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154-657: The Ansonia (formerly the Ansonia Hotel ) is a condominium building at 2109 Broadway , between 73rd and 74th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City . The 17-story structure was designed by French architect Paul Emile Duboy in the Beaux-Arts style. It was built between 1899 and 1903 as a residential hotel by William Earle Dodge Stokes , who named it after his grandfather,

308-495: A porte-cochère , would be restored. The Ansonia Tenants Association agreed to the proposal, but the Ansonia Tenants Coalition did not want the conversion to proceed until the building-code violations had been fixed. Condominium Residential condominiums are frequently constructed as apartment buildings, referred as well as Horizontal Property. There are also rowhouse style condominiums, in which

462-574: A strata , and in Quebec , where they are referred to as syndicates of co-ownership . The townhouse complex of Brentwood Village in Edmonton , Alberta , was the first condominium development in Canada (registered in 1967). With regular condominiums, the unit owner usually owns the internal unit space and a share of the corporation; the corporation owns the exterior of the building land and common area; in

616-584: A $ 14.3 million offer for the building in October 1929. With the onset of the Great Depression , the kitchens and restaurants were shuttered permanently in the 1930s, and the Ansonia stopped offering traditional hotel services such as food service and housekeeping. Musicians stopped performing on the roof, the lobby fountain's seals were relocated, and the rugs and furniture were sold off. In addition,

770-420: A $ 500,000 mortgage loan on the site. Stokes also founded companies to manufacture the building's terracotta and elevators. He was closely involved in the hotel's development, having traveled to France to study other buildings' architecture and floor plans before hiring Paul Emile Duboy, a French architect. The hotel began construction November 15, 1899. By mid-1900, the ironwork had reached the fourth floor, while

924-488: A (single family) house. However, shares are not considered as real estate but as personal property and the co-op can take possession of the apartment for a term time and evict the tenant or owner because of disturbance or unpaid maintenance fees. Finnish housing cooperatives are incorporated as (non-profit) limited-liability companies ( Finnish : asunto- osakeyhtiö , Swedish : bostadsaktiebolag ), where one share usually represents one square meter (sometimes ten) of

1078-473: A bellhop delivered free or half-priced fresh eggs to all tenants. The New York City Department of Health raided the roof farm in November 1907 after receiving a tip about it. In a failed effort to prevent its closure as an illegal farm, W. E. D. Stokes claimed the animals belonged to his son, W. E. D. "Weddie" Stokes Jr. Thereafter, the farm was closed, and the animals were sent to Central Park . When Weddie

1232-579: A bomb at the Ansonia's ballroom. Unlike his father, Weddie never had any interest in operating the Ansonia, choosing to lease it to more experienced hotel operators instead. In May 1918, the Ansonia became part of the Bowman-Biltmore Hotels chain, operated by John McEntee Bowman . George W. Sweeney was appointed as the hotel's manager. Bowman announced plans to renovate the Ansonia for $ 500,000, converting 300 "non-housekeeping" suites into guestrooms with bathrooms. He also planned to renovate

1386-560: A building to be classified as "Flats" is four, with a requirement for having at least one elevator or lift for buildings upwards of four floors. Almost all have a separate room called the "Drawing Room", used for guest entertainment purposes. However, its use as a TV room and dining room is common. Another unique feature is the balcony or "terrace", which is standard for all flats. In the Philippines, condominiums are classified into three types: low-rise, mid-rise, and high-rise. Condos have

1540-542: A complex of residences, such as an apartment building, and a condominium is purely legal. There is no way to differentiate a condominium from any other residential building simply by looking at it or visiting it. What defines a condominium is the form of ownership. A building developed as a condominium (and sold in individual units to different owners ) could actually be built at another location as (for example) an apartment building (the developers would retain ownership and rent individual units to different tenants ). Where

1694-496: A condominium is a collection of individual units and common areas along with the land upon which they sit. Individual home ownership within a condominium is construed as ownership of only the air space confining the boundaries of the home. The boundaries of that space are specified by a legal document known in the United States as a Declaration, filed on record with the local governing authority. These boundaries may extend to

