The
Art Deco architecture in Manhattan
Art Deco skyscrapers
Central Park West Historic District
Condominiums and housing cooperatives in Manhattan
Historic district contributing properties in Manhattan
New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan
Residential buildings completed in 1931
Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan
Residential skyscrapers in Manhattan
Twin towers
Upper West Side