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5 Riverside Drive

5 Riverside Drive

5 Riverside Drive, center

By Carter B. Horsley

This good-looking, red-brick building at 5 Riverside Drive on the southeast corner at 73rd Street is the first major high-rise building at the south end of Riverside Drive.


Built in 1937, the 20-story building is adjacent to the Philip and Maria Kleeberg House, an official New York City landmark at 3 Riverside Drive that is a spectacular French-Renaissance-Revival townhouse designed by Charles Pierrepont H. Gilbert in 1898.


Many of the 109 apartments in this building, which was designed by Boak & Paris, have large picture windows to take advantage of its spectacular park and Hudson River views.  The building, which was converted to a cooperative in 1969, is close to an express subway stop on Broadway and not far from Lincoln Center.

The building has many superb park and river views, a doorman, some terraces and large picture windows, but it has no health club, no balconies, no roof deck and no garage.


The attractions are apartments with dropped living rooms, dining galleries and decorative fireplaces. The building has round-the-clock service and a live-in superintendent, laundry, storage and a bike room.

The building has a one-story white stone base that extends partially to the second story in the center of the building that also has white stone spandrels.  The building's fenestration is asymmetric and it has several setbacks at the top of the building, each capped by a white stone parapet.


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