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1848-401: A condominium is in essence an apartment building, as a practical matter, builders tend to build condominiums to higher quality standards than apartment complexes because of the differences between the rental and sale markets. They are typically slightly larger than apartments and are often constructed in a townhouse style in regions where single-family detached homes are common. Technically,

2002-478: A few censuses metropolitan areas according to Statistics Canada . Condominiums exist in most parts of Canada, though they are more common in larger cities. They are regulated under provincial or territorial legislation, and specific legal details vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. In most parts of Canada, they are referred to as condominiums, except in British Columbia , where they are referred to as

2156-491: A flue on the roof. There were originally six elevators for guests, two elevators for housekeepers, two freight elevators, and numerous dumbwaiters. Although the Otis Elevator Company had offered to install elevators in the building, Stokes considered them too expensive, so he created his own elevator company and his own hydraulic-elevator model, which could travel at up to 400 ft/min (120 m/min). Upon

2310-410: A founding document, which may variously be called a "Master Deed", "Enabling Declaration", "Declaration of Conditions", "Conditions, Covenants, and Restrictions (CC&Rs)", "Deed of Mutual Covenant" or simply a "Condominium Document". Among other things, this document can provide for the creation of a governing body or corporation, for example, a Homeowner's Association in the United States. Rules for

2464-765: A freehold owned by a corporation, itself owned by individual leaseholders. This provides an opportunity for them to participate in the proper management of the block. Again, the quality of management is very variable. The statute creating commonholds was motivated by a desire to eliminate some of the problems and perceived injustices, such as the commercial exploitation of lessees by freeholders as their leases began to have too little time left to satisfy lenders. Since most leasehold developments are undertaken by commercial entities, commonholds did not become widespread. There are, however, other statutes in place that give some degree of protection for leaseholders. It is, nevertheless, essential to consider proper legal advice whenever engaged in

2618-433: A hall attendant, a cold-storage pantry, a serving room where food from the kitchen could be delivered, and a reception room with communal toilets. On the 17th floor were rooms for staff. The top stories included a restaurant and a roof garden . The restaurant, on the 16th floor, was designed in an English style and could fit 1,300 people. During the summer, orchestras played music in the roof garden. The hotel's roof included

2772-407: A large tower at the building's center, but this was dropped in the final design. There are two light courts each on 73rd and 74th Streets and one light court along Broadway. This gives the building an irregular "H" shape, which allowed each guestroom, suite, and apartment to receive as much natural light as possible. The Ansonia has a facade of limestone, granite, white brick, and terracotta. The base

2926-525: A larger apartment. To facilitate this, the floors and moldings all had a uniform design so they would not look out of place when several rooms were merged. Some of the rooms were designed in unconventional shapes such as ovals, circles, and heraldic shields. Each apartment's ceiling measured 12 ft (3.7 m) or 14 ft (4.3 m) tall. The building had extremely thick masonry walls measuring between 1 and 3 ft (0.30 and 0.91 m) thick, which made each apartment nearly soundproof. The thickness of

3080-419: A lawyer for Starr testified that the structure lacked "any particular historic significance". According to the lawyer, it would cost between $ 4 million and $ 5 million to repair the building, so it was easier to tear it down. This prompted concerns from residents who believed that the building would be demolished. Garland advocated for the building to be designated as a New York City landmark. In an attempt to avert

3234-640: A letter to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), the developer's son William Earl Dodge Stokes Jr. claimed that "they just put one floor on top of another and they got up to the seventeenth floor, and they decided they wouldn't build any more". Other sources have cited the Ansonia as being 16 or 18 stories tall. The Ansonia measures about 200 by 200 ft (61 by 61 m). The building includes turrets with cupolas at its corners and light courts along each side. Early drawings also called for

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3388-450: A liquor store and milliners' shop. The basement reportedly had the world's largest indoor swimming pool at the time of the Ansonia's completion, The swimming pool was cited as measuring either 90 by 40 ft (27 by 12 m) or 100 by 32 ft (30.5 by 9.8 m). The Continental Baths , a gay bathhouse operated by Steve Ostrow, began operating within the Ansonia's basement in 1967 or 1968. The bathhouse had "private encounter rooms",

