The New York Apartment Houses of Rosario Candela and James Carpenter

FIRST MAJOR WORK PUBLISHED ON 20th CENTURY MASTER APARTMENT BUILDING DESIGNERS, 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 address: 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.

Now, Acanthus Press offers the first major work on two of the most significant figures in the history of apartment house architecture: "The New York Apartment Houses of Rosario Candela and James Carpenter, by Apartments of the Affluent author Andrew Alpern.

Richly illustrated with archival photographs and floor plans, Alpern's 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 York’s design elite: Buatta, Couturier, Cullman, Ferguson Shamamian & Rattner, Gwathmey, McMillen, Mark Hampton, Molyneux, Parish-Hadley, and others. Illuminating the volume with carefully researched facts and anecdotal narrative, the author demonstrates how Candela (1890–1953) and Carpenter (1867–1932) produced a golden age of apartment house design that was parallel to the golden age of New York's skyscrapers.

"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."

Indeed, Candela and Carpenter not only understood the needs of discerning clientele; they effectively defined those needs. In concert with enlightened builders, these distinguished designers helped the affluent appreciate the amenities that separated the finest New York edifices from common residential buildings. "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."

With well-proportioned rooms and imaginative layouts, Candela and Carpenter created the lavish structures that to this day continue to be the gold standard of Manhattan living spaces. More than a half-century later, their suites of rooms in the 124 remaining structures of the 127 they built prevail as the homes of the most successful New Yorkers.

The New York Apartment Houses of Rosario Candela and James Carpenter, features introductory essays by Christopher Gray and the prominent architectural designer David Netto.