150 West 79th Street (The Dorset)
150 West 79th Street, New York, NY 10024
Upper West Side
BBL 1011500055 · BIN 1030264
- Year built
- 1911
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 72
- Floors
- 12
- Landmark
- Designated
Every recorded sale at this building, 2004–2026
Bedroom-by-bedroom medians, the full transfer record, and how units trade against ask.
- 1BR median
- $832K
- Recent range
- $778K – $2.3M
- Listing discount
- 1.5%
- Recorded transfers
- 60
The Dorset is a building that has been taken apart and is now being put back together, and that is the single most useful thing to understand before making an offer here.
Schwartz & Gross designed it in 1910 for the Vadrick Realty Company on a site that had held five brownstone rowhouses, and it opened in September 1911 offering seven-, nine- and ten-room apartments — three bathrooms each, advertised in The New York Times as high-class, with staff quarters and the room counts that went with them. Among the first residents was the Columbia sociologist Franklin Henry Giddings, whose own rowhouse had stood on the site and who moved into the building that replaced it. That is the original Dorset: a small number of very large apartments in a tripartite neo-Renaissance elevation of brick, stone and terra cotta.
In 1937, in the middle of the Depression, the building was remodeled by Boak & Paris and the large apartments were cut into six per floor. That renovation, not the 1911 design, is what produced the seventy-two-unit figure that city records still carry, and it explains why the line letters recorded in share transfers run A through F on every floor from the ground up.
Since about 2009 the process has run in reverse. Department of Buildings filings show a steady stream of apartment combinations — 5A with 5F, 12E with 12F, 1C with 1D, 10A with 10F, and a 2015 no-work application filed simply to legalize combinations already made — and recorded share transfers confirm the pattern, with two-letter designations such as 1CD, 9CD, 10CD, 11CD, 12CD and 2EF now appearing routinely alongside single-letter apartments. The building is slowly reassembling itself into something closer to what Schwartz & Gross drew.
The second fact worth stating plainly is the landmark status, because it is easy to get wrong on this block. The Dorset sits inside the Upper West Side / Central Park West Historic District, designated April 24, 1990, and it appears in the Commission's own building database under this tax lot. That is verified by lot, not inferred. It matters that the neighbouring 130 West 79th Street (The Austin), documented elsewhere in this library, sits on the same tax block and is also designated — but for the opposite reason. The Austin is a 1988 condominium tower that was finished two years before the district existed and was swept into it as built. The Dorset is the 1911 fabric the district was drawn to protect. Both owners deal with the Commission; only one of them was ever the point.
Architecture and unit composition
The building occupies an 8,549-square-foot lot with roughly 84 feet of frontage and rises twelve floors in brick over a stone base, with terra cotta at the upper corners — Department of Buildings filings from 2003 and 2004 describe removing and rebuilding terra cotta and brick at the bulkhead and at the northeast corner, which is the kind of work this facade type requires on a cycle.
Inventory today is a mix of 1937 apartments and modern recombinations. Single-letter lines (A through F) are the 1937 units; the two-letter designations appearing in recorded transfers since roughly 2009 are combinations. The practical consequence for a buyer is that same-building comparables are unusually uneven: a 4B and a 10CD are not the same product and should not be priced off each other. Exposure sorts the building as well — north-facing lines look across West 79th Street, south-facing lines look over the rear yards of the West 78th Street rowhouses, which are themselves inside the historic district and are not going to be built up.
City records show no commercial floor area on the lot, and PLUTO records all 72 units as residential. One Department of Buildings filing from 2012 nonetheless describes the property as a mixed-use building, and ground-floor apartments (1A through 1F) trade as share transfers like every other line. Whether any ground-floor space is used professionally is not settled by the public record and should be confirmed with the managing agent.
Building operations and capital posture
This is the section where the absence of documents costs the most, and it should be read as a gap rather than as reassurance. No offering plan, budget, audited financial statement or board communication for this cooperative was located in either document library. What follows is drawn entirely from ACRIS and Department of Buildings filings.
Underlying mortgage. ACRIS records a refinancing on May 13, 2021 with OceanFirst Bank — a new note of $1,800,000 together with a consolidation, extension and modification agreement and an assignment of leases and rents, both in the amount of $4,000,000. That facility replaced a Valley National Bank package placed in August 2013, which had itself replaced a chain of cooperative-bank lending running back to 1985. The current principal balance, interest rate and maturity are not in the public record and should be obtained from the managing agent — an underlying note placed in 2021 is now well into its term, and its maturity is a scheduled future maintenance question.
Facade and roof. The building has been through repeated exterior cycles: brick arch and window-sill work in 2000, bulkhead masonry in 2003, terra-cotta and steel repair at the northeast corner in 2004, facade work with a sidewalk shed in 2005 and again in 2007, a further shed in 2014, main roof and bulkhead replacement in 2016, and facade repairs filed in 2019. That is a normally maintained prewar elevation rather than a neglected one, but it is also a recurring capital line, and the next cycle's cost and scope belong in a buyer's diligence file. Because the building is landmarked, exterior work runs through the Landmarks Preservation Commission in addition to the Department of Buildings.
Mechanical. A low-pressure boiler with a combination oil/gas burner and new gas service was filed in July 2010; a new water service and backflow preventer in 2013.
Policy framework
Nothing in the transactional stack at this building is published, and this page will not guess at it. Financing ceiling, minimum down payment, post-closing liquidity and debt-to-income thresholds, sublet policy and fees, flip tax, pied-à-terre policy, pet policy, and the board's posture on trusts, limited liability companies, co-purchasers and guarantors are all set by the board and are not in any document available to us.
What can be said from the public record is structural. This is a share purchase: you will buy shares in 150 West 79 Corp., sign a proprietary lease, assemble a board package and sit for an interview, and the board may decline without stating a reason. Recorded transfers show no bulk holder and no sponsor position — grantors on share transfers since 2004 are individual shareholders and estates, not an entity liquidating unsold shares — so there is no sponsor overhang here and no unsold-shares exception to board approval.
Get the following from the managing agent in writing before you sign a contract: the current financing ceiling, the post-closing liquidity requirement, the flip tax and who pays it, the sublet policy and any seasoning period, whether pied-à-terre and trust or entity ownership are permitted, the current budget and reserve balance, the underlying mortgage terms, the Local Law 11 cycle status, and whether any assessment is running.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- Per unit / month range
- —
Source: NYC LL84 benchmarking and PLUTO · The Roebling Research Library. City record last verified September 2026.
See full Local Law 97 analysis — emissions history, scenarios, methodology →Facade safety — Local Law 11
The latest available FISP filing classified the facade as Safe — no repairs were required at that inspection. Facade inspections run on a fixed five-year cycle; future inspection, repair, and any assessment decisions remain building-specific.
How to read this, and where it comes from
QEWI = Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector — the licensed engineer the city requires to sign the report (the independent expert, not the managing agent).
Penalties shown are amounts DOB assessed against filings on record across 2005–10 to 2020–25. The FISP dataset does not record whether they were paid, contested or remain open, so treat the figure as history rather than a current balance and confirm the building’s standing with the managing agent.
Source: NYC DOB facade filings (FISP) · The Roebling Research Library. City record last verified September 2026.
Recent sales
The Dorset trades as an Upper West Side prewar cooperative, valued on rooms, light and condition rather than on price per square foot. Recorded share transfers run continuously from 2004 through 2026 across roughly four dozen distinct apartments, which means genuine same-building comparables exist at most sizes — with the caveat above that combinations and 1937 originals are different products.
Value in the building sorts by three things. The first is whether an apartment is an original 1937 unit or a combination, because the combinations restore something like the room counts and proportions the building was designed for. The second is exposure, on a mid-block interior site where the south-facing rear outlook is protected by the historic district and the north-facing lines have the street. The third is condition: indexed to the last complete year, the Upper West Side prewar co-op market has rewarded finished apartments and discounted estate condition more sharply than it did five years ago.
Two structural facts belong in any pricing conversation here. The building carries no tax abatement beyond the standard co-op abatement, so there is no benefit burning off and no step-up coming from that direction. And the absence of a circulating offering plan or audited statement means the buyer's attorney will be working from documents supplied by management rather than from anything in general circulation — which lengthens diligence and rewards a seller who assembles the file in advance. Unit-level transaction history is maintained in The Roebling Research Library and shared with clients during diligence.
Recent transfers at this building, curated by The Roebling Team research desk. Prices are the transfer amounts recorded with the NYC Department of Finance; apartment-level detail is checked against the building’s own file in The Roebling Research Library before publishing.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 27, 2026 | 12CD | 2 BR · 2 BA | $2,301,440 | +21.1% | |
| Apr 16, 2026 | 10E | 2 BR · 2 BA | $1,850,000 | +3.1% | |
| Mar 12, 2026 | 4A | 2 BR · 2 BA | $1,636,500 | -0.8% | |
| Jan 10, 2025 | 9CD | 2 BR · 2 BA | $1,560,000 | -2.2% | |
| Jun 13, 2024 | 6A | 2 BR · 2 BA | $1,650,000 | +0.0% | |
| Apr 16, 2024 | 11CD | 3 BR · 2 BA | $1,500,000 | -6.0% | |
| Mar 7, 2024 | 1CD | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,250 sf | $1,900,000 | $1,520/sf | -5.0% |
| Oct 10, 2023 | 4B | 1 BR · 1 BA | $885,000 | -15.7% |
Market read. $/sf is measured on the latest sales with reliable square footage (2024): a median $1,808/sf across 1 sale. The building has traded as recently as 2026. Median listing discount 0.4% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.