3542-411: A lobby that resembled "the vestibule of a skid row hotel". Over the following decades, one of the co-owners, Jesse Krasnow, began to collect hundreds of documents, photographs, building plans, and decorations. Almost immediately after acquiring the hotel, Jesse Krasnow sought to evict Plato's Retreat, since the club's presence made it difficult for Krasnow to obtain financing for a planned renovation of

3696-513: A lower tax liability in an office condominium than in an office rented from a taxable, for-profit company. However, the frequent turnover of commercial land uses in particular can make the inflexibility of condominium arrangements problematic. In Australia, condominiums are known as " strata title schemes " or "community title schemes". The 2011 National Household Survey (NHS) showed that one in eight Canadian households lived in condominium dwellings, colloquially known as "condos", mostly located in

3850-468: A masonry wall for several decades, have cast-iron frames and large roundel windows. On the intermediate stories are French windows with elaborate iron balconies. The balconies, many of which span several bays, visually divide the facade into several groups of windows. Some parts of the facade are characterized by smooth brickwork, limestone, and terracotta details, while other sections are ornamented with quoins and rusticated limestone blocks. The facade

4004-427: A meeting at his apartment in which he told several teammates to intentionally lose the 1919 World Series ; in the ensuing Black Sox Scandal , Gandil and his teammates were permanently banned from professional baseball. After the Ansonia was refurbished in the early 1920s, its operators published a promotional booklet for travelers who "expect more of a hotel than just a place to sleep and leave their luggage". By 1922,

4158-416: A mini-golf course in 1929. In the 21st century, American Musical and Dramatic Academy occupies the lower stories, with a theater, studios, private rooms, and performance spaces. In the basement was a shopping arcade with a butcher, a barber, and a laundry room. There was also a theater, bakery, a milk shop, hairdressers' salons, cold-storage vaults, safe-deposit vaults, and a vehicular garage, in addition to

4312-417: A non-profit corporation, in which the tenants own shares; each share carries the right and duty to lease an apartment from the cooperative. Shares can be bought and sold, but often the cooperative's rules strictly limit the price for which they may change hands. (In contrast, condominiums are traded on a free market). Because the official share prices are often lower than the market value and sellers often retain

4466-573: A result, men began loitering outside a pornographic shop at the building's base, which prompted the owners to close the 74th Street entrance to the building for security reasons. In addition, during the late 1970s, many psychics , fortune tellers , and mediums began moving into the building. In 1978, the building was acquired by Ansonia Associates, a consortium of three partnerships, for $ 2.5 million. The consortium, headed by Herbert Krasnow, Albert Schussler, and Stanley Stahl , collectively represented 21 individuals. The group began considering converting

4620-554: A sauna, a massage parlor, and Turkish baths. From 1977 to 1980, the Ansonia's basement housed Plato's Retreat , a club for heterosexual couples characterized in The New York Times as a swingers ' sex club . The space was accessed by a mirrored staircase, and also featured a 60-person Jacuzzi, an "orgy room", a dance floor, and private rooms. In the 1990s, the basement was converted into storefront space. The hotel had two interior staircases and several fire escapes when it

4774-402: A small farm, where Stokes kept farm animals next to his personal apartment, as well as a cattle elevator next to the farm. Stokes's decision to create a roof farm was influenced by his belief that the Ansonia could be either partially or fully self-sufficient. The farm housed bears, chickens, ducks, goats, and hogs; it also reportedly housed four geese and a pig owned by W. E. D. Stokes. Every day,

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4928-657: A special type of ownership title called a CCT - condominium certificate of title. Condominiums usually have amenities, like swimming pools, owned parking, a clubhouse, and a building for administration. Initially, the concept of a condominium was introduced by the Federal Law "On the Fundamentals of the Federal Housing Policy" No. 4218-1 dated December 24, 1992: "Condominium is an association of owners of residential premises in apartment buildings with

5082-434: A three-story mansard roof . The Ansonia Hotel was constructed with as many as 2,500 rooms, many of which were arranged as multi-room suites, although these have since been downsized to 425 apartments. Originally, the hotel had its own power plant and air-filtration plant, as well as a system of pneumatic tubes and cooling pipes. The public rooms, including the lobby, basement shopping arcade, and restaurants, were decorated in

5236-404: A total capacity of 1,400 hp (1,000 kW). The building had its own power plant with coal-fired generators. The power plant occupied one-fourth of the basement. The Ansonia also included an air-filtration plant, which drew air from the western side of the building; the air was filtered, heated in the sub-basement, and distributed to each room through pipes in the walls. Air was ventilated from

5390-629: A townhouse at 4 East 54th Street that he built but never occupied. Stokes established the Onward Construction Company specifically to develop the hotel; the company was named after one of the Stokes family's racehorses. In July 1899, the Onward Construction Company acquired additional land on the western side of Broadway between 73rd and 74th Streets, and the Equitable Life Assurance Society placed

5544-448: A waterproof flat roof and renovating vacant apartments. The LPC had approved repairs to the mansard roof, although the repairs to the flat roof did not require LPC approval. Residents claimed that Ansonia Associates were only conducting spot repairs and that the roof still leaked even after its renovation. By one account, the owners spent $ 3.5 million to repair the roof, which still leaked. The masonry facade had also started to fall apart and

5698-477: Is a Presbyterian house of worship in New York City . The church's origins date to 1798 in Lower Manhattan . The first church building was erected on a plot of ground donated by Colonel Henry Rutgers at the corner of what would become Henry and Rutgers Streets. The church building was paid for by contributions from the members. The original charter contained 107 names, and the first church building

5852-464: Is assigned to specific apartments ( Finnish : hallinnanjakosopimus , Swedish : avtal om delning av besittningen ) is usually used only with detached or semi-detached houses. A housing cooperative is a common form of home ownership in Finland. Owning shares that correspond to one apartment in a housing company is generally considered as much owning your own home as actually directly owning

6006-399: Is clad with rusticated blocks of limestone, and there are balconies just above the base and near the top of the building. On 73rd Street is a 27 ft (8.2 m) archway (which originally led to a tea room) and two full-height windows, which were restored in the 2000s as part of the construction of a North Face store at the building's base. All three windows, which had been hidden behind

6160-509: Is derived from Duboy's original plans, as Stokes modified them later. The New Orleans architect Martin Shepard served as draftsman and assistant superintendent of construction, while George Vassar's Son & Co. built the structure. The building was named for industrialist Anson Green Phelps , the developer's grandfather. The Ansonia is 17 stories tall. Early plans called for the building to be 12 stories, 14 stories, or more than 20 stories. In

6314-420: Is designed in the Beaux-Arts style, with ornamentation such as brackets , moldings , scrolls , and medallions . Its developer, William Earl Dodge Stokes , listed himself as "architect-in-chief" for the project and hired French architect Paul Emile Duboy to draw up the plans. Duboy made only one set of drawings before Stokes demoted him to a draftsman, and it is not known how much of the Ansonia's final design

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6468-411: Is owned jointly by the apartment owners, who execute their joint ownership through an owner's association . The expenses of maintaining the joint property are shared pro rata among the owners. Another 5% of Danish homes are in housing cooperatives (Danish andelsbolig ), which occupy a legal position intermediate between condominiums and housing associations . The entire property is legally owned by

6622-492: Is the "time share", although not all time shares are condominiums, and not all time shares involve actual ownership of (i.e., deeded title to) real property. Condominiums may be found in both civil law and common law legal systems as it is purely a creation of statute . Among other things, the HOA assesses unit owners for the costs of maintaining the common areas, etc. That is, the HOA decides how much each owner should pay and has

6776-491: Is topped by finials and widow's walk rooftop platforms. When the Ansonia opened in the 1900s, it covered 550,000 sq ft (51,000 m). Sources disagree on the size of the hotel, which has been variously cited as having 1,400 guestrooms and 340 suites, or 1,218 guestrooms and 400 suites. One source described the hotel as having 2,500 total rooms (including rooms in individual apartments). There were about 400 full bathrooms and about 600 additional sinks and toilets; at

