- Year built
- 1913
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 102
- Landmark
- Designated
Howard House at 246 West End Avenue is a 1913 pre-war cooperative on the corner of West 71st Street, and it carries a piece of Manhattan architectural history few buildings its size can claim. It is one of only a small number of Upper West Side buildings designed by J.E.R. Carpenter, the architect widely credited with defining the modern Manhattan luxury apartment — his reorganization of the apartment plan, with light-filled principal rooms, rational circulation, and generous proportions, set the template the city's best apartment houses followed for the next quarter century. Howard House, designed with S. Fullerton Weaver, is one of his earliest expressions of those ideas on the West Side.
The architecture is the period at its most assured: an amplified Renaissance palazzo composition, beige brick rising from a rusticated three-story base, decorative bandcourses, balconies at the second, fifth, and ninth floors, and a prominent cornice. At 13 stories on a prominent corner — and within the West End–Collegiate Historic District Extension, which protects the avenue's coherent pre-war streetwall — the building anchors the lower stretch of West End, the boulevard of cooperatives that runs quieter than Broadway one block east.
The location is a genuine asset. West End Avenue offers residential calm a block from Broadway's transit and retail, with Riverside Park and the Hudson a short walk west, the 1, 2, and 3 trains at 72nd Street, and the full depth of the Upper West Side at hand. For buyers who want pre-war architecture, an architect of real historical importance, and a fully staffed building on one of Manhattan's most coherent residential avenues, Howard House occupies a distinctive position.
Architecture and unit composition
Howard House reflects Carpenter's design philosophy directly — apartment layouts organized for light and flow, principal rooms positioned for the best exposures, and rational planning that set his work apart from earlier, warren-like apartment houses. The building's 102 apartments span 13 stories across two wings, each served by its own elevator bank, a configuration that gives the building both scale and a degree of privacy.
Pre-war signatures run throughout: high ceilings, hardwood floors, and the plaster and millwork detail of 1913 construction, all within the protected historic envelope. The unit mix runs from larger family layouts to more compact residences. Apartments have been individually renovated over the building's long cooperative life, so the specific home's floor, exposure, and condition drive value. Corner apartments at West End and 71st gain dual exposures; higher floors gain open light and, on favorable west lines, partial Hudson outlooks.
Building operations
Howard House runs as a full-service pre-war cooperative, and its staffing and amenities are unusually complete for the vintage. A 24-hour doorman staffs the lobby, supported by a live-in resident manager, a handyman, and a porter. Residents have a newly updated resident-only gym, bicycle storage, and fee-based private storage units — a well-rounded package for a 1913 building.
On board policy, Howard House is a pet-friendly cooperative. Financing and primary-residence expectations follow West End Avenue cooperative norms, where boards favor solid financial profiles and end-use buyers; a clean, well-documented package carries an application here. The two-wing layout and full staffing make this a building that lives like a larger, more serviced address than its quiet corner suggests.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $25,981/yr
- Per unit / month range
- $0 – $21
Facade safety — Local Law 11
Safe to live in today — but the last inspection flagged repairs that are due on a deadline, so facade work and its cost are coming. Whether that’s a real concern depends on the scope, the timing, and how the building plans to pay for it — reserves or an assessment — which is exactly what we’d dig into for you.
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 246 West End Avenue:
- Turnover is moderate given the 102-unit scale — several closings across a typical year, spread across the building's varied lines.
- Pricing tracks lower West End Avenue pre-war values, with floor, exposure, layout, and renovation level the principal swing factors; larger and higher-floor apartments sit at the premium end.
- The building's automatically updated sales page tracks recorded transfers at the apartment level; the figures here describe cadence and range only.
What to know if you’re buying
You're buying a J.E.R. Carpenter building. The architect's historical importance — the man who modernized the Manhattan apartment — is a genuine, durable asset, paired with a protected historic-district envelope.
The staffing and amenities are full. A 24-hour doorman, live-in manager, gym, and bike and private storage exceed what many pre-war buildings of this age offer.
It's pet-friendly. A welcoming pet policy broadens the building's appeal relative to stricter West Side co-ops.
Underwrite the specific apartment. With a large, varied unit count across two wings, floor, exposure, and renovation level drive value far more than building-wide generalizations.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the architect and the amenities. The Carpenter authorship, the 1913 Renaissance palazzo facade, and the full-service staffing with gym and storage are the headline marketing assets.
The pet policy widens the pool. Pet-friendliness reaches a broader buyer set than the strictest avenue co-ops.
Price to the line. Floor, exposure, layout, and renovation history drive value across a varied unit mix; comparable analysis should be line-specific.
Closing timelines are co-op standard. Plan for roughly 6–10 weeks from contract to closing, subject to board scheduling.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering Howard House, also evaluate:
- 140 West End Avenue — nearby lower West End Avenue cooperative
- 160 West End Avenue — West End Avenue full-service building nearby
- 201 West 72nd Street — comparable pre-war co-op a block north
- 15 West 72nd Street — nearby Upper West Side cooperative
- 105 West 70th Street — comparable Lincoln Square–area pre-war building
- 170 West 76th Street — Upper West Side cooperative peer
The Roebling Team at Howard House
The Roebling Team at Compass specializes in the Upper West Side, West End Avenue, Central Park West, and the broader Park-facing Manhattan market. We publish this profile because West End Avenue buyers and sellers deserve building-specific intelligence — architecture, board rules, amenities, and apartment-level pricing — not generic market commentary.
If you're considering a purchase or sale at Howard House, a 30-minute consultation is the right starting point.
Get the full picture on this building.
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