655 Park Avenue, Georgian apartment building in Upper East Side Historic District, Manhattan, US.
655 Park Avenue is an 11-story residential building in the Georgian style, located in the Upper East Side Historic District of Manhattan. Its facade alternates between a limestone base and brick masonry in a symmetrical arrangement, and the building has wings of varying roof heights.
The building went up in 1924, designed by J.E.R. Carpenter and Mott B. Schmidt at a time when the Upper East Side was becoming the address of choice for wealthy New Yorkers. The choice of Georgian style reflected a broader taste of that era for residential buildings that looked back to classical European models.
The staggered roofline is the result of a deal with the owners of neighbouring mansions who sold the land: they imposed height limits, a fight recorded by Andrew Alpern as the "Battle for Suitable Scale at 655 Avenue". Residents have included William Kissam Vanderbilt II, the architect Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes and the novelist Danielle Steel.
The building has separate entrances on 67th and 68th Streets, each staffed by doormen throughout the day. This is a private residence, so entry is not possible for visitors, but the facade is easy to take in from the sidewalk along Park Avenue.
The penthouse is a duplex apartment that opens onto terraces sitting on the roofs of the building's different-height wings, offering outdoor space that is almost impossible to find in this part of Manhattan. These roof terraces are invisible from street level, which makes them easy to overlook entirely.
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