Overview

About The Parc Vendome, 340 West 57th Street

This building is one of four handsome apartment houses that share a large common, landscaped garden that differs from most of the city's other large courtyard projects because it is not enclosed by high walls at the east and south ends.

The four-building complex, which has about 575 apartments, is unusual also because the south buildings are 18 stories tall while the north buildings at 340 and 350 East 57th Street, respectively, are 21 stories tall. The south building at 353 West 56th Street was completed in 1931 while 340 East 57th Street was completed in 1932 and 350 East 57th Street was completed in 1929.

All the buildings have similar façades with excellent detailing and very attractive mansard roofs.

The buildings are remarkably elegant for their once quite seedy surroundings, a reflection perhaps of the grandiose plans that once envisioned a major bridge across the Hudson River at 57th Street.

Their site had been previously considered by financier Otto Kahn as a new home for the Metropolitan Opera House before its planners began looking at Rockefeller Center, another site that it chose not to occupy.

Interestingly, history has caught up with the Parc Vendome and the area has been considerably gentrified and improved with new buildings and new stores and new tenants. Major new nearby projects include the Hearst Tower on the southeast corner of Eighth Avenue and 57th Street designed by Sir Norman Foster, the Time Warner Center on the west side of Columbus Circle designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and 15 Central Park West designed by Robert A. M. Stern.

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