The Century is an
apartment building
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 ...
at 25
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 62nd and 63rd 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 at a cost of $6.5 million and 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 Century 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 lowest 19 stories surround an interior 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 ground story, and much of the second story, is clad with an ochre-colored stone
facade and contains 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 pink granite. The remainder of the facade is largely made of tan brick, with multi-paned windows, though some portions of the facade are clad with brown brick. There are shallow
bow window
A bow window or compass window is a curved bay window. Bow windows are designed to create space by projecting beyond the exterior wall of a building, and to provide a wider view of the garden or street outside and typically combine four or more w ...
s on Central Park West, as well as enclosed
solariums at the northeast and southeast corners. When the building opened, it operated much like a short-term hotel with housekeeping and catering services, and it had 417 apartments and 1,688 rooms.
The Century was officially completed at the end of December 1931. Numerous entertainment and business tenants have lived in the building over the years, and Irwin Chanin lived in the building for over a half-century. The Century was purchased in 1982 by a consortium that proposed the next year to convert the building into a
housing cooperative
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 ...
; the consortium withdrew the plan and a tenant–landlord dispute continued for several years. Most of the building was converted to
condominium
A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...
s in 1989, and the Century remained a luxury residential apartment building through the beginning of the 21st century.
Site
The Century is at 25
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 62nd Street to the south and 63rd Street to the north. The Century Apartments occupies a 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 and each along 62nd and 63rd Streets.
15 Central Park West
15 Central Park West (also known as 15 CPW) is a luxury residential condominium along Central Park West, between 61st and 62nd Streets adjacent to Central Park, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was constructed from 2005 t ...
is immediately 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 ...
is to the east.
The current apartment building replaced the
Century Theatre (originally the New Theatre) at 25 Central Park West. The New Theatre, which had opened in 1909 to designs by
Carrère and Hastings
Carrère and Hastings, the firm of John Merven Carrère ( ; November 9, 1858 – March 1, 1911) and Thomas Hastings (architect), Thomas Hastings (March 11, 1860 – October 22, 1929), was one of the outstanding American Beaux-Arts architecture, Be ...
,
was initially backed by many wealthy New Yorkers but it quickly became unprofitable.
The theater had an ornate gray-and-gold interior with carvings and marble surfaces, as well as a large stairway and foyer. While the Century Theatre was architecturally acclaimed, its production history was marked by failures.
The theater's original tenant had moved out within two years of the theater's opening, and the theater hosted
flops
In computing, floating point operations per second (FLOPS, flops or flop/s) is a measure of computer performance, useful in fields of scientific computations that require floating-point calculations. For such cases, it is a more accurate meas ...
and
revivals
Revival most often refers to:
* Resuscitation of a person
*Language revival of an extinct language
* Revival (sports team) of a defunct team
*Revival (television) of a former television series
*Revival (theatre), a new production of a previously p ...
for most of its history.
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
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 ...
.
[Central Park West Historic District](_blank)
, National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, New York's State and National Registers of Historic Places Document Imaging Project, New York State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved 2 April 2007. It is 30 stories tall.
The Century Apartments was Chanin's second Art Deco residential building; he also developed
the Majestic several blocks north in the same 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.
The Art Deco structures contrast with the
Beaux-Arts buildings that surround them.
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.
The Century's original design survives almost in its entirety, except for some modifications to the upper stories.
Form
![Central_Park_West_Mar_2022_02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Central_Park_West_Mar_2022_02.jpg)
At the Century's 19-story base, the building's
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 ...
, or shape, fills its lot line on the north, east, and south, and there is an interior courtyard.
Two wings on the western section of the site, one each on 62nd and 63rd Street, flank the interior courtyard. The wings step down, as required by the
1916 Zoning Resolution
The 1916 Zoning Resolution in New York City was the first citywide zoning code in the United States. The zoning resolution reflected both borough and local interests, and was proposed after the Equitable Building was erected in Lower Manhattan ...
and the
Multiple Dwelling Act
Multiple may refer to:
Economics
*Multiple finance, a method used to analyze stock prices
*Multiples of the price-to-earnings ratio
*Chain stores, are also referred to as 'Multiples'
*Box office multiple, the ratio of a film's total gross to tha ...
, and are arranged in four tiers.
