310 Riverside Drive (The Master Apartments)
310 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10025
- Year built
- 1929
The Master Apartments is one of the most architecturally consequential Art Deco residential buildings in New York — designed by Harvey Wiley Corbett with Sugarman & Berger in 1929, the tallest building on Riverside Drive at completion, and the first skyscraper in New York to feature corner windows. Carter Horsley calls it "one of the city's important Art Deco residential buildings and one of the city's first major mixed-use buildings."
The structural identity rests on three features. First, the Corbett architectural pedigree — Corbett's broader body of work includes One Fifth Avenue and the unbuilt "Belden project" he developed with Wallace Harrison and William H. MacMurray. Architectural draftsman Hugh Ferriss praised the Belden project as "a significant departure" from "theoretical, applied and two-dimensional" massing, toward a "three-dimensional, inherent and self-evident" one. Second, the graded brick — the brick was carefully graded from dark at the base to light at the top, per Roerich's idea to suggest "a kind of growth"; Willensky and White's A.I.A. Guide to New York (3rd ed., 1989) note that "wind-borne soot has all but eradicated the color change." Third, the Roerich legacy — built for artist Nicholas Roerich and his patron Louis L. Horch, the building originally housed the Master Institute of United Arts (school, museum, auditorium, restaurant) in a residential hotel configuration.
Notable residents include Tommy Tune, Elie Wiesel, Rollo May, Billy Strayhorn, Murray Shisgal, and Kate Shindle (Miss America 1998). Artists who studied or worked in the building's studios include Lena Horne, Marian Anderson, Isaac Stern, and Yehudi Menuhin.
Recent sales
Apartment-level closing detail should be sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers for full transactional context.
What to know if you’re buying
The Art Deco architectural pedigree is structurally distinguishing. First NYC skyscraper with corner windows; first to use graded brick. Real institutional credential.
The Corbett / Sugarman & Berger architect-of-record credentials are real institutional context. The broader Corbett body of work (One Fifth Avenue, Belden project) anchors the institutional reading.
The Roerich legacy is real cultural-history context. The original Master Institute of United Arts configuration produced the building's cultural-history identity.
The cultural resident roster — Tommy Tune, Elie Wiesel, Rollo May, Billy Strayhorn, Murray Shisgal, Kate Shindle — supports premium cultural-history positioning.
The 27-story scale was the tallest on Riverside Drive at completion. Real institutional context.
The 335-unit configuration supports operational depth. Plan board diligence accordingly.
Verify specific policy framework with managing agent at diligence stage.
Closing timelines are cooperative-standard. Plan for 6 to 10 weeks from contract through board approval to closing.
What to know if you’re selling
Marketing should emphasize the Art Deco architectural pedigree, the Roerich legacy, and the cultural resident overlay. All three are real structural advantages.
The first-skyscraper-with-corner-windows and first-graded-brick credentials are real institutional context. Reference where appropriate.
The Stern / Gilmartin / Mellins (in New York 1930) and Willensky & White (A.I.A. Guide to New York) institutional reading supports architectural-history positioning.
Pricing should reference recent CityRealty / Compass / Brown Harris Stevens data.
Closing timelines are cooperative-standard.
Comparable buildings
- 140 Riverside Drive (The Normandy) — Roth 1939 landmark Art Moderne; nearby Riverside Drive landmark peer
- 222 Riverside Drive — Fox & Fowle 1989; nearby Riverside Drive condominium peer
- 173-175 Riverside Drive — Carpenter 1926; nearby Riverside Drive peer
- 180 Riverside Drive — Schwartz & Gross 1922; nearby Riverside Drive peer
- 194 Riverside Drive — Townsend 1901; nearby Riverside Drive peer
The Roebling Team at The Master Apartments
The Roebling Team at Compass specializes in Central Park West, the Upper East Side, and the broader Park-facing Manhattan market. If you're considering a purchase or sale at The Master Apartments, a 30-minute consultation is the right starting point.
Corey Cohen · The Roebling Team at Compass 646.939.7375 · c.cohen@compass.com
Sources: CityRealty (Carter Horsley review); Wikipedia — Master Apartments; Tom Miller, "The 1929 Master Building — 310-312 Riverside Drive," Daytonian in Manhattan, September 2020; masterapts.com building portal; Landmark West! 310 Riverside Drive profile; Robert A.M. Stern, Gregory Gilmartin, and Thomas Mellins, New York 1930 (Rizzoli, 1987); Norval White and Elliot Willensky, A.I.A. Guide to New York City (3rd edition, 1989); NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers.