Castle Village is a five-building cooperative apartment complex located on Cabrini Boulevard between West 181st and 186th Streets in the Hudson Heights neighborhood of

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. It was built in 1938–1939 by real estate developer Charles V. Paterno on the site of what had been the

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

that was his residence, and was designed by George F. Pelham, Jr., whose father, George F. Pelham, had designed the nearby Hudson View Gardens. The buildings were some of the first apartment towers to employ

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...

construction. Each floor contains nine apartments, eight of which have river views. The complex was initially a rental property, but converted to a cooperative in 1985. A few original tenants still rent.

Architecture

Castle Village 120 Cabrini Boulevard building from west

The design of the towers was influenced by medieval European castle

keep A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residen ...

s. The cross design of the towers and the " towers in a park" layout was later used in most of New York's

social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives fro ...

and

affordable housing Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median, as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on ...

. The labor movement-owned United Housing Foundation built tens of thousands of cooperative apartments using a similar layout. The reinforced concrete construction was also copied in cooperative developments. Private rental housing, like those built in Parkchester and Stuyvesant Town residential developments followed the architectural design, but replaced the concrete frame with a cheaper

steel frame Steel frame is a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal I-beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame. The develop ...

construction.

Retaining wall

On May 12, 2005, a 75-foot

retaining wall Retaining walls are relatively rigid walls used for supporting soil laterally so that it can be retained at different levels on the two sides. Retaining walls are structures designed to restrain soil to a slope that it would not naturally keep to ...

below the garden that faces the Hudson River collapsed, resulting a massive

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, rockslips or rockslides, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, mudflows, shallow or deep-seated slope failures and debris flows. Landslides ...

which buried the northbound lanes of the Henry Hudson Parkway and six parked cars. The collapse stopped traffic on the highway for several days, but the clean-up began quickly, and the road re-opened on May 15. However, an entry ramp to the highway remained closed for almost two years. No one was injured. A later study found that the collapse could have been prevented. Reconstruction of the wall and garden, which had been built in 1925 and supported the complex's lawn, was substantially completed by October 2007, at the cost of $24 million. The access ramp to the Henry Hudson Parkway below the wall was partially reopened in March 2008. All reconstruction on the wall, including the full opening of the access ramp was complete by November 2010. Castle Village residents lost their suit against the

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting Taxation in the United States, U.S. federal taxes and administerin ...

over tax deductions related to the repair.

References

Notes Bibliography * "Paterno Castle to be Demolished", ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' (August 7, 1938)
"Dr. Charles V. Paterno"

External links

Official Castle Village site

Official site of the Castle Village Owners Corporation

Hudson Heights Owners Coalition
{{Washington Heights, Manhattan Apartment buildings in New York City Residential buildings in Manhattan Condominiums and housing cooperatives in Manhattan Washington Heights, Manhattan Residential buildings completed in 1939 1939 establishments in New York (state) Multi-building developments in New York City 1930s architecture in the United States

Architecture

Retaining wall

See also

References

External links