- Year built
- 1930
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 56
- Landmark
- Designated
1220 Park Avenue is a 1930 Rosario Candela cooperative at the corner of East 95th Street — developed by Joseph Paterno, one of the most prolific builders of pre-war Manhattan apartment houses, and authored by the single most consequential name in the form. Candela's design is the building's defining credential, and the 1930 completion places 1220 Park among the last of the great Park Avenue pre-war commissions, designed at the peak of the form just as the residential boom ran into the Depression.
The corner siting at 95th Street is geographically meaningful. This is the upper end of Carnegie Hill, where Park Avenue's tier-one cooperative tradition thins toward the 96th Street viaduct and the Metro-North cut. Buildings here trade at a discount to the dense Carnegie Hill core in the 1070s–1190s, while retaining the same architectural pedigree, the same white-glove operating model, and the same proximity to Central Park, Museum Mile, and the neighborhood's private-school cluster.
The 56-apartment scale is intimate by Park Avenue standards. Candela's signatures are present throughout: the three-story limestone base, the setback massing that produces upper-floor terraces, and the prominent rooftop water-tank enclosure that reads as a small architectural event from the avenue. The apartments are correspondingly generous — large, gallery-organized layouts, including maisonette and duplex configurations, of a kind the post-war towers further east and north simply do not reproduce. For buyers, 1220 Park offers the Candela name and the full pre-war Park Avenue experience at upper-Carnegie Hill pricing — a meaningfully more accessible entry point than the same architect's work twenty blocks south.
Architecture and unit composition
The 56 apartments are large-format by design. Layouts run from substantial two- and three-bedroom configurations toward four-, five-, and six-bedroom residences, with maisonette and duplex apartments among the building's distinctive offerings. The building's average of roughly 4,100 square feet per unit (gross building area divided by unit count) confirms the scale: this is a building of family apartments, not studios and one-bedrooms.
Pre-war Candela signatures recur throughout — formal entrance galleries, separated entertaining and private wings, high ceilings in the primary rooms, substantial closet and service infrastructure, and the period millwork and solid-core doors characteristic of 1930-era luxury construction. The setback floors carry private terraces, and the corner apartments draw light and cross-ventilation from both Park Avenue and East 95th Street. Park Avenue-facing residences look across the avenue's planted median; 95th Street exposures are stable cross-street views over the residential side street.
Building operations
1220 Park Avenue operates as a full-service pre-war cooperative at the white-glove Carnegie Hill standard — full-time doorman coverage and a live-in resident manager, with a fitness room, bicycle storage, individual private storage, and central laundry among the building's amenities.
The building's policies are buyer-friendly for a tier-one Park Avenue co-op. Pets are permitted. Financing is allowed up to 50% of the purchase price. A 3% flip tax is paid by the seller at closing. Board review follows traditional Carnegie Hill pre-war norms — financial depth and primary-residence intent matter — but the financing latitude and pet policy widen the qualified-buyer pool relative to the strictest avenue boards.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $8,305/yr
- Per unit / month range
- $0 – $12
Facade safety — Local Law 11
The facade passed its last inspection with no required repairs — nothing to budget for here, and no facade assessment on the horizon for roughly five years.
QEWI = Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector — the licensed engineer the city requires to sign the report (the independent expert, not the managing agent). Source: NYC DOB facade filings (FISP) · The Roebling Research Library.
See the full facade history →Recent sales
Sales context at 1220 Park, kept general (the live, parcel-specific record is maintained on our sales page):
- Turnover is modest given the 56-unit scale — a small handful of closings in a typical year, consistent with low-density family-apartment buildings.
- Pricing reflects large-format pre-war inventory: three- and four-bedroom apartments generally transact in the multi-million-dollar range, with the largest five- and six-bedroom, duplex, and terraced configurations reaching materially higher.
- Pricing sits below the Candela tier-one core to the south, reflecting the upper-Carnegie Hill position near 96th Street.
These are cadence-and-range observations only; apartment-level pricing requires comparable analysis at the line and floor level.
What to know if you’re buying
The Candela authorship is the headline. It is the single most valuable architectural fact about the building and a durable resale asset.
The 95th Street position is structural. Upper-Carnegie Hill siting near the 96th Street viaduct produces pricing more accessible than the Carnegie Hill core — a feature, not a flaw, for value-oriented pre-war buyers.
The board is more flexible than most. Pets are permitted and financing runs to 50% — generous terms for a tier-one Park Avenue building.
Budget the flip tax. A 3% flip tax is paid by the seller; factor it into resale economics on the sell side.
Apartments are large. This is a family-apartment building with maisonette and duplex stock; smaller-format buyers will find limited inventory here.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with Candela, Paterno, and 1930. The architectural pedigree and the late-pre-war vintage are the marketing core; the setback terraces and rooftop water-tank enclosure are identifiable building signatures.
Plan for the 3% flip tax. It is a seller cost at closing and belongs in any net-proceeds analysis.
Price at the apartment level. With only 56 units in widely varying configurations, floor altitude, exposure, terrace presence, and renovation history drive value more than any building-wide average.
Closing timelines are co-op standard. Plan on roughly 6–10 weeks from contract to closing.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 1220 Park Avenue, also evaluate:
- 1199 Park Avenue — nearby upper-Carnegie Hill pre-war co-op
- 1192 Park Avenue — Carnegie Hill pre-war peer
- 1185 Park Avenue — Schwartz & Gross 1929; large Carnegie Hill co-op
- 1175 Park Avenue — Carnegie Hill pre-war peer
- 1160 Park Avenue — large-format Carnegie Hill co-op
- 1130 Park Avenue — Carnegie Hill pre-war peer
The Roebling Team at 1220 Park Avenue
The Roebling Team at Compass specializes in Park Avenue, the Upper East Side, and the broader park-facing Manhattan market. We publish this building profile because Park Avenue buyers and sellers deserve building-specific intelligence — architecture, board culture, transactional mechanics, and pricing at the apartment level — not generic market commentary.
If you're considering a purchase or sale at 1220 Park, a 30-minute consultation is the right starting point.
Get the full picture on this building.
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