The retrade record
Lines that have traded more than once in the public record — the building’s appreciation arc, apartment by apartment.
Full closing history with price-per-square-foot over time, the complete retrade record, and every line that has traded.
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-01150-0055) and verified listing data. Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified by The Roebling Team research desk. Not all transactions cross-verify with ACRIS records — sponsor and LLC purchases sometimes record at stipulated values rather than market price; square footage on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.
What to know if you’re buying
Confirm which apartment you are actually buying. The 1937 subdivision and the post-2009 recombination mean the building contains two distinct products. Ask whether the apartment is an original line or a combination, and whether the combination was legalized at the Department of Buildings — the cooperative filed a no-work application in 2015 specifically to legalize combined apartments, which suggests not all of them had been.
The building is landmarked, verified by lot. Window replacement and any exterior alteration require Landmarks Preservation Commission review in addition to board and Department of Buildings approval. This is not an inference from the block or the corridor; it is the Commission's own record for this tax lot.
Get the policy stack in writing before you offer. Nothing is published. Financing ceiling, post-closing liquidity, flip tax, sublet rules and pied-à-terre policy all have to come from the managing agent, and each of them can end a deal at the board stage. Run the Co-op Board Qualification Calculator once you have the numbers.
Ask about the underlying mortgage and the facade cycle together. The 2021 refinancing and a facade history running from 2000 through 2019 are the two capital facts a buyer can see from outside. What they cost going forward is inside the budget.
Underwrite full taxes. There is no J-51 and no other building-wide exemption on this lot, and none is scheduled.
What to know if you’re selling
Assemble the building file before you list. Because no plan or audited statement circulates for this cooperative, the first serious buyer's attorney will ask management for everything at once and the deal will wait. A seller who arrives with the current budget, reserve balance, underlying mortgage terms, Local Law 11 status and assessment history removes weeks from the timeline.
Lead with the architecture and the block. Schwartz & Gross, 1911, inside a historic district, on a side street between Amsterdam and Columbus with the Museum of Natural History and Theodore Roosevelt Park at the eastern end and the Broadway line two blocks west. That is the product, and it is not replicable.
Price a combination as a combination. If the apartment has been assembled, market it against other assembled apartments in the building and against larger prewar inventory on the surrounding side streets — not against the 1937 single-letter lines.
Model the flip tax honestly once you have it. Confirm the amount and who pays it with the managing agent, then run the Seller Closing Cost Calculator against your net.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 150 West 79th Street, also evaluate:
- 164 West 79th Street — the immediate neighbour to the west on the same tax block, George F. Pelham, 1924; the closest like-for-like prewar co-op
- 145 West 79th Street (Manchester House) — Emery Roth, directly across the street on the north side
- 112 West 79th Street — Emery Roth, 1925, same tax block toward Columbus
- 127 West 79th Street (The Clifton House) — the smaller-scale alternative on the same street
- 130 West 79th Street (The Austin) — same tax block, same historic district, but a 1988 condominium; the structural contrast in ownership form and policy
- 171 West 79th Street and 172 West 79th Street (The Hopkins) — the Amsterdam end of the street
- 386 Columbus Avenue — same tax block, 1980s, likewise inside the district
- 101 West 78th Street (The Evelyn) — the corner prewar one street south, on the same tax block
- 100 West 80th Street (The Orleans) — the full-service alternative a street north at Columbus
- 207 West 79th Street — the Broadway end of the street; a different scale and price band
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, transit, and pricing across Upper West Side — read The Roebling Team Guide to Upper West Side.
The full playbook — what goes in the package, how boards read your financials, the interview, and the timeline — plus sample cover, reference, and personal letters you can adapt.
How to read the facts on this page. Items attributed to an offering plan describe the building as it was offered at that filing — unit mix, square footage, the amenity program as planned. They are not a statement about how the building operates today. Tax and compliance figures are sourced separately to current City records and carry their own dates. House rules, staffing and fee policy can change by board resolution without any public filing: treat every policy line here as a starting point for diligence and confirm it with the managing agent.
Considering a move at The Dorset?
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A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at The Dorset would likely sell for today, what it costs to sell, and what you’d walk away with — reviewed personally against condition, exposures, renovation quality, and the competition actually on the market.