6930-499: The French Renaissance style with enameled woodwork. The suites had mahogany doors that were twice the width of normal doors, and the apartments were decorated with paintings from the hotel's collection. Other decorations included Persian rugs, domes with crystal chandeliers, and art glass windows. Long-term tenants were allowed to add their own furniture. The rooms had several doorways so they could easily be combined into

7084-583: The Louis XIV style , and the hotel also had a small roof farm in the 1900s. There was also a basement swimming pool, which in the late 20th century housed a gay bathhouse called the Continental Baths and a swingers' club called Plato's Retreat . The apartments themselves ranged from small studios to multi-room suites with parlors, libraries, and dining rooms. Over the years, both the apartments and public spaces have been substantially rearranged, but

7238-607: The Manhattan street grid to the south, but which parallels other avenues to the north. Prior to the development of larger structures on Broadway, the building was originally visible from as far south as 59th Street and as far north as 105th Street. The building is near several other notable structures, including the Rutgers Presbyterian Church to the south, the Hotel Beacon and Beacon Theatre to

7392-631: The homeowner association represents an entity with rights and duties that may include contracts. The right of ownership is divided in the first article of the WoEigG into homeownership, individual freehold ownership, part ownership, and commonhold ownership. In Greece, condominiums became very popular in the 1960s. It is a building one sees everywhere in Greece, since most of its population lives in big cities. They are known as πολυκατοικίες ( polykatoikíes ), literally "multi-residences". In Hong Kong

7546-402: The 471 apartments on the 15 upper stories to residential condos, while retaining ownership of the ground-level storefronts and basement garage. The condos were to cost about $ 48,500 per room, whereas residents typically paid $ 150 per month per room. The Attorney General of New York could approve the Ansonia's condo-conversion plan if five percent of tenants bought condos, but tenants alleged that

7700-472: The Ansonia in October 1946, paying $ 750,000 in cash and taking over a $ 1.8 million mortgage. Dajon immediately announced plans to spend $ 300,000 on renovations, including installing kitchenettes and refrigerators in every apartment. Dajon resold the building in April 1948 to a group of investors known as Ansonia House Inc. At the time, the Ansonia was cited as containing 476 apartments and ten stores. The building

7854-478: The Ansonia was converted to condominiums, many of the old apartments were combined. Some apartments on the south side of the building retained their original layouts in the 2010s. During the early 19th century, apartment developments in the city were generally associated with the working class. By the late 19th century, apartments were also becoming desirable among the middle and upper classes. Between 1880 and 1885, more than ninety apartment buildings were developed in

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8008-491: The Ansonia's demolition, its residents created a petition advocating for the building to be designated as a city landmark; the petition attracted 25,000 signatures. They also hosted a five-hour gala in October 1971 to raise awareness for the Ansonia. The LPC received numerous petitions in support of the landmark designation, signed by 25,770 people, and a petition in opposition to the designation, signed by 11 people. With support from U.S. Representative Bella Abzug , who represented

8162-504: The Ansonia's opening in 1903, it was cited as having 362 telephones, 18,000 electric burners, 2,500 steam radiators, 400 refrigerators, and 1,000 faucets. The building also had 600 toilets and 400 washrooms, more than any other residential building in New York City at the time. When the Ansonia was being constructed, it was planned to have "more and finer banquet halls, assembly rooms, and reception rooms than any other hotel". All of

8316-548: The Ansonia. However, the renovations never took place. When Starr submitted alteration plans to the Department of Buildings, he discovered that the hotel had never received a proper certificate of occupancy; before he could obtain one, he had to repair several building-code violations that the DOB had issued over the years. The issues included rattling windows, a leaky roof, and rusted ducts and pipes, as well as balconies that were on

8470-466: The Ansonia. Krasnow paid the club's operator Larry Levenson $ 1 million to break his lease, and Plato's Retreat moved out of the basement in 1980, The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places the same year, at which point it had been divided into approximately 540 apartments. Krasnow began to remedy the Ansonia's building-code violations, and the owners spent $ 2 million on

8624-623: The Empire, the Majestic , the San Remo , and the Beresford . Although it was intended as an apartment hotel with long-term residents (many of whom remained there for decades), the Ansonia had many features characteristic of a transient hotel. When the Ansonia was completed, housekeeping service was offered to each apartment. Each room had 18 table napkins and 18 bath towels. Servants changed

8778-513: The Stokeses did not divorce, W. E. D. Stokes moved out of his apartment at the Ansonia in 1925, less than a year before his death. Edward Arlington subleased the upper levels of the hotel in January 1926. At the time, the hotel had 1,218 rooms; Arlington planned to add eight stories to the hotel, with another 1,000 rooms, but this never happened. When W. E. D. Stokes died that May, Weddie inherited

8932-489: The U.S. military during World War II. This effort produced 100,000 lb (45,000 kg) of scrap metal. The hotel's manager Louis Zuch had said of the copper decorations, "Before we start taking off the metal railings around parks, we should collect all our useless junk"; at the time, city officials had considered removing metal railings in Central Park. In addition, the brine pipes and pneumatic tubes were removed from

9086-566: The apartment. Membership in a condo is obtained by buying the shares on the open market, most often through a real estate agent. No board approval is needed to buy shares, but in some cases other stockholders or the housing cooperative itself has the right to claim the stocks being sold. There is usually no requirement for the owner(s) to live in the condo. Owning apartments for rent is a common form of saving and private investment in Finland. In Germany, condominiums are known as Eigentumswohnungen ( lit.   ' ownership dwellings ' ) and

9240-438: The apartments themselves were subdivided and rearranged. The operators removed partition walls, sinks, and kitchens from 114 suites, converting them to "non-tenements", and they sold the awnings that had been mounted outside the windows. The Broadway entrance was closed, additional storefronts were created on the ground level, the gates in front of the elevators were replaced with doors, and fireproof partitions were installed around

9394-426: The association may be in the master deed, or could be a separate set of bylaws governing the internal affairs of the condominium. Matters addressed in the condominium bylaws may include the responsibilities of the owners' association, voting procedures to be used at association meetings , the qualifications, powers, and duties of the board of directors, and the powers and duties of the officers. The Bylaws may also cover

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9548-405: The building into residential condominiums, devising about 30 distinct floor plans. The building's exterior had remained relatively unchanged over the years, other than modifications to the storefronts. By contrast, in 1980, Paul Goldberger of The New York Times characterized the interior as having "gone from Beaux-Arts grandeur to near dereliction", with unreliable elevators clad in false wood and

9702-488: The building still had significant issues. By the late 1980s, the Ansonia was involved in so many lawsuits, one New York City Housing Court judge spent nearly all of his time reviewing lawsuits and settlements related to the Ansonia. In what was then the longest lawsuit in the New York City Civil Court's history, a judge denied Soja's request that the city government appoint him as the Ansonia's manager;

9856-487: The building was being completed, the plasterers struck again, prompting Stokes to abandon his plans to install Caen stone in the hotel; the painters and decorators also struck after discovering that some tenants had hired decorators from a different labor union . The strikes may have contributed to the cancellation of an 11-story stone tower at the center of the hotel, which had been proposed in early architectural drawings. The hotel housed 110 families by early 1903, when it

10010-406: The building's issues but was involved in hundreds of lawsuits during that time. The Ansonia was converted into a condominium building in 1992, although rent-regulated tenants remained in the building through the 21st century. The Ansonia is at 2109 Broadway , on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City . It occupies the eastern end of a trapezoidal city block bounded by Broadway to

10164-403: The building, as was required under city law. Ansonia Associates had completed several aspects of the renovation by early 1990. These included a new boiler room; upgraded telephone and wiring systems; repairs to the roof; and addition of storm windows. The building also experienced several major incidents during this time. For example, a resident died in a fire in January 1990. That March, one person

10318-427: The building, but they could not do so without first fixing the building-code issues. The New York City Conciliation and Appeals Board (CAB) placed a rent freeze on 500 rent-regulated apartments at the Ansonia in 1976, having received multiple complaints from tenants. The Plato's Retreat club opened at the hotel in late 1977. The club routinely attracted over 250 couples per night but did not allow single men to enter. As