The inner courtyard measures wide from west to east.
Above the 19th story, two towers rise from the eastern portion of the base.
The towers are approximately tall.
The Century is one of four buildings on Central Park West with a twin-towered form; the others are the Majestic, 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 Century, 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 ground story contains an ochre facade of stone 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 pink granite. Much of the second story, except for the section directly above the main entrance on Central Park West, is also faced in stone.
Above the ground story, the building is largely clad with tan brick, which was intended to be similar to the color of limestone.
The building contains a limited amount of ornamentation, which is mostly concentrated around major design elements such as the entrances, the
setbacks, and the tops of the towers.
Lower section
![Central_Park_West_Mar_2022_15](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Central_Park_West_Mar_2022_15.jpg)
The main entrance is in the middle of the Central Park West elevation and is surrounded by a pink granite doorway with vertical
quoin
Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...
s and horizontal molded blocks. The main doors contain Art Deco grilles made of white metal, surrounded by a metal frame. The rest of the ground story contains doorways to individual ground-floor offices. The southeast and northeast corners of the building contain doorways that lead to storefronts; the doorways are part of the original design, but the storefronts were added after the building opened.
The storefront entrance from the southeast corner, facing Central Park West and 62nd Street, is
chamfer
A chamfer or is a transitional edge between two faces of an object. Sometimes defined as a form of bevel, it is often created at a 45° angle between two adjoining right-angled faces.
Chamfers are frequently used in machining, carpentry, fu ...
ed; the apartments are cantilevered above it.
Above the second story, there are six bays of shallow
bow window
A bow window or compass window is a curved bay window. Bow windows are designed to create space by projecting beyond the exterior wall of a building, and to provide a wider view of the garden or street outside and typically combine four or more w ...
s on the Central Park West elevation.
The six bays are arranged in a 1-2-2-1 pattern, dividing the Central Park West elevation vertically into five "pavilions".
Metal
mullions
A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...
divide each bow window vertically into five sections with movable
casements.
The bow windows on different floors are separated horizontally by rust-colored
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 ...
s, which contain angled bricks that roughly correspond with the metal mullions in each window.
There are concrete
sills beneath each window, as well as brick
lintel
A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of w ...
bands above. The bow windows are slightly below the other windows on each floor, since the living rooms behind them were sunken below the rest of the apartments.
In the three middle pavilions on Central Park West, the windows on each floor are separated vertically by darker brown brick (except for the bow windows on either end of the facade, which are flanked by light brick). On the 2nd through 15th stories, the central pavilion has two double-casement windows on each floor, which share a concrete sill. On the 3rd through 15th stories, the second-from-center pavilions (on either side of the central pavilion) have one double casement window and two single-casement windows on each floor.
The corners of the building are clad entirely in tan brick.
The corners are outfitted with windows wrapping around the edge at a 90-degree angle, which Chanin referred to as
solariums.
The corner windows rise to the 17th story.
![Central_Park_West_Mar_2022_44](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Central_Park_West_Mar_2022_44.jpg)
The 62nd and 63rd Street wings are shorter than the main section of the building. Where the wings step down, the roofline contains cantilevered
terraces with Art Deco
chevron
Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to:
Science and technology
* Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines
* Chevron (anatomy), a bone
* ''Eulithis testata'', a moth
* Chevron (geology), a fold in rock lay ...
designs on their
balustrades
A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its cons ...
. The 62nd and 63rd Street elevations are largely faced in tan brick. On each elevation, there are three groups of two bays that contain rust-colored brick spandrels. There are secondary entrances to the residential wings on either street. Service entrances with Art Deco designs are placed on the westernmost section of either frontage.
The facade of the inner courtyard is visible from a private plaza to the west and is faced in tan brick similar to the rest of the facade.
Chanin believed that, since the courtyard and street facades were in the same style, residents would not experience the sensation of living around a dark courtyard.
Upper stories
The 16th through 19th stories are designed as "transitional stories" and contain cantilevered terraces with Art Deco chevron designs on their balustrades. Above the 19th story rise the towers, which are mostly clad in tan brick. The corners of each tower contain light-brown bands, while the four center windows on each of the towers' elevations contain geometric brick patterns. The windows in the towers are similar to those on the lower floors.
