The New York Apartment Houses of Rosario Candela and James Carpenter

Living on Park Avenue or Fifth could be regarded as a good sign you’ve arrived in New York but, for some, good is never quite good enough. True arbiters of taste define ultimate opulence by what hovers above and beyond the past the uniformed doorman, up the elevator, and across quiet thresholds. Here lies a world only a very privileged few call home — the coveted suites created by Rosario Candela and James Carpenter, time-honored masters of 20th century apartment house design.

Originally published in 2002, THE NEW YORK APARTMENT HOUSES OF ROSARIO CANDELA AND JAMES CARPENTER remains the only major work on two of the most significant figures in the history of apartment house architecture. Richly illustrated with archival photographs and floor plans, the book provides the architectural and social history of the great buildings of Candela and Carpenter, demonstrating the breadth of the designers’ contribution to Manhattan’s exterior and interior landscape. Added to the vintage photographs of elevations and interiors are later interiors done by some of New YorkÂ’s design Buatta, Couturier, Cullman, Ferguson Shamamian & Rattner, Gwathmey, McMillen, Mark Hampton, Molyneux, Parish-Hadley, and others.

“Rosario Candela has replaced Stanford White as the real estate brokers’ name-drop of choice,” writes New York Times “Streetscapes” columnist, Christopher Gray. “Nowadays, to own a 10- to 20-room apartment in a Candela-designed building is to accede to architectural, as well as social cynosure.”

“There was a wonderful assurance and solidity to his [Candela’s] buildings,” writes architecture critic Paul Goldberger. “They don’t display any visible effort, in the greatest traditions of old money.”