The El Dorado (also spelled the Eldorado) is a cooperative apartment building at 300 Central Park West, between 90th and 91st Streets adjacent to Central Park, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It was constructed from 1929 to 1931 and was designed by architect of record Margon & Holder and consulting architect Emery Roth in the Art Deco style. The El Dorado consists of twin 12-story towers rising from a 17-story base. The building is a contributing property to the Central Park West Historic District, a National Register of Historic Places–listed district, and is a New York City designated landmark.
The base contains several small setbacks, and two towers rise from the eastern side of the base. On Central Park West, the first three stories are clad in cast stone, and the main entrance consists of three angular bronze archways. The remainder of the facade is made of tan and brown brick, which are arranged to emphasize the vertical lines of the facade. Some of the upper-story apartments contain angular stone balconies, and the tops of the towers are ornamented with sculpted finials. When the El Dorado opened, it contained 200 apartments with 1,500 rooms, though some apartments have since been split or combined. The main lobby is decorated in marble, and a gym in the building's two basement levels was added in the 1990s.
The El Dorado replaced a pair of apartments that were built in 1902 and also known as the El Dorado. The current apartment complex was constructed from 1929 to 1931 by developer Louis Klosk, who was unable to complete the building after the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The Central Park Plaza Corporation bought the El Dorado at a foreclosure auction in 1931. The corporation was taken over by the Pick Hotels Corporation in 1943, then by Hugh K. McGovern in January 1953. The building was then sold in May 1953 to pastor Charles M. "Daddy" Grace, whose estate sold the building in 1960 to Alexander Gross. The El Dorado became a housing cooperative in July 1982, and several parts of the building were upgraded, despite disagreement among tenants.
Site
The El Dorado Apartments (also spelled Eldorado) is at 300 Central Park West on the Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The building occupies the western sidewalk of Central Park West (formerly Eighth Avenue) between 90th Street to the south and 91st Street to the north. The El Dorado Apartments occupies a nearly square land lot with an area of . The site has a frontage of on Central Park West and 90th Street and on 91st Street. It is directly across from the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir in Central Park to the east.
The El Dorado is one of several apartment buildings on Central Park West that are primarily identified by an official name. Even though a street address was sufficient to identify these apartment buildings, this trend followed a British practice of giving names to buildings without addresses. By contrast, buildings on Fifth Avenue, along the eastern side of Central Park, are mainly known by their addresses. Christopher Gray of The New York Times described the El Dorado as one of several apartment buildings in Manhattan with a "glitzy" name. The El Dorado's name is derived directly from a previous building on the site.
Previous structure The construction of Central Park in the 1860s spurred construction on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, but similar development on the Upper West Side was slower to come. Major developments on the West Side were erected after the Ninth Avenue elevated line opened in 1879, providing direct access to Lower Manhattan. The first large apartment building in the area was the Dakota, which opened in 1884. The city installed power lines on Central Park West at the end of the 19th century, thus allowing the construction of multi-story apartment hotels with elevators.
Among these early apartment hotels was the original El Dorado between 90th and 91st Street. The original El Dorado, an eight-story apartment complex completed in 1902, was designed by Neville & Bagge and developed by John Signell. It was composed of two separate structures that collectively contained 50 apartments, each with four to fifteen rooms. There was also a garage, a charging station for early electric cars, and exterior turrets. Though the New-York Tribune dubbed the old El Dorado as "the most notable apartment house on Central Park", The New York Times said it much resembled the typical "moderate-rent apartment house".
Architecture The current El Dorado was developed from 1929 to 1931 by Louis Klosk. The firm of Margon & Holder was the architect of record for the building, while Emery Roth was the consulting architect. Irving Margon and Adolph M. Holder were relatively obscure architects, but they are known to have collaborated from 1928 to 1932, designing apartment buildings in Manhattan and the Bronx. Roth had experience in designing larger apartment buildings, such as the San Remo on Central Park West. Roth drew up the early plans, which depict a Classical Revival building, while Margon & Holder were responsible for the building's Art Deco details. The El Dorado, along with the Century, 55 Central Park West, the Majestic, 241 Central Park West, and the Ardsley, constitute a major grouping of Art Deco buildings on Central Park West.