On Central Park West, some of the original ornamentation has been removed at the 20th and 21st stories.
Above the 30th story of each of the apartment towers is a
water tower
A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system, distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towe ...
with vertical
buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...
es. There are concrete slabs with vertical grooves on each side of either water tower. The northern tower's northwest corner and the southern tower's southwest corner also contain horizontal grooves.
The southern tower's groves were removed at some point and subsequently restored.
Promotional materials for the Century proclaimed: "Towers, roofs and terraces make the building as interesting from the air as from the street".
Features
When the building opened, it operated much like a short-term hotel with housekeeping and catering services. The Century also had a valet service; a laundry; a private restaurant; and storage spaces for fur, silverware, and jewelry.
The vestibules, foyers, and elevator lobbies were decorated in the Art Deco style.
The lobby also contained a painting by
Frank Stella
Frank Philip Stella (born May 12, 1936) is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. Stella lives and works in New York City.
Biography
Frank Stella was born in M ...
, which was commissioned in 1970 and installed on the suggestion of Irwin Chanin's daughter
Doris Freedman
Doris Chanin Freedman (1928–1981) was a pioneer in the field of public art, active in New York City. She was the daughter of architect Irwin Salmon Chanin and his wife Sylvia Schofler.
Freedman graduated from Albright College, Pennsylvania ...
.
About of steel was used in the Century's
structural frame
A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as ...
.
The floor slabs were cantilevered from heavy central columns. The cantilevered floor slabs allowed the inclusion of the solariums at each corner, since there were no corner columns like in typical buildings.
, according to 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 ...
, the Century is divided into 438 ownership
condominium
A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...
s, of which 422 are residential apartments.
[ Upon completion, the Century had 417 apartments and 1,688 rooms.] Apartments ranged from one to ten rooms but typically had either three, four, or six rooms each. There were also several duplex units with three rooms. Some of the apartments contained terraces and had one to seven rooms, while corner apartments contained four to seven rooms. Duplex layouts and terraces had previously been common only in the highest-end apartment buildings. At the Century, these features were included to counterbalance the sizes of the living spaces, which were smaller than in older apartment houses. By the 1980s, the building contained 410 apartments, ranging in size from one to eight bedrooms, and 52 of the apartments had large terraces.
Most apartments' living rooms were depressed below the rest of the apartment, and all of these living rooms had fireplaces. Each apartment also had hardwood floors, which Chanin hoped would decrease creaking. On the ground floor are the main lobby and 13 offices.
History
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. 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, as well as office buildings such as the Chanin Building Chanin is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Alabama Chanin, American fashion designer
*Irwin Chanin
Irwin Salmon Chanin (October 29, 1891 – February 24, 1988) was an American architect and real estate developer, best known ...
. Among the Chanins' Broadway theaters were 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 ...
, 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 the Theatre Masque. The Century Apartments was the second Art Deco building that Chanin developed on Central Park West, after the Majestic. Both developments were named after the buildings that had formerly occupied their respective sites.
Development
Land acquisition and plans
Over an eight-month period in 1928 and 1929, the Chanins made contracts to buy the Century Theatre, the Daly's 63rd Street Theatre
Daly's 63rd Street Theatre was a Broadway theatre, which was active from 1921 to 1941. It was built in 1914 as the 63rd Street Music Hall and had several other names between 1921 and 1938. The building was demolished in 1957.
History
The buildi ...
, an apartment house, and two low-rise buildings for $12 million. This gave them a site of . In May 1929, the Chanin brothers announced plans for a 65-story building on the site at a cost of $50 million. That July, the Shubert brothers
The Shubert family was responsible for the establishment of the Broadway district, in New York City, as the hub of the theater industry in the United States. They dominated the legitimate theater and vaudeville in the first half of the 20th cen ...
bought the Chanin brothers' ownership stakes in the Majestic, Masque, and Royale theaters for a combined $1.8 million. In exchange, the Shuberts agreed to sell a parcel on Broadway between 62nd and 63rd Streets to the Chanins, who thus controlled the entire block.
