History and architecture
Manhattan House, an Upper East Side apartment and retail complex, was constructed between 1947 and 1951. Commissioned by the New York Life Insurance Company, it occupies an entire block, bounded by East 65th Street and East 66th Street, Second Avenue and Third Avenue. Designed by Mayer & Whittlesey and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, associated architects, this modern-style apartment house has as many as 21 floors and is notable for its impressive size, plan, massing and color.
Considered by many writers to be the first white brick apartment building, it was also notable for being one of the first multiple dwellings in New York City to attempt “an indoor-outdoor synthesis” through the integration of large windows and deep projecting balconies, as well as landscaped driveways and a block-long rear garden enclosed by a low granite wall. Manhattan House generated considerable media attention and in 1952 received an award from the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, which described it as “extremely attractive in appearance and beautiful in detailing.”
Future New York Times and Wall Street Journal architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable also praised its design, commenting in 1960 that Manhattan House was “one of the best examples to date ...notable for its clean architectural shape, as well as for its superior execution in a highly competitive, speculative, building field.” Such accolades helped attract many prominent residents, including Benny Goodman, Grace Kelly, designer Florence Knoll and SOM architect Gordon Bunshaft, as well as a considerable number of architectural imitators.
Few of the white brick buildings it inspired, however, could match the aesthetic standards set by Manhattan House and it remains, to this day, one of the most distinguished examples of housing built in New York City since the Second World War.
Sources and further reading
This history comes from the Landmarks app’s historical catalog. Names and building uses may reflect the period described.