Hampshire House, New York City

The Hampshire House, a 37-story cooperative apartment and hotel building located at 150 Central Park South in Manhattan, between 6th Avenue and 7th Avenue. It was built on the site of the old Navarro Flats, demolished in 1926. Hampshire House was completed in 1938.

Essex House, another Art Deco hotel, is on the right. The 128 Central Park South, built in 1925, is on the left.

Photo by Wurts Brothers / NYPL.

Clad in white brick above a 3-story white marble base, the building has a cascade of setbacks attached to a tower that rose from the back of the lot. The front façade of Hampshire House is seven bays wide, grouped into a middle section of three, and two at each end. At the ground floor, above a black granite water table, there are three square windows in the middle, with planter boxes at their bases. To the right is the main building entrance, with a revolving door and Art-Deco sidelights below a metal canopy with a canvas extension hanging down. An Art-Deco aluminum gate fronts the narrow alleyway just to the east of the building.

The upper floors have tripartite windows. Black metal air-conditioning vents are cut below most of the window bays. The outer bays set back above the 19th floor, which has more-recessed windows, piers with carved cartouches between the bays. Black granite spandrels separate the 20th & 21st floors at the center bays, which have segmental-arched windows at the 21st floor. At the 22nd-23rd floor the center bay is narrower than the two that flank it, and there is a very shallow setback above the 22nd, with another setback above the 23rd. The terraces created by the setbacks are enclosed by glass railings.