Take a stroll along Central Park East or West and
you can’t help but marvel at how the great prewar architect shaped the Uptown Manhattan skyline.
Unlike his more conservative contemporaries Rosario Candela and J.E.R. Carpenter, who were known for the understated exteriors of their lush apartment buildings on Fifth and Park avenues, Emery Roth was not shy about creating upper-crust homes with big and bold, even flamboyant exteriors.
A Hungarian immigrant with no formal architectural training, Roth came to the U.S. in 1886 at the age of 13, going on to design many of the large hotels and luxury apartment houses that defined New York in the 1920s and 30s. He favored masonry buildings with solid construction, graceful room layouts, and decorative exteriors that incorporated Beaux-Arts, Art Deco, and Renaissance details. Roth liked to group apartment rooms around a central foyer or gallery, embracing efficient floor plans and well-proportioned rooms with lots of light, wood floors, and high ceilings. He was able to adapt the details of classicism to modern building form, and developers like Bing & Bing appreciated that he was a pragmatic businessman who understood the nuance of building codes, practices, and operating costs.
Roth’s majestic San Remo, completed in 1930 at 145 Central Park West between 74th and 75th streets, was the city's first twin-towered apartment building, with a 27-story base and two handsome 10-story towers in a Renaissance Revival style. Architecture critic Carter Horsley describes it as the "most elegant of Central Park West's extremely impressive roster of multi-towered residential buildings" and "one of the city's, and indeed the world's, greatest residential skyscrapers."
A few blocks north at 211 CPW, Roth’s massive Beresford residential complex, with its limestone and terra-cotta trim, offers three bulky and rather squat towers that dominate the skyline, soaring over Central Park and the American Museum of Natural History. Also on Central Park West, the Ardsley, the Art Deco masterpiece that Roth created in 1931, features bold vertical and horizontal bands of black brick that recall the massing of a Mayan temple.
The El Dorado, at West 90th Street, is the northernmost of Roth's twin-towered designs along Central Park West. When it was designated a New York City Landmark in 1985, the Landmarks Preservation Commission described it as "one of the finest and most dramatically massed Art Deco apartment buildings in New York City" and "one of the most distinguished buildings erected as part of the early 20th century redevelopment of Central Park West."
But it was on the East Side, where Roth designed the pioneering Ritz Tower at Park Avenue and E. 57th Street, that really cemented his reputation as one of New York’s premier architects. Completed in 1926, the telescoping 41-story building was the city's first residential skyscraper and the tallest such structure in the world. Its world-class services and large apartments — some suites had 18 rooms — were an early preview of a new generation of luxury hotels and full-service buildings.
Other notable Emery Roth works include the Normandy apartments on Riverside Drive, the Shenandoah on Sheridan Square, 601 West End Avenue, Southgate, and the Drake, St. Moritz, Dorset, and Oliver Cromwell hotels. After his death in 1948, his sons continued in the family business, largely expanding the firm under the name Emery Roth & Sons.
Let's take a look at four stellar listings in some of Roth’s best-known designs.
“On the Upper East Side, few architects—even a century later—carry the cachet of Carpenter."
Licensed RE Salesperson
- Cathy Franklin
BY INHABIT EDITORS
Entering from the semi-private elevator landing, a gracious Emery Roth gallery sets the tone for this whole pre-war co-op. It opens to the large living room, which has a wood-burning fireplace, multiple seating areas, and a pair of new oversized windows to take in the tree-top views. Meticulously renovated and reimagined by acclaimed designer David Netto, the eight-into-seven corner apartment offers three bedrooms, three full bathrooms, and one powder room. Architectural details include hardwood floors, built-ins, high ceilings, solid mahogany doors, distinctive moldings, two-zone central air conditioning, extensive millwork, Forbes & Lomax light switches, specialty paint finishes, and loads of closet space. Just off the living room is a formal dining room (which doubles as a library) and the windowed kitchen, featuring custom cabinetry, marble countertops, Sub-Zero and Thermador appliances, and an adjacent butler’s pantry and breakfast room, also with a big, bright window. The corner primary suite offers southern and western exposures, two oversized closets and a windowed en suite with both a shower and a soaking tub. Amenities in the 1927 Roth building include an assigned storage bin, a gym and bike room, a full-time doorman, and a live-in manager.
This classic prewar duplex on Fifth Avenue's Museum Mile offers an extraordinary 42 feet of frontage overlooking Central Park, with one of the park's great hidden gems, the Conservatory Garden, serving as a veritable front yard. The 5,116-square-foot condo offers seven bedrooms, seven full bathrooms, and a handsome powder room, with amenities that include a full-service wet bar, a library with a double-sided fireplace, a corner living and dining room with four picture windows showcasing park views, herringbone floors, and through-wall air conditioners. The eat-in kitchen features top-of-the-line Sub-Zero, Miele, and Wolf appliances and an adjacent breakfast room with both an island and banquette seating; a luxurious south-facing primary suite has two enormous dressing rooms and a windowed en-suite with dual sinks and a large shower.
Residence 4G — a meticulously reimagined "Classic Nine" — at The Beresford, located at 211 Central Park West.
VIEW LISTING
1112 Park Avenue, 4B
ELEVEN-TWELVE | CO-OP | 3 BEDS | 3.1 BATHS
1200 Fifth Avenue 6S7C
CONDO | 7 BEDS | 7 BATHS | 1 HALF BATH
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This three-bedroom, four-bath apartment on the 18th floor of one of the city's most beloved and original white-glove co-ops offers a typical generously proportioned Emery Roth entrance gallery, here with marble flooring, that opens to the three main public entertaining rooms — formal living and dining rooms and a handsome library. Tucked behind the dining room, the windowed kitchen has open Park Avenue views, plenty of storage and counter space, and a walk-in pantry. Other design details include 10-foot ceilings, hardwood floors, oversized and double-glazed windows to take in the city views, ambient Lutron lighting, multi-zone heating and cooling, and a nearly 500-square-foot primary suite with bedroom seating and dual marble baths and paneled dressing rooms.
465 Park Avenue, 18BC
ritz tower | CO-OP | 3 BEDS | 4 BATHS
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Represented by The Cathy Franklin Team.
Represented by The Juracich Team.
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Emery Roth (1871-1948).
Upon its 1926 complietion, Ritz Tower was the tallest residential building in the city.
Represented by Cathy Franklin.
VIEW LISTING
Represented by Daniel Douglas and Eileen A LaMorte.
This gorgeously renovated "Classic Nine" in one of Roth's most famous buildings offers a 30-by-18-foot living room with full-on Central Park views, soundproofing, and a wood-burning fireplace, plus a formal dining room, four bedrooms, a library/study with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and a super-convenient laundry room. This co-op takes "chef’s kitchen" to a whole other level, with a vented 36-inch Viking range, a six-foot Sub-Zero refrigerator, two commercial Miele dishwashers, and acres of storage and counter space in a dreamy 25-foot-long room. Other amenities include quarter-sawn oak floors, central air conditioning, radiant heat floors, extensive millwork, cast-iron bathtubs, high ceilings, noise-limiting windows, brass hardware throughout, and a basement storage locker.
The Beresford | CO-OP | 4 BEDS | 4 BATHS
211 Central Park West, 4G