In August 1929, Irwin Chanin announced that the 65-story building would be developed jointly with a subsidiary of the French government. The skyscraper would have been called the "Palais de France" and would have contained a three-story exhibition space as well as a consulate, tourist bureau, and a French cultural academy, The section of the building along Central Park West would have included a 1,200-room hotel. Above were to be 35 stories of offices, leased out to various companies, including American tenants. The Chanins took title
A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the f ...
to the land in October 1929 and immediately resold it to the Palais de France Corporation. The project languished for the next year, in the aftermath of 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 ...
, as no French banks were willing to fund the project.
Development as apartment building
On October 23, 1930, Irwin Chanin dropped plans to build the Palais de France and started demolishing the Century Theatre. He planned to build a 30-story apartment building on the site. His firm obtained a $6.5 million construction loan from the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, wi ...
and a $1.25 million second-mortgage bond
Bond or bonds may refer to:
Common meanings
* Bond (finance), a type of debt security
* Bail bond, a commercial third-party guarantor of surety bonds in the United States
* Chemical bond, the attraction of atoms, ions or molecules to form chemical ...
issue from the Shubert brothers. At the time, it was predicted that the building would be complete within a year. By that November, construction had not started, but Irwin announced that he would hire 3,000 workers to construct the Majestic and Century. In so doing, Irwin planned to take advantage of low material and construction costs. In January 1931, with demolition of the site nearly complete, a time capsule
A time capsule is a historic cache of goods or information, usually intended as a deliberate method of communication with future people, and to help future archaeologists, anthropologists, or historians. The preservation of holy relics dates ba ...
was retrieved from the cornerstone
The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure.
Over time ...
of the Century Theatre.
The Chanin Construction Company constructed the building. Construction of the steel frame began in April 1931. By the end of the next month, the frame had been built to the 15th floor. Within thirty days the entire steel structure was complete. The rapid progress was made possible by "coordination and overlapping of various trades employed", as Irwin Chanin described it. A June 1931 newspaper article reported that the average number of workers since the beginning of construction was 1,050, with up to 1,400 employed at one time. By contrast, Irwin had estimated that an average of 1,500 men would be employed every day for a year.
According to Irwin Chanin, a "vast amount of interior equipment" was required for apartment buildings, particularly in comparison to office buildings. Construction would require over of electrical wiring
Electrical wiring is an electrical installation of cabling and associated devices such as switches, distribution boards, sockets, and light fittings in a structure.
Wiring is subject to safety standards for design and installation. Allowable ...
, three times what was required for the 56-story Chanin Building. Nonetheless, Irwin predicted that both the Majestic and the Century would be completed on schedule. By September 1931, work on the Century was nearing completion and apartments were already being offered for rent.
Completion and mid-20th century
The building was officially completed at the end of December 1931. The Century had 417 suites, a little more than double the number at the Majestic, but the buildings had a similar number of rooms: 1,688 at the Century and 1,544 at the Majestic. The apartments at the Century tended to have fewer rooms than those in the Majestic. According to Irwin, this was because larger apartments in the brothers' previous projects had proved to be hard to rent. Mansion Estates Inc., a group headed by Irwin Chanin, transferred the building to Century Apartments Inc. (also headed by Irwin) in May 1932. Century Apartments then secured a $1.35 million mortgage on the property, which was subordinate
A hierarchy (from Greek: , from , 'president of sacred rites') is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) that are represented as being "above", "below", or "at the same level as" one another. Hierarchy is an important ...
to Metropolitan Life's first mortgage and the Shuberts' second mortgage.
Henry Chanin was in charge of leasing, and he often leased out multiple apartments at once.[See, for instance: * * * ] The Century soon became popular due to its proximity to 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 ...
and other modes of transportation. The building's proximity to Central Park, as well as the conversion of Central Park West into a two-way street, were also cited as factors in the high number of tenants. By October 1932, Irwin Chanin said the duplexes, solarium apartments, and the three-to-six-room apartments were being leased quickly. Though Irwin lost control of the building in 1933, he had his own apartment there, which he occupied until his death in 1988.
By 1940, nearly 70 percent of the building's tenants had lived there since shortly after the building opened. One of the storefronts was supposed to have been a bank, but the storefront was left vacant during the Great Depression. Gristedes
Gristedes is a New York City-based chain of supermarkets. It serves a mostly urban customer base.
