240 Central Park South Apartments

History and architecture

240 Central Park South Apartments built in 1939-40 to the design of Mayer & Whittlesey is a significant and innovative complex that represents the transition between 1930s Art Deco style apartment towers with courtyards (characteristic of Central Park West) and post-World War II "modernist" apartment houses. It is notable for its modernist near-lack of applied ornament and sophisticated planning. As stated by Architectural Forum in 1941, "the architectural character of these buildings stems directly from the plans... and the fenestration.- Constructed by the Mayer family's J.H.

Taylor Construction Co. for the J.H. Taylor Management Corp.. it was one of Manhattan's largest luxury apartment projects of its day. The architects were particularly skillful in adapting their plan to a highly prominent and complex site. with frontages along Central Park South, Columbus Circle Broadway and West 58th Street. The complex consists of a 20-story, C-shaped-in-plan building (with an 8-story tower), lacing Central Park connected by ground-story lobbies and rounded shopfronts (following the diagonal of Broadway) to a 15-story building to the south.

Covering only about halt of the lot, the buildings provided a maximum amount of light, air, quiet, and corner apartments, which featured cantilevered balconies and views (many of Central Park). Landscaped open space included the entrance court, central courtyard and adjacent shops' rooftops and roof terraces atop both buildings. Clad in an orangish ¬colored brick, the buildings were detailed with broad steel-easement windows and the contrasting concrete of the balcony slabs.

Amedee Ozenfant's mosaic "The Quiet City- decorates the front entrance, while rooftop vertical architectural elements enliven the skyline. 240 Central Park South Apartments was marketed with an explicit suburban appeal and the slogan "Where the Park is Part of the Plan." at a time when Manhattan was losing population to the outer boroughs and suburbs. Lewis Mumford in The New Yorker in 1940 praised its "ingenious" planning solution, while Architectural Forum called it "one of the best apartment buildings yet produced."

Mayer & Whittlesey founded in 1935 (Mayer, Whittlesey & Glass after 1945), was noted for planning and apartment housing such as Manhattan House (1950-51, with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill).