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1950 135 East 54th Street at Lexington
– Campagna Construction
– 1951 owners Anthony & Joseph Campagna (Kelley Paterno page 287)
Featured in Andrew Alpern’s book The New York Apartment Houses of Rosario Candela and James Carpenter page 194
Architects Rosario Candela and Paul Resnick; Builder Campagna Construction Corporation; Owner on original filing Julius and Minnie Glover; Owner on 1951 alteration of store Anthony and Joseph Campagna – northwest corner Lexington Avenue (Alpern Acanthus page 194)
NB 233-1948
East 54th Street, 135
12 & 15-sty pent house apt & stores, 100×133
Cost:
$1,350,000
Owner:
Julius & Minnie Glover, 737 Park av
Architect:
Rosario Caudela & Paul Resnich [Resnick], 654 Madison av
Address in Real Estate Record:
54TH ST, 135 E
“This 16-story apartment building at 135 East 54th Street was designed by Rosario Candela and Paul Resnick.
The owners on the original filing were Julius and Minnie Glover but in 1951 Anthony and Joseph Campagna became the developers.
The building is on the northwest corner at Lexington Avenue just to the south of the Central Synagogue that was designed by Henry Fernbach in 1872 and is “the oldest building in continuous use as a synagogue in New York,” according to Norval White and Elliot Willensky in their great book, “The A.I.A. Guide to New York City Architecture, Fourth Edition.” Executed in “rough-hewn Moorish style,” the building is “dour on the exterior, except for the star-studded cupolas,” but it has “an interior gaily stenciled with rich blues, earthy reds, ocher and gilt,” according to the authors. (The building was seriously damaged by a fire in 1998, but was fully restored.)
The second floor of this building is rented out for commercial uses. The buildings apartments have central entrance foyers and considerable closet space.
The building, which is known as Lex 54 condominiums, has 141 apartments. It was converted from a rental in 1985.
Its rooftop watertank enclosure is highlighted by five thin steel bands.
The building’s top five floors have terraces and the building permits protruding window air-conditioners. It has no sidewalk landscaping but is convenient to Citicorp Center and the midtown business district.
There is good public transportation in the area.
Candela is generally regarded as the finest architect of the city’s most luxurious pre-war apartment buildings.” source
