ARCHITECTURAL i RECORD I 240 South completes

UPGRADES TO AN EARLY MODERN APARTMENT BUILDING MAKE IT MODERN ONCE MORE

By Stephen Zacks

The main tower sits on It was state-of-the-art green Columbus Circle (far architecture before the term left). Balmori's design was coined: a 325-unit luxury for the green roof (left apartment building across and below) extends to from Central Park I I the entrance, which occupying less than half of its site -• * features a mosaic and punched with planters meant lr ^ by Amedee Ozenfant to extend the foliage of the park (below left). into the high-density develop ment.Completedin 1940 byAlbert Mayer and Julian Whittlesey— 1. LoW'rise tower c known for Modern, middle-class 2. (irccn roof :! apartments that self-consciously 3. High-rise tower o vied with the emergence of sub- 4. Entry courtyard SITE PLAN N-> - urban housing—240 Central Park South featured two towers (the larger one arranged in a horseshoe plan to o maximizeairflow and views),cantilevered balconies, and generous steel S casement windows to reinforce a connection to the landscaped pathways, = fields,and ponds across the street. Over the years, everyone from Lewis Mum ford to Robert £ Stern had praised the building as one of the period's best examples of i. high-densityhousing [rkcord, January 1941, page68]. In 2002—ayear Z before the competition to renovate Edward Durell Stone's made the area a preservationist battleground—it was designated

<-> Stephen /.neks is a contributor to Monocle, Print, ami The Now York Times.

1 •••• a NewYork City landmark. Today, Balmori composed a three-dimensional rolling landscape of 240 Central Park South is the only barbary, spirea, and slate quarried upstate, using polystyrene foam fully restored landmark on Co underneath the drainage mat and soil layer to vary its slope. The roof lumbus Circle, and with the help top is not accessible to residents, but from the towers it appears as of an artfully landscaped green gently curling bands of green, purple, and gray that form continu roof by Balmori Associates and ous swaths across several levels ol the building and extend into the some loving updates by architect courtyard. In placeol the hardy ginkgoes, cherry trees in the curved Douglas ). Lister, its ideas remain bastions above the storefronts connect the rooftop landscape to the as current as when it was built. street, supplemented by a garden at the entrance featuring red and When Lister was hired Japanese maples. in 2001, the yellowish-orange brick facade had been badly discolored Preserving the building while reconciling it with contempo by previous waterproofing efforts, and he quietly began workingwith rary standards is an ongoing project: Lister is currently studying how the original manufacturer, Belden brick, to match the former bright to improve its mechanical systems to reduce energy consumption. hues of the brick. They spent a year calibrating current gas-fired The owners also plan to eventually replace the steel casement win technologies to allow lor the color variations that coal-fired facto dows with better-insulated replicas, which would vastly improve the ries once produced, eventually reskinning much of the towers' main building's efficiency—a process delayed by the need to do in-frame facades. Lister also had to upgrade electrical service to the apartments rather than the more ideal brick-to-brick installation, difficult when a to accommodate today's IT needs, running newlines through hallways building is occupied. For now, its restoration is a great reference point and decorating them with historic carpet patterns. On the for condo designers and advocates of sustainability alike, currently street level, Bronx-based Diversified Glass replaced the custom-fab squaring off over what architecture should look like in a period ol ricated curving storefronts projecting onto with a thicker, economic retrenchment. • more resilient black spandrel glass and substituted white LLDsabove the bronze sign-bands for the original neon tubes. In recent years, the Butthe biggest chance for a contemporary upgrade wason the Broadway storefronts ground-floor rooftops, where gigantic planters above thestorefronts ex featured a cacophony pressed the original marketingmotto of the building,"Wherethe Park of colorful signage and isPart of the Plan."The roof wasengineered lo support an ample loadof awnings. The archi 150 pounds per square foot—four lo six limes the strength required lor tects have restored most green-roofinstallations—but over the years, ginkgo trees in the the spandrel glass planters had grown to a height of 30 feel and overwhelmed the struc and uniform appear ture. The repair became an opportunity to introduce a true green-roof ance of the original system that would absorb rainwater, reduce heal, and provide an aes storefronts (top) using thetic boost lo residents. white LED signs (left).

D OUGLAS J. Lister, Architect One Union SquareWest,Suite 501, NewYork, NY 10003 • (212)924-7685 • (212)924-7987 • douglasedjHstcr.com

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