- Year built
- 1938
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 32
- Floors
- 18
- Landmark
- Designated
- Pets
- Permitted with board approval
- Financing
- 50 percent maximum
955 Fifth Avenue is late Candela — and late Candela is its own argument. Built in 1938 for the developer Anthony Campagna, it is one of the final luxury apartment houses completed on the Upper East Side before the war stopped construction altogether, and its architecture records the moment precisely: where Candela's 1929 commissions piled on duplex maisonettes and seventeen-room simplexes, 955 Fifth delivered the Depression's version of Fifth Avenue luxury — a stripped, fluted Art Moderne limestone front and apartments planned, as the building's own period advertising put it, for "the modern trend of simplified living," offering "atmosphere and service on a basis of moderation in size and expense never before available." The result is the rare Candela building scaled to how people actually live now: two residences per floor, entrance galleries, 26-foot living rooms with wood-burning fireplaces, and dining rooms with the building's signature semicircular ends — without the staff-wing acreage of the 1920s palaces.
The facade rewards attention. Above a rusticated limestone base, three stories of broadly fluted limestone carry the eye up a shaft that resolves, above the 14th floor, into a sequence of curved symmetrical setbacks — terraces in practice — climbing to a fluted central pier and one of the handsomest watertank enclosures on the avenue. Architectural records consistently flag the fluting as the building's quiet signature. The block is one of the calmest on the park frontage, and since 1981 the building has sat within the Upper East Side Historic District, which protects the streetscape around it.
The ownership structure is equally telling: the cooperative is named the Tenants Association of 955 Fifth Avenue, Inc. — the residents organized to buy their own building in the mid-1950s, a generation before conversion became an industry. The certificate of incorporation and by-laws are on file in The Roebling Research Library. What that history produced is a small, tightly held house — roughly 30 apartments, two to a floor — that runs on classic Fifth Avenue co-op discipline: 50 percent financing, no pieds-à-terre, no subletting, no corporate structures.
Architecture and unit composition
The typical floor pairs two identical residences, each entered through a 15-foot gallery opening to a 26-foot living room with a wood-burning fireplace and a 21-foot dining room with a semicircular end — a Candela plan-making flourish — backed by pantry, kitchen, and what were originally two staff rooms (now generally laundries, offices, or fourth bedrooms). Larger units exist where lines have been combined into full floors, and the setback floors above the 14th carry the building's trophy inventory: terraced simplexes and duplexes, including penthouse units with wraparound planted terraces. Park views run west across the avenue from the upper floors; mid-rise lines take the avenue and the side-street townhouse rooflines. The Upper East Side Historic District designation means window and terrace work routes through Landmarks — factor the timeline into renovation plans.
Building operations
This is a boutique, full-service pre-war: 24-hour doorman, resident manager, a fitness center (funded in part by a documented $5,000 capital contribution from each incoming shareholder), and a roof deck. With only two units per typical floor and roughly 30 apartments total, the building operates more like a private house than an institution — board standards are high, the policy framework is strict (no pieds-à-terre, no subletting, no guarantors, no corporate purchasers per management-sourced records), and the shareholder body is correspondingly stable. The by-laws and certificate of incorporation are on file in The Roebling Research Library; current financials and house rules should be reviewed with counsel at offer stage.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- Per unit / month range
- —
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 7, 2025 | 2B | $2,895,000 |
| Oct 30, 2024 | 13B | $6,950,000 |
| Jul 11, 2024 | 12B | $3,400,000 |
| Jul 10, 2024 | 4/5A | $9,525,000 |
| Apr 24, 2024 | 8A/8B | $9,850,000 |
| Jun 23, 2022 | 4B | $5,150,000 |
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 1-01391-0072) 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 the strict end of the policy spectrum — plan for it. 50 percent maximum financing, no pieds-à-terre, no subletting, no guarantors, and no corporate or parent-purchase structures per management-sourced records. The building is for primary-residence buyers with conservative balance sheets; run the Co-op Board Qualification Calculator honestly before offering.
The Candela attribution is verified and the late-vintage plan is the point. City records date the building to 1938 and architectural records are unanimous on the Candela attribution. The layouts deliver the pre-war program — gallery entrances, fireplaces, formal dining — at a scale that runs without staff. For buyers priced out of 960 or 834 Fifth, this is the same architect's hand at a more rational footprint.
Two units per floor is a privacy product. One neighbor per landing, a small lobby, a known shareholder body. Buyers trading from large full-service buildings should weigh the quiet against the thinner amenity stack — there is a gym and roof deck, not an amenity floor.
Budget the full fee stack. The 3 percent flip tax (confirm allocation), the $5,000 capital contribution, and historic-district renovation mechanics all belong in your numbers. Run the Buyer Closing Cost Calculator and, for estate-condition units, the Renovation Cost Calculator.
Verify policies at offer stage. The policy framework above reflects management-sourced records current to this writing; small co-ops adjust terms more readily than large ones. Confirm everything against the managing agent's current questionnaire.
What to know if you’re selling
Scarcity is your pricing power — use comparables honestly. With one or two trades a cycle, same-building comps are thin; the right anchors are line-equivalent sales in the neighboring late-pre-war park-front co-ops. We maintain that comp set in the Research Library.
Market the architecture with specificity. Candela, 1938, the fluted limestone, the semicircular dining rooms, the curved setback crown — this building's buyers respond to precise provenance, not adjectives. The late-Candela "simplified living" story is a differentiator against the 1920s giants, not a concession.
Condition drives the spread. A two-per-floor building shows every renovation generation plainly. Renovated units clear at premiums; estate units should be priced to the renovation-plus-Landmarks math, not to hope.
Know your buyer pool's constraints. The 50 percent financing cap and primary-residence posture narrow the funnel to well-capitalized end users — a deliberate, deep-pocketed, slower-moving pool. Set timeline expectations accordingly.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 955 Fifth Avenue, also evaluate:
- 960 Fifth Avenue — Candela with Warren & Wetmore, 1928; the trophy-tier Candela alternative four blocks south
- 1040 Fifth Avenue — Candela's celebrated park-front co-op at 85th; the Jacqueline Onassis building
- 19 East 72nd Street — Candela with Mott Schmidt, 1937; the closest sibling in vintage and stripped-classical style
- 950 Fifth Avenue — boutique Carpenter co-op immediately south; similar scale and discretion
- 965 Fifth Avenue — the immediate neighbor north at 77th Street
- 944 Fifth Avenue — boutique pre-war co-op two blocks south
- 930 Fifth Avenue — Emery Roth pre-war co-op at 74th; the larger-building alternative
- 907 Fifth Avenue — Carpenter's grand co-op at 72nd; the step-up in scale
- 2 East 70th Street — Candela just off the avenue; the side-street alternative
The Roebling Team at 955 Fifth Avenue
The Roebling Team at Compass works the Fifth Avenue park-front corridor and the broader Upper East Side as a core practice area. We publish this building profile because 955 Fifth Avenue buyers and sellers deserve building-specific intelligence — verified architectural attribution, the policy framework, and line-level comparables — not generic neighborhood commentary.
If you're considering a transaction at 955 Fifth Avenue, a 30-minute consultation is the right starting point.