History Gristede Brothers: 1891-1987
Charles Gristede and his brother Diedrich came to the United States from Germany in 1888, found work in groc ...
leased one of the storefronts in 1965 with the intention of opening a supermarket there. The companies that respectively owned the Century, the Chanin Building, and the Nelson Tower
Nelson Tower is a 46-story, building located at 450 Seventh Avenue between 34th Street and 35th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.
History
It was completed in 1931 and became the tallest building in the Garment District of Manhat ...
, along with the Chanins' longtime lawyer Samuel Kramer, were charged with real estate tax fraud in 1974. The Century's owners were estimated to have evaded $35,730 in real estate taxes.
Condo conversion
The building was purchased in January 1982 by investment group Century Apartments Associates, in which businessman Daniele Bodini was a partner. The firm paid $36 million and planned to renovate the building. In addition, CAA wished to convert the building into 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 ...
and submitted a preliminary co-op offering plan to the New York Attorney General
The attorney general of New York is the chief legal officer of the U.S. state of New York and head of the Department of Law of the state government. The office has been in existence in some form since 1626, under the Dutch colonial government of ...
's office. Thirteen months after the purchase, CAA proposed selling the building to the tenants for $110 million. An official of the tenants' association said that they felt residents should be willing to comment on the threats posed by the offering plan. The official pointed out that notices in the lobby, about the popular TV series ''Nicholas Nickleby
''Nicholas Nickleby'' or ''The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby'' (or also ''The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Containing a Faithful Account of the Fortunes, Misfortunes, Uprisings, Downfallings, and Complete Career of the ...
'', implied that residents "would rather not protect their homes and see 'Nicholas Nickleby' instead". The tenant organization then solicited opinions from tenants, 90 percent of whom were against the co-op plan as originally structured. At the time, all apartments were either vacant or subject to rent regulation
Rent regulation is a system of laws, administered by a court or a public authority, which aims to ensure the affordability of housing and tenancies on the rental market for dwellings. Generally, a system of rent regulation involves:
* Price con ...
; of the non-vacant units, 125 apartments were rent-controlled and 275 apartments were rent-stabilized.
The dispute led to a long-running "kill or be killed relationship" between CAA and the tenants, according to ''The New York Times'', which described relations between the owner and tenants as acrimonious. Some tenants were worried about being evicted, since they could not pay for their apartments; others wanted to keep their rent-stabilized units; and yet others actually supported the plan, as they wanted to sell their apartments. The state attorney general's office vetoed the co-op proposal on the grounds that CAA did not disclose about 140 building-code violations. Subsequently, in mid-1983, some of the tenants sued to place the building 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 ...
. The building was covered in scaffolding at the time while the facade was being renovated. According to ''The New York Times'', the tenants alleged that there were "crumbling walls both inside and out, vermin
Vermin (colloquially varmint(s) or varmit(s)) are pests or nuisance animals that spread diseases or destroy crops or livestock. Since the term is defined in relation to human activities, which species are included vary by region and enterpr ...
infestation, extensive leaks, and virtually everything else that can go wrong with a structure". CAA separately sued the attorney general's office over its rejection of the co-op offering. The tenants failed to secure a receiver for the building, and CAA's lawsuit against the attorney general's office was settled out of court.
In 1987, CAA proposed converting the building into condominium
A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...
s. Under the proposal, the conversion would not take effect until at least 45 units had been purchased by tenants who had lived there since 1982. In addition, a reserve fund would be provided for the building. The condominium offering went into effect in February 1989, allowing tenants in 229 of the 410 apartments to purchase their apartments for about one-third or one-half of market rate
The market rate (or "going rate") for goods or services is the usual price charged for them in a free market. If demand goes up, manufacturers and laborers will tend to respond by increasing the price they require, thus setting a higher market rate ...
s. Another 117 tenants were protected by a non-eviction plan that enabled them to keep their rent-regulated units. Several condominium owners had sold their individual properties at profits exceeding $1 million. The value of CAA's investment had risen to around $140 million. In an article describing "the Battle of the Century", ''The New York Times'' called the dispute "one of the longest, bitterest conversion fights in Manhattan apartment house history".
