- Year built
- 1900
- Type
- Cooperative
- Landmark
- Designated
325 Central Park West — known as The Rudolph — is one of the oldest survivors on the park-front avenue, a seven-story house completed in 1900 when Central Park West was still filling in north of the great early towers. Designed by George F. Pelham, a prolific architect of turn-of-the-century New York apartment houses, it predates the Art Deco skyline that came to define the avenue and offers something the later giants cannot: genuine boutique scale on a corridor otherwise dominated by 300-unit cooperatives.
With roughly twenty apartments and just three per floor, The Rudolph lives like a small park-front mansion. The front homes look directly across Central Park West into the park itself, through the large period windows and arched openings of a building constructed when ceilings ran high and rooms ran generous. Converted to cooperative ownership in 1965, it has been an owner-occupied co-op for sixty years — a quiet, tightly held alternative to the monumental Deco landmarks a few blocks south.
For buyers, the appeal is rare on this avenue: direct park views and full pre-war character without the institutional scale, the long elevator banks, or the elaborate amenity overhead of the big Central Park West houses.
Architecture and unit composition
The Rudolph belongs to the first generation of Central Park West apartment living. Pelham gave it a turn-of-the-century masonry vocabulary — a neo-Renaissance body with Gothic Revival flourishes — and the building survives today as a contributing structure within the Central Park West Historic District, its period detail intact under landmark protection.
Inside, the apartments carry the hallmarks of 1900 construction at its best: ceilings near eleven feet, hardwood floors, decorative moldings, and arched windows in the front-facing homes that frame the park. With only three apartments per floor, the layouts are broad and light-filled rather than carved into efficiency, and many residences retain original architectural detail — the kind of pre-war texture that newer construction simply cannot manufacture. The boutique floor plate means the front line, with its direct park exposure, is the building's defining and most coveted home.
Building operations
At roughly twenty units, The Rudolph runs as an intimate house. The building offers elevator service, basement storage, and a live-in superintendent, with the close-knit, low-overhead operation characteristic of a small park-front co-op. There is no pool or sprawling gym here — the amenity is the address, the park view, and the privacy of a building where every shareholder is known. Common charges support staff, the systems of a 1900 masonry structure, and the reserve rather than an expensive amenity program, keeping monthly costs in line for the corridor.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- Per unit / month range
- —
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
Recent transfers at this building, curated by The Roebling Team research desk. Apartment-level facts are independently verified before publishing; sale prices reflect the recorded transfer amount at the NYC Department of Finance.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 22, 2025 | 3N/4N | 5 BR · 4.5 BA | $3,900,000 | -8.2% | |
| Jul 11, 2022 | 5N | 2 BR · 1.5 BA | $1,800,000 | -5.0% | |
| Jun 21, 2016 | 4W | 3 BR | $1,250,000 | -16.4% | |
| May 10, 2016 | P11N | 2 BR · 1,500 sf | $1,810,000 | $1,207/sf | +0.8% |
| Aug 26, 2004 | 2S | 2 BR · 1,800 sf | $1,300,000 | $722/sf | +4.0% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2016) cleared a median $1,207/sf across 1 sale. Median listing discount 5.0% 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.
Other recent transfers
| Date | Unit | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 29, 2015 | P1/1N | $1,125,000 |
| Apr 11, 2014 | 2W | $1,100,000 |
| Dec 24, 2013 | 3N/4N | $2,125,000 |
| Dec 20, 2003 | P11N | $1,150,000 |
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-01206-0032) 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
The Rudolph is a traditional cooperative, so purchases clear a board package and interview. In a small, owner-occupied park-front building, expect a board focused on financial strength and primary residency, with financing held to conservative co-op parameters and subletting restricted in the manner typical of a boutique house — this is a building to buy as a home. The defining decision for a buyer is exposure: the front park-view line is the reason to be here, and it carries the building's strongest pricing. Budget for the updates that century-old kitchens and baths often invite, and weigh the trade-off between an original-detail apartment and a renovated one.
The reward is a direct-park-view home in landmark-protected pre-war architecture, at a fraction of the unit count — and the institutional overhead — of the big Central Park West cooperatives.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with what is genuinely scarce: a direct Central Park view from a boutique pre-war building. Buyers shopping the avenue's large Deco towers will pay for the intimacy, the three-per-floor privacy, and the eleven-foot ceilings The Rudolph offers. The front line's park frontage is the headline; the building's small scale and landmark character are the supporting story.
Because the building is small, a single well-presented listing can define the comp set for the year. Benchmark pricing to recent boutique Central Park West pre-war trades with park exposure rather than to the large-tower market, and present a board-ready buyer — clean financials, primary-residence intent — to move through approval efficiently in a building that values fit.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering The Rudolph, also evaluate these nearby Central Park West and Upper West Side cooperatives:
- 322 Central Park West — pre-war Central Park West cooperative steps away
- 336 Central Park West — park-front co-op on the same stretch
- 372 Central Park West — Central Park West cooperative to the north
- 295 Central Park West — park-front pre-war co-op nearby
- 382 Central Park West — Central Park West cooperative peer to the north
The Roebling Team at The Rudolph
The Roebling Team at Compass specializes in Central Park West, the Upper West Side, and the park-facing Manhattan market. We publish this profile because a boutique park-front co-op trades on factors — exposure, scale, landmark character — that the broad market data misses. Buyers and sellers here deserve building-specific counsel.
If you're weighing a transaction at 325 Central Park West, a 30-minute consultation is the right starting point.
Get the full picture on this building.
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