- Master Apartments
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The Master Apartments Riverside Drive entrance
The Master Apartments is a landmark[1] 29-story art Deco skyscraper on Riverside Drive, Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York City. Its address is 310 Riverside Drive. It sits on the Northeast corner of Riverside Drive and West 103rd Street. It is one of the city's major Art Deco residential buildings and one of its first mixed-use buildings, since it was built in 1929. It was the first skyscraper in New York City to feature corner windows.[2] The original plans for the building called for only 24 stories topped by a stupa, a Buddhist shrine in the shape of a staggered pyramid with a spire on top. When the building was constructed, plans for the stupa were scrapped in favor of an additional 5 stories.[3]
Originally built to house a museum for Russian-born artist/diplomat/explorer/spiritual leader, Nicholas Roerich, a school, an auditorium and a restaurant in a residential hotel, the building was designed by Harvey Wiley Corbett of Helmle, Corbett & Harrison and Sugarman & Berger.[4] The auditorium is currently occupied by Zoe Ministries, and the Roerich Museum has moved into a nearby townhouse on 107th street.
There is an intriguing mystery and murder connected with the stepped all black Cornerstone. Its B2 bomber shape is marked with one of Nikolas Roerich logo's - It contains within it a casket very precious to the Roerichs in which (according to renowned cryptologist Louis Buff Parry) a mysterious fragment of an ancient Jewish pillow stone which Nikolas and others connected with him believed was from Jacobs Pillow and the Temple in Jerusalem circa 600BC. The curious murder committed in the boiler room (immediately behind the cornerstone) of the Master Building was probably related to a covert theft attempt of this extremely valuable esoteric tablet which Buff Parry calls the Lapis Exillis. adding even more to the special atmosphere of this anthropomorphic 'Master' shaped building
References
- ^ NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission Report on the Master Apartments (1989)
- ^ Gray, Christopher (1995-01-29). "The Master Apartments; A Restoration for the Home of a Russian Philosopher". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/29/realestate/streetscapes-master-apartments-restoration-for-home-russian-philosopher.html. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
- ^ Decter, J (1997). Messenger of Beauty, Park Street Press. p. 96.
- ^ About Master, 310 Riverside Drive
External links
- Master Apartments at Emporis.com Retrieved Jul. 23, 2009
Categories:- Landmarks in Manhattan
- Buildings and structures in Manhattan
- Residential skyscrapers in New York City
- Art Deco buildings in New York City
- Buildings and structures completed in 1929
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