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
The great song-and-dance man Tommy Tune has owned this cozy one-bedroom penthouse with a fantastic wraparound terrace and open city and East River views since 2013. It's one of two penthouses he owns in the Southgate. This one caught his attention when he learned that it was once a ballroom with 12-foot ceilings. "Well, that made me think of dancing, and of course I had to have it!" he told The New York Times. Theatrical touches include a giant red "T" sign on the terrace that lights up at night, small niches built into the walls that hold his 10 Tonys and other awards, ballet barres in the bedroom and shower, and stage lighting on the ceilings. The sun-drenched penthouse also features a keyed elevator, a wood-burning fireplace, a galley kitchen with direct access to the outdoor dining pergola, an oversized window seat and a bedroom with large closets, a dressing alcove, and terrace access.
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.
1200 Fifth Avenue 6S7C, a seven-bedroom duplex on the coveted "Museum Mile."
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414 East 52nd Street PH2
Southgate | CO-OP | 1 BED | 1 BATH
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 Leighton Candler 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.
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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