Form and facade
The El Dorado is tall. The base is 17 stories high, and two 12-story towers rise from the eastern portion of the base. The El Dorado is one of four buildings on Central Park West with a twin-towered form; the others are the Century, the Majestic, and the San Remo. The massing of the El Dorado and similar buildings was shaped primarily by the Multiple Dwelling Act of 1929. Under this legislation, the "street walls" of apartment buildings could rise one and a half times the width of the adjacent street before they had to set back. On lots of more than , the street walls could rise three times the width of the adjacent street. In practice, this meant that buildings on Central Park West could rise 19 stories before setting back. By splitting the upper stories into twin towers, as opposed to a single bulky tower, the developers could increase the amount of space that was near a window.
The Central Park West elevation of the facade is symmetrical and is divided vertically into bays; there is one window per floor on each bay. The lowest three stories of the Central Park West elevation contain a yellow facade of cast stone. Above the third story is a frieze of inverted arches and chevrons. Along the north and south elevations, the cast stone base is mostly one story high, except the easternmost seven bays, which are three stories high and designed similarly to the Central Park West elevation. The remaining stories are largely clad in tan brick, though the facade is also trimmed with yellow terracotta and light-brown brick. The facade remains largely in its original condition except for some window replacements.
Base Most of the ground floor contains windows and doors that lead to professional apartments there. The doors have Art Deco-style curved railings. The main entrance on Central Park West contains three angled bronze arches at ground level, each of which corresponds to two bays. The spandrels above the arches, between the ground and second stories, are decorated with geometric patterns and motifs of birds. On the second story, there are two windows above each arch, or six in total, separated vertically by a stepped bronze pier with an incised geometric pattern. On the third story, there are three cast-stone piers at the center of the facade, which correspond directly to the bronze piers below them. Additionally, service entrances with Art Deco designs are placed on the westernmost end of the 90th and 91st Street frontages.
Above the ground story, the Central Park West elevation is divided into eleven groupings of bays from south to north. The central grouping is six bays wide and flanked by alternating groupings of two and three bays. Above the 3rd story are several groupings of brown-brick bays (flush with the rest of the facade) and projecting tan-brick bays, as well as projecting tan-brick piers that separate different groupings. These design elements emphasize the vertical dimension of the facade. Within the brown-brick bays, the windows on different floors are separated by spandrels with vertical brick bands. Each window is divided into three sections: a pair of movable casement windows, above which is a stationary transom window. On the north and south elevations, the third- and fourth-easternmost bays are clad with brown brick, while the rest of the facade is made of tan brick.
At the 13th story, the two middle bays contain angular stone balconies, which are supported by stone corbels and decorated with chevrons. There are similar angled stone balconies in the outer section of the 15th story. The five central groupings are set back above the 14th floor, forming a balcony with an Art Deco balustrade. The six outermost groupings are set back above the 16th and 17th floors, and the center six bays are also set back above the 16th floor; these all contain Art Deco balustrades. Above the brown-brick bays, the setbacks are decorated with geometric patterns such as chevrons and diaper patterns.
Towers
Above the 17th story rise the towers, which are largely clad in tan brick. On Central Park West, the towers are each six bays wide, though the four middle bays have brown-brick spandrels; the other elevations of the towers are decorated similarly. There are terracotta balconies on the 26th story facing Central Park West. The windows on the 27th and 28th stories are decorated with terracotta panels. The corners of each tower are set back slightly above the 27th story, and the remainder of each tower is set back above the 28th story. The top two stories of each tower are penthouse apartments. However, only the south tower's top is habitable, featuring a two-floor, dual-terraced penthouse. The top of the north tower houses a water tank, but the floors beneath are habitable.
The top of each tower contains finials above the 30th story, giving the pinnacles a stepped profile. According to Robert A. M. Stern, the pinnacles are shaped like belfries, which can be seen from Fifth Avenue across Central Park. Roth was responsible for the painted metal finials. The pinnacles were visible from New Jersey to the west, Long Island to the east, and Westchester to the north.
Features , the New York City Department of City Planning cites the El Dorado as having 204 residential apartments and 4 non-residential units. When the El Dorado opened, it contained 200 apartments with a total of 1,500 rooms between them. News articles from 1943 described the building as having 220 unfurnished apartments, each of which had three to twelve rooms. When the building was sold in 1953, it was described as containing 1,310 rooms across 216 apartments. According to a 1986 book by Steven Ruttenbaum, there were 186 apartments with a total of 1,300 rooms. Each of the lower stories had 11 apartments with three to twelve rooms per suite, and most units occupied a single level (as opposed to double-level duplexes). Most units consisted of five to eight rooms; while some suites had twelve rooms, they were outnumbered by those with three or four rooms. In the tower sections, there was one apartment per story, each with eight rooms.