Overview

About The Prasada, 50 Central Park West

Erected in 1907 by Franklin and Samuel Haines and designed by Charles W. Romeyn and Henry R. Wynne, the Prásáda originally was a delightful French Second Empire-style apartment house.

In 1919, however, its mansard roof was removed and the top floor slightly expanded to its current configuration which is relatively flush with the next two highest floors. As a result, the building's composition has been seriously tampered with and truncated, although the alteration does not leave visible scars as in some of the more outrageous instances of cornice removal in the city.

The undeniable exterior charm of this structure, however, remains otherwise largely intact.

It is most distinguished by its grand entrance that has four large, two-story banded columns that support a cartouche with the engraved name of the building above the entrance steps that lead to a semi-circular loggia entrance. The first floor windows are arched and very large and the ground floor has a "dry" moat. Most of the fourth floor has balustrated balconies. The fourth through the ninth floors have angled bay windows at the edges of the building.

In his fine book, "Luxury Apartment Houses of New York, An Illustrated History," (Dover Publications Inc., 1992), Andrew Alpern finds the architects to have been "heavy-handed at best" in this building, which may be true as far as being pure to French Second Empire style but perhaps far too critical a judgment by New York City standards as this is a very impressive structure.

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