1990s to present
A writer for ''The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' observed in 1992 that the building was covered in scaffolding and that "one of the period double doors has been replaced by a wooden frame with a dirty piece of glass in it". At that time, Daniele Bodini still owned one-quarter of the Century's units. In the mid-1990s, preservationist and resident Roberta Brandes Gratz raised $600,000 to restore the Century Apartments' lobby to its original appearance. Arthur Simons, a member of the condominium board, expressed his belief that the renovation would be wasteful unless mechanical issues, such as plumbing and electrical wires, were also repaired. The tenants consequently waited until the reserve fund had grown enough to fund a renovation of both the mechanical systems and the lobby, which Simons called "the best of both worlds".
In the 2000s, the Mayflower Apartments across 62nd Street were demolished to make way for the luxury high-rise skyscraper at 15 Central Park West. The Gristedes supermarket at the building's base, which had been operating continuously for 42 years, closed in 2007. Following the completion of 15 Central Park West in the late 2000s, condo prices at the Century began to increase, and some condominiums were placed for sale at rates of more than . For example, in 2010, six-bedroom apartments in the Century sold for around $19 million with one bedrooms selling for between $875,000 and $1.675 million. Also in 2010, a bar called the Central Park West Cafe was proposed for the former Gristedes space, prompting opposition from residents. 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 ...
granted a liquor permit for the planned bar, despite concerns that the bar would generate excessive noise.
Notable residents
The Century's proximity to the Theater District A theater district (also spelled theatre district) is a common name for a neighborhood containing several of a city's theatres.
Places
*Theater District, Manhattan, New York City
*Boston Theater District
*Buffalo Theater District
*Cleveland Theater ...
of Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...
made it attractive to many tenants in the entertainment industry. Notable residents have included:
* Jeff Bezos
Jeffrey Preston Bezos ( ;; and Robinson (2010), p. 7. ''né'' Jorgensen; born January 12, 1964) is an American entrepreneur, media proprietor, investor, and commercial astronaut. He is the founder, executive chairman, and former preside ...
, founder of Amazon (as a pied-à-terre
A ''pied-à-terre'' (, plural: ''pieds-à-terre''; French for "foot on the ground") is a small living unit, e.g., apartment or condominium, often located in a large city and not used as an individual's primary residence. The term implies use of ...
)
* Leo Buerger Leo Buerger (English ; ) (September 13, 1879 in Vienna – October 6, 1943 in New York City) was an Austrian American pathologist, surgeon and urologist. Buerger's disease is named for him.
Family and education
In 1880s his family emigrated t ...
, physician
* Henry Busse
Henry Busse Sr. (May 19, 1894 – April 23, 1955) was a German-born jazz trumpeter. A 1948 review in ''Billboard'' magazine said that Busse had "a keen sense of musical commercialism".
Early life
Born May 19, 1894, in Magdeburg, Germany, t ...
, orchestra leader
* Jack Dempsey
William Harrison "Jack" Dempsey (June 24, 1895 – May 31, 1983), nicknamed Kid Blackie and The Manassa Mauler, was an American professional boxer who competed from 1914 to 1927, and reigned as the world heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926. ...
, boxer
* Nanette Fabray
Nanette Fabray (born Ruby Bernadette Nanette Theresa Fabares; October 27, 1920 – February 22, 2018) was an American actress, singer, and dancer. She began her career performing in vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of var ...
, actress
* Doris Chanin Freedman, artist; Irwin Chanin's daughter
* Al Goodman
Alfred Goodman (August 12, 1890 – January 10, 1972) was a conductor, songwriter, stage composer, musical director, arranger, and pianist.
Early years
Goodman was born in Nikopol, Ukraine, (another source says that he was born in Odessa, Ru ...
, orchestra leader
* Joe Gould, boxing manager
* Robert Goulet
Robert Gérard Goulet (November 26, 1933 October 30, 2007) was an American and Canadian singer and actor of French-Canadian ancestry. Goulet was born and raised in Lawrence, Massachusetts until age 13, and then spent his formative years in Cana ...
, actor
* Joey Heatherton
Davenie Johanna "Joey" Heatherton (born September 14, 1944) is an American actress, dancer, and singer. A sex symbol of the 1960s and 1970s, she is best known for her many television appearances during that time, particularly as a frequent varie ...
, actress
* Ted Husing
Edward Britt Husing (November 27, 1901 – August 10, 1962) was an American sportscaster. He was among the first to lay the groundwork for the structure and pace of modern sports reporting on television and radio.
