- Year built
- 1907
- Type
- Cooperative
- Landmark
- Designated
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at The Gainsborough Studios 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.
The Gainsborough Studios is one of New York's most storied buildings: a 1908 artists' cooperative on Central Park South, built specifically to give painters and sculptors the thing they prized above all else — steady, even northern light over the park. Conceived by businessman Barron Collier together with the artists Colin Campbell Cooper, Elliott Daingerfield, and August Franzen, and designed by Charles W. Buckham, it was among the earliest purpose-built cooperative studio buildings in the city, and it remains a cooperative more than a century later.
The architecture is unforgettable. The facade is a polychrome composition of terracotta and colored ceramic tile, crowned by a sculptural frieze by Isidore Konti, with a fenestration pattern that announces the double-height studios behind it. It was designated a New York City landmark in 1988, and a careful restoration that same year hand-reproduced the colored tiles and recast the frieze — preserving one of the most distinctive faces on Central Park South. Few buildings in the city wear their history so visibly.
For buyers, the Gainsborough offers something genuinely rare: a landmark artists' cooperative directly on Central Park, with double-height studio volumes that no modern building reproduces, in one of Manhattan's most prestigious park-front positions.
Architecture and unit composition
Buckham's design is a sixteen-story Edwardian studio building organized around its light. The double-height studio spaces face north over Central Park, drawing the cool, constant illumination painters sought, while the polychrome terracotta-and-tile facade and Konti's frieze give the building an ornamental richness that has only grown rarer over time. As an individual New York City landmark, the exterior is protected, and the building's character is preserved by designation as well as by its cooperative's stewardship.
Inside, the 30 residential units are anything but uniform. Many retain the dramatic double-height studio volumes the building was built around — soaring ceilings and tall north windows framing the park — alongside duplex and mezzanine configurations carved from those original spaces. The park-facing homes are the building's crown, combining the studio scale with direct Central Park views. Pre-war detailing, exceptional ceiling heights, and the singular light are the through-line; each home reflects more than a century of artists' and owners' adaptations.
Building operations
The Gainsborough runs as a small, full-service pre-war cooperative — a level of attention appropriate to a 30-unit landmark with commercial space at its base supporting the building's economics. The intimate scale keeps the building quiet and the community close-knit, in keeping with its origins.
As with established Central Park South co-ops, purchases clear a board application and interview, and financing and sublet terms follow the building's bylaws and house rules; buyers should expect a full co-op board package and review. The building's landmark status, small size, and storied history point to a board that protects the architecture and character the address is defined by.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $3,629/yr
- Per unit / month range
- $0 – $10
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 filing classified the facade as Unsafe — conditions requiring corrective action, which under FISP means a protective sidewalk shed and repairs. Review the subsequent filings, the repair status, and the building’s board and financial materials — we pull the repair scope and funding picture for you.
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.
Management & transfer contacts
- Flip tax
- 3% of sales price
- Sublet policy
- Allowed; sublease fee = 15% of market value rent per annum
- Notable fees
- Max financing 50%; dogs require written permission
Recent sales
The retrade record
Lines that have traded more than once in the public record — the building’s appreciation arc, apartment by apartment.
Recent transfers at this building, sourced from NYC Department of Finance records. Apartment-level detail (line, condition, asking-price context) verified upon consultation request.
| Date | Unit | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Feb 2, 2024 | 22 | $1,050,000 |
| Jan 26, 2022 | 3 | $2,050,000 |
| Jun 30, 2021 | 16 | $3,000,000 |
| May 6, 2019 | 30 | $4,700,000 |
| Dec 5, 2018 | 31 | $640,000 |
| Jul 5, 2018 | 4 | $2,175,000 |
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-01030-0046) 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.
What to know if you’re buying
This is a co-op, so plan for a board package and interview, and weigh the building's financing and sublet rules against your own plans early. The defining variables are exposure and volume: a north-facing, double-height park studio is a fundamentally different — and far scarcer — asset than a standard interior unit, and pricing reflects that. Weight the landmark status, the park frontage, and the studio scale heavily; these are irreproducible. For buyers who want a piece of New York's artistic and architectural history with a permanent Central Park view, the Gainsborough offers something the market cannot recreate.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the building's singularity. A landmark artists' cooperative on Central Park South, with double-height north-light studios and Konti's sculptural facade, is a category of one, and a park-facing studio home should be marketed to that rarity. Benchmark to the small set of distinguished park-front co-ops on Central Park South and the broader trophy pre-war market, weighting view, ceiling height, and the studio volume. Buyers at this level prize the history and the permanence of the setting — frame the story around both. We help sellers position the home, set the comparable set, and manage the board-approval timeline.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering the Gainsborough Studios, also evaluate nearby Central Park South pre-war cooperative inventory:
- 200 Central Park South — Central Park South cooperative nearby
- 210 Central Park South — park-front cooperative nearby
- 240 Central Park South — Art Deco Central Park South cooperative
- 24 Central Park South — park-front pre-war building
- 112 Central Park South — Central Park South cooperative
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. Where this page compares one building or neighborhood to another, that is our analysis of the recorded record — it names the measure, the period and the sample it rests on, and it is an observation about medians rather than a prediction about any particular apartment.
Considering a move at The Gainsborough Studios?
Request a private building brief with the relevant comparable sales, current and off-market availability, and an apartment-specific view of value.