- Year built
- 1915
- Type
- Cooperative
- Landmark
- No
Every recorded sale at this building, 2003–2025
Price-per-square-foot over time, the line- and floor-premium curves, and every recorded sale.
- Median $/sf
- $1,097
- Listing discount
- 2.0%
- Recorded sales
- 43
- On record
- 2003–2025
345 West 88th Street is a stately Neo-Renaissance courtyard building a short walk from Riverside Park, designed by W. K. Rouse and L. A. Goldstone — one of the most accomplished apartment-house partnerships of the era — and completed in 1915. The courtyard plan is the building's signature: a U-shaped massing in red and black brick with limestone trim that pulls light and air into the heart of the building and gives the apartments cross-exposures uncommon on a side-street lot. It is the kind of dignified, well-proportioned pre-war building that defines the blocks between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive.
The building has a piece of genuine New York lore attached to it: Babe Ruth and his family occupied the entire seventh floor between 1929 and 1940 — a detail that captures the building's standing in its early decades as a desirable address for people who could have lived anywhere. It converted from rental to cooperative ownership in 1987 and has run since as a well-managed, thriving 52-unit community.
For buyers, the appeal is the combination: an architecturally distinguished courtyard building with the light and proportion of a 1915 luxury house, a manageable 52-unit scale, full-service staffing, and a location a block and a half from Riverside Park and its Hudson promenade.
Architecture and unit composition
Rouse & Goldstone designed 345 West 88th Street as a Neo-Renaissance courtyard building — a sophisticated plan for its day, using red and black brick with limestone trim and a U-shaped footprint that admits light and air to apartments that would otherwise face only the street and rear lot line. The courtyard is the architectural argument: it makes a nine-story side-street building feel open and bright, and it gives many apartments the multiple exposures buyers prize.
Inside, the residences carry the pre-war vocabulary the architects were known for: gracious room proportions, real entry foyers, and the high ceilings of a 1915 luxury building. Across 52 homes in nine stories, the building offers a range of classic layouts — from comfortable apartments to the kind of large floor-through homes the seventh floor once was in Babe Ruth's day. The courtyard light and the original proportions are the durable draw.
Building operations
345 West 88th Street operates as a full-service cooperative — a doorman-attended lobby and a live-in superintendent overseeing the building day to day, the staffing model serious West Side buyers expect. Shareholder amenities include central laundry and bicycle storage.
As a 52-unit pre-war co-op converted in the 1980s, the building runs as an owner-occupied house with the customary cooperative governance: purchases are subject to a board application and interview, primary-residence occupancy is the norm, and the building maintains the conservative financing, sublet, and transfer-fee posture typical of West Side pre-war co-ops. Buyers should confirm the building's current financing limit, sublet rules, pet policy, and any flip tax with us as part of diligence — these terms govern both the purchase and the eventual resale and are worth pinning down before bidding.
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
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
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 24, 2025 | 5B | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,250 sf | $1,390,000 | $1,112/sf | -2.5% |
| Feb 12, 2025 | PH9A | 2 BR · 2 BA | $1,750,000 | -12.3% | |
| Feb 10, 2025 | 7G | 1 BR · 1 BA · 600 sf | $640,000 | $1,067/sf | -11.6% |
| Sep 11, 2024 | 2F | 2 BR · 1 BA · 1,073 sf | $1,150,000 | $1,072/sf | -8.0% |
| Apr 15, 2024 | 6F | 1 BR · 1 BA | $947,500 | -5.2% | |
| Mar 21, 2022 | 7F | 1 BR · 1,000 sf | $1,350,000 | $1,350/sf | off-mkt |
| Jan 19, 2022 | 2F | 2 BR · 1 BA · 1,073 sf | $1,230,000 | $1,146/sf | +2.7% |
| Aug 2, 2018 | 5B | 2 BR · 1,250 sf | $1,425,000 | $1,140/sf | -1.7% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2025) cleared a median $1,097/sf across 2 sales. Median listing discount 2.0% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Dec 28, 2023 | 4F | $975,000 |
| Dec 9, 2021 | 7E | $1,180,000 |
| Dec 4, 2015 | 8D | $1,430,000 |
| Mar 24, 2014 | 9C | $1,695,000 |
| Nov 17, 2008 | 3AB | $2,925,000 |
| Jan 25, 2007 | 9B | $1,690,000 |
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 1-01250-0006) 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 appeal is an architecturally distinguished Rouse & Goldstone courtyard building with strong light, classic layouts, and a location near Riverside Park — at a 52-unit scale that keeps the building personal while spreading costs across enough shareholders to fund full-service staffing. Expect a co-op board package and interview and primary-residence expectations.
Confirm the building's financing limit, sublet policy, pet policy, and any flip tax with us before bidding, and focus diligence on the apartment and the building's finances: the layout and exposure of the specific unit, the maintenance charge and any assessments, and the co-op's reserve fund and capital plan. A 1915 building carries ongoing façade and elevator obligations under New York's inspection cycles, and a well-capitalized board is the best protection against assessments. The courtyard light, the proportions, and the address are the lasting value; finishes can be updated.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the architecture and the light: a Rouse & Goldstone Neo-Renaissance courtyard building, cross-ventilated apartments, classic pre-war proportions, and Riverside Park a block and a half away. The building's history — Babe Ruth's tenancy among it — gives a marketing narrative most side-street co-ops lack. These are differentiators that distinguish a sale here from the plainer buildings nearby.
Price against the Riverside–West End pre-war co-op set, weighting floor, exposure, and condition. Model the building's customary co-op transfer costs into your net proceeds, and invest in presentation — a clean, well-staged apartment that showcases the courtyard light and the original proportions consistently outperforms a tired one. In a building this size, each sale informs the next, so positioning the first impression precisely pays off.
Comparable buildings
If you're weighing 345 West 88th Street, these nearby pre-war West Side cooperatives form the natural comparison set:
- 320 West 83rd Street — pre-war West Side co-op nearby
- 324 West 83rd Street — pre-war side-street co-op nearby
- 215 West 84th Street — pre-war Upper West Side peer
- 200 West 88th Street — pre-war co-op on the same street
- 320 West End Avenue — pre-war West End Avenue cooperative nearby
The Roebling Team at 345 West 88th Street
The Roebling Team at Compass specializes in the Upper West Side's pre-war cooperatives — the Riverside Drive and West End Avenue corridor and the side streets between — alongside the broader Park-facing Manhattan market. We publish this profile because buyers and sellers at a distinctive courtyard co-op deserve building-specific intelligence: the architecture, the light, the rules that govern a purchase, and where the pricing sits within the West Side market.
If you're considering a transaction at 345 West 88th Street, a 30-minute consultation is the right place to start.
Get the full picture on this building.
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