Location: 25 Central Park West between 62nd and 63rd Streets, New York, New York
Architect: Irwin S. Chanin, Jacques Delamarre, Director
Date Completed: 1931
The Century Apartments, one of the five great twin-towered apartment buildings of Central
Park West, is a playful Art Deco assembly. Irwin Chanin, also built six Broadway
theaters and a movie palace, The Roxy. It shows in the Century.
As a reflection of the machine age, the Century Apartments looks as if it were built
systematically and scientifically. The lines between window panels look built as if by a
mechanical process. The tops of the towers are finished off in something akin to machine
parts.
The Century's interior designs were as precise as the exterior. The three-room duplex had
simple, large rooms, a generous foyer, efficient kitchens with all the modern appliances
of the time, a large bathroom and ample closet space.
The larger apartments exhibited the same efficiencies. All living spaces were designed for
a gracious, but simpler lifestyle, minus ceremonial clutter. The apartments have a
powerful sense of home as the foreground, and the whole city as the background.
Century Apartments
