Rosario Candela-Designed Building at 915 West End Avenue Going Condo

West End Avenue is one of Manhattan’s longest stretches of harmonious architecture. The nearly 50-block-long, better-looking half of Eleventh Avenue is the Upper West Side‘s answer to Park Avenue, without the median and with the community. The Avenue’s rows of stately prewar buildings are raised to a mostly uniform height of 12 to 15 stories and appear as if some Haussmann-like visionary conceived their elegance and scale. Behind dignified masonry facades are wood-paneled lobbies and sprawling apartments that are stacked in classic sixes and sevens with staff quarters.

Near the Avenue’s starting point at Straus Park, at the northwest corner of 105th Street, 915 West End Avenue rises humbly without much fuss. The red-brick building, built in 1922, was designed by beloved architect Rosario Candela and is undergoing a conversion that would transform 43 of its 91 rental apartments into condominium residences, according to an offering plan submitted to the attorney general.

The building is being re-conceived through a joint venture led by its longtime owners, Lichter Real Estate and Millhouse Peck Properties who project a total sellout of $146 million. Alteration permits show thaat architect Arpad Baksa is spearheading the renovation. And not to worry, very little of its Renaissance Revival tripartite exterior will change, as the building is now part of the recently expanded Riverside-West End Historic District (PDF), which covers 14 additional blocks of the area from 94th Street to 108th Street between Riverside Drive and Broadway.

West End Avenue courtesy of Javier Garcia’s photostream

West End Avenue courtesy of Joe Joseph’s Flickr photostream

CityRealty lists 105 condos on the market within the 50-block long Riverside Drive-West End Avenue corridor. Median asking prices stand at $3,495,000 or $2,040 per square foot. Recent West End Avenue conversions include nearby 905 West End Avenue, converted in 2008, and the ongoing conversion 498 West End Avenue at 84th Street, where all units quickly went into contract at an average price per square foot of $2,130. On the horizon, architect/developer Cary Tamarkin will convert a former catholic school at 555 West End into 17 condominiums.

To view future listings for 915 West End Avenue, visit CityRealty.

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