Overview
Early life and caree ...
, sportscaster
* Herbert J. Krapp
Herbert J. Krapp (1887, New York City, - 1973, Florida) was a theatre architect and designer in the early part of the twentieth century.
Krapp was an apprentice with the Herts & Tallant firm until 1915. Between 1912 and 1916 Krapp began working d ...
, architect
* Carol Lawrence
Carol Lawrence (born Carolina Maria Laraia; September 5, 1932) is an American actress, appearing in musical theatre and on television. She is known for creating the role of Maria on Broadway in the musical ''West Side Story'' (1957), receiving ...
, actress
* Ethel Merman
Ethel Merman (born Ethel Agnes Zimmermann, January 16, 1908 – February 15, 1984) was an American actress and singer, known for her distinctive, powerful voice, and for leading roles in musical theatre.Obituary ''Variety'', February 22, 1984. ...
, actress and singer
* Carmen Miranda
Carmen Miranda, (; born Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha, 9 February 1909 – 5 August 1955) was a Portuguese-born Brazilian samba singer, dancer, Broadway actress and film star who was active from the late 1920s onwards. Nicknamed "The B ...
, actress
* Graham McNamee
Thomas Graham McNamee (July 10, 1888 – May 9, 1942) was an American radio broadcaster, the medium's most recognized national personality in its first international decade. He originated play-by-play sports broadcasting for which he was awa ...
, broadcaster
* Tommy Mottola
Thomas Daniel Mottola (born July 14, 1948) is an American music executive, producer and author. Mottola is currently the Chairman of Mottola Media Group and was previously the Chairman and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment, parent of the Columb ...
, music executive
* Ernö Rapée
Ernö Rapée (or Erno Rapee) (4 June 1891 – 26 June 1945) was a Hungarian-born American symphonic conductor in the first half of the 20th century whose prolific career spanned both classical and popular music. His most famous tenure was as the h ...
, composer
* Laurence Schwab
Laurence Schwab (1893 - May 29, 1951) was an American theater and film producer, writer, and director. He was born in Boston and attended Harvard University. His first success was as co-producer of ''The Gingham Girl (1922).
He co-authored and prod ...
, theatrical producer
* Lee Shubert
Lee Shubert (born Levi Schubart; March 25, 1871– December 25, 1953) was a Lithuanian-born American theatre owner/operator and producer and the eldest of seven siblings of the theatrical Shubert family.
Biography
Born to a Jewish family, the so ...
, theatrical producer
* Robert A. M. Stern
Robert Arthur Morton Stern, usually credited as Robert A. M. Stern (born May 23, 1939), is a New York City–based architect, educator, and author. He is the founding partner of the architecture firm, Robert A.M. Stern Architects, also known as ...
, architect
Impact
When the building was completed, 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, in 1982, ''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". 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."
The architecture of the Century inspired that of at least one other building nearby. 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 ...
was inspired by those of the Century and the Majestic. In addition, the New York-New York Hotel and Casino
New York-New York Hotel and Casino is a casino hotel on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States. It is owned by Vici Properties and operated by MGM Resorts International, and is designed to evoke New York City in its architectur ...
on the Las Vegas Strip
The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of ...
in Paradise, Nevada
Paradise is an unincorporated town and census-designated place (CDP) in Clark County, Nevada, United States, adjacent to the city of Las Vegas. It was formed on December 8, 1950. Its population was 191,238 at the 2020 census, making it the fif ...
, contains a replica of the Century, which at 41 stories is taller than the Century itself. A portion of the New York-New York's interior was also themed to the Century's architecture.[
Irwin Chanin lived long enough to see the Century be protected as an official landmark at both the national and municipal levels.] 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, and the Century's owners supported designation of their own building. The LPC designated the Century as a city landmark on July 9, 1985, calling the Century a "sophisticated essay in Art Deco design exhibiting a complex balance of horizontal and vertical elements". The Century is also part of the Upper West Side Historic District, which became a New York City historic district in 1990.
See also
*
References
Notes
Citations
Sources
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External links
The Century
from CityRealty
{{DEFAULTSORT:Century, The
1931 establishments in New York City
Apartment buildings in New York City
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