Majestic Apartments

The building with the 31-story-tall twin towers and a 19-story base at 115 Central Park West is the Majestic Apartments. Built in 1929, the structure was one of the largest apartment buildings in the city by the mid-1970s. The architect of the Art Deco building was Irwin S. Chanin; the builder was Chanin Construction Company. In 1931, the Explorer's Club occupied part of the first two floors. Before the Majestic Apartments, this block was the location of Alfred Zucker's Hotel Majestic, completed in 1894. The building is now a residential co-op with 221 units. "The Majestic" is part of the Central Park West Historic District, listed in the National Register in 1982.

The Majestic Apartments occupies the whole block of Central Park West between W. 71st and W. 72nd Streets. Two buildings of two stories each stood on this spot by 1863, across the street (then known as Eighth Avenue) from an entrance drive into Central Park (see the 1863 scenic map below). One of the first in New York City, and the neighborhood's first apartment-style, multi-story building, The Dakota (also a Clio entry), was built across 72nd Street from this spot in the 1880s. The Strawberry Fields area of Central Park, dedicated to John Lennon, former resident of The Dakota, is across the street from The Majestic. The Hotel Majestic was built on this spot in 1894 and was 11 stories tall.

Irwin S. Chanin and his French associate, Jacques Delamarre, designed The Majestic Apartments building. The lower floors are faced in beige limestone while the supper stories are faced in golden-orange brick with brown terra cotta spandrel panels. One notable feature is the absence of solid corners at the building, using new cantilevered construction methods, allowing for wraparound corner windows. The light-filled corner rooms were dubbed "solaria." The Art Deco vertical and horizontal shapes at the top of the set-back twin towers gave the building a futuristic look; the Moderne style of these features was attributed to the sculptor Rene Chanbellan (1893-1955). The luxurious apartments originally featured 11 to 24 rooms each. With the Stock Market crash in 1929. the concept was reworked to create more units with smaller numbers of rooms, of 3 to 14 rooms. Another Chanin apartment building, The Century Apartments (also a Clio entry), is down the street.

The Explorers Club, on the two lower floors of the building beginning in 1931, was established in 1904 to promote scientific explorations. Its members have included men who first reached the North or South Poles and the top of Mount Everest. The Explorers Club has moved to the Upper East side.

Famous folk have lived in The Majestic, including comic actor Milton Berle, American novelist Edna Ferber, newspaper/radio personality Walter Winchell, and talk show host Conan O'Brien. The lobby was the scene of a failed mob shooting in 1957; the building switched from rental apartments to co-op units that same year. Sale prices of units reached a record-setting height in 2006, at $25 million for one apartment! O'Brien sold his penthouse and moved to the Los Angeles area about a decade ago.

Covell, Ann B. Wilson, Suzanne J. Ruttenbaum, Stephen R. NRHP Nomination for Central Park West Historic District, New York, N.Y.. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1982.

Desiere, Phil. The Majestic, Walk About New York. Blog.. June 6th 2016. Accessed August 30th 2021. https://walkaboutny.com/2016/06/06/the-majestic-apartments/.

Explorers Club, The. History, The Explorers Club. January 1st 2021. Accessed August 30th 2021. https://www.explorers.org/about/history/history.

Howard, Alexandra Cushing. Building-Structure Inventory Form for The Majestic Apartments, New York, N.Y.. Albany, NY. Division for Historic Preservation, New York State Parks and Recreation, 1975.

Taub, Cathy. The Majestic at 115 Central Park West, Street Easy. January 1st 2021. Accessed August 30th 2021. https://streeteasy.com/building/the-majestic-115-central-park-west-new_york.