The Majestic Apartments, like sister building The Century, is a scaled-down version of Irwin Chanin’s original concept. Nonetheless, it is a New York architectural landmark for its Art Deco style – simultaneously bold and austere.
According to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), Chanin envisioned a 45-story full-service apartment hotel for the site. The single-tower design was to replace the Hotel Majestic of 1894. The stock market crash changed all that; The Majestic became a twin-towered 32-story apartment house. Chanin’s “experimental” use of Art Deco in a residential context was stripped to its essentials, relying almost entirely on economic brickwork for ornamentation.
The design contrasts with even his own Art Deco commercial design, the 1929 Chanin Building. The office tower employed marble, bronze and terra cotta ornamentation of the base and tower. (Although the Chanin Building was designed by the Sloan & Robertson firm, Chanin supervised the exterior detailing, the LPC said.)
The Majestic’s cantilevered steel frame was an important innovation, which made wraparound “solaria” windows possible.
The building became a cooperative in 1958.
- Name: Majestic
- Location: 115 Central Park West
- Year Completed: 1930
- Architect: Irwin S. Chanin
- Style: Art Deco
- NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission: Designation Report
- City Realty: Carter Horsley Review
- Wikipedia: The Majestic
- Google Map
Gallery: Hover over photos for captions; click to view images in lightbox
All images copyright © Kenneth Grant / photos taken June 2015