10472-462: The case involved 22,000 pages of testimony and lasted four months. In another lawsuit filed by several tenants, a state judge ruled that the owner could temporarily raise rents to pay for capital improvements, but that the owner had to undo the rent increases when the project was finished. The latter decision was later overturned. The New York City Department of Sanitation fined the Ansonia's owners $ 400,000 in 1988 for failing to remove asbestos from

10626-409: The case of a freehold condominium the owner owns the land and building and the corporation owns common shared roadways and amenities. The Canadian Condominium Institute is a non-profit association of condominium owners and corporations with chapters in each province and territory. The Condo Owners Association COA Ontario is a non-profit association representing condominium owners with divisions across

10780-513: The city's CAB recategorize the building as an apartment house. The CAB unfroze rents for 333 apartments in early 1980 after the owners had announced their intentions to repair these apartments. The CAB unfroze each apartment's rent after that unit had been repaired. Krasnow then notified each tenant of the rent increase, to which the tenants had 72 hours to respond. The owners indicated that they would raise these apartments' rents by 46 percent, to make up for rent increases that had been deferred during

10934-487: The city. Meanwhile, the Ansonia's developer William E. D. Stokes, an heir to the wealthy Stokes family, developed and bought real estate on the Upper West Side in the late 19th century. From 1887 to 1890, Stokes bought land at the intersection of 73rd Street and Broadway, but he did not redevelop the land immediately. According to the writer Elizabeth Hawes , the Ansonia was one of Stokes's "dream houses", along with

11088-567: The condominium ( "Condominio" ) is governed by law, last reformed in 2012. Co-ownership of the common parts of the buildings (such as the stairs, main walls, facades, roof, and courtyards) is mandatory: a landlord can not give up the right to common parts for not paying the costs. Each owner's quota in the condominium is expressed in thousandths ( "millesimi" ) of the whole; these are used to determine majorities in owners' assemblies ( "assemblee condominiali" ). See housing cooperative under owners association . Condominiums (Norwegian Eierseksjon )

11242-449: The development is built on leased land. As condominium unit owners may wish to rent their home to tenants , similar to renting out single-owner real estate, but leasing rights may be subject to conditions or restrictions set forth in the declaration (such as a rental cap for the total number of units in a community that can be leased at one time) or otherwise as permitted by local law. A homeowners association (HOA), whose members are

11396-436: The discounted price. Ansonia Associates initially proposed selling 50 condos for between $ 101,000 and $ 939,000, and they planned to spend between $ 9 million and $ 11 million on further renovations. The proposed renovations included restoration of the lobby, sitting rooms, and elevators; adding kitchens; adding ventilation ducts and fans to 250 units; and replacing the electrical distribution system, The main entrance on 73rd Street,

11550-491: The early 1970s, dozens of crimes were being reported at the Ansonia every year, and Starr agreed to hire security guards to protect the building 16 hours a day and install alarms and taller gates. Increasing crime had prompted tenants to patrol the corridors themselves. Residents filed multiple lawsuits against the Ansonia Holding Corporation, the building's legal owner, in an attempt to force Starr to fix

11704-432: The east, 74th Street to the north, West End Avenue to the west, and 73rd Street to the south. The land lot covers 44,375 sq ft (4,122.6 m). The site has frontage of about 185 ft (56 m) on 74th Street, 218 ft (66 m) on Broadway, and 249 ft (76 m) on 73rd Street. It occupies what was originally 42 land lots. The Ansonia is on a curved section of Broadway, which runs diagonally to

11858-542: The elevator shafts. The Ansonia Hotel Corporation signed a new ten-year lease for the hotel in 1936 and announced that it would add a more modern air-cooling system to the Ansonia. During World War II , the apartments were placed under rent control , a measure that was intended to be temporary but remained in place for half a century. In September 1942, workers began removing the Ansonia Hotel's ornamental copper cartouches and copper cornices to provide scrap metal for

12012-633: The equivalent legal structures of a condominium is commonhold , a form of ownership introduced in September 2004. As of 3 June 2009, there were 12 commonhold residential developments comprising 97 units in England and one commonhold residential development, comprising 30 units, in Wales. "Condominium" is not a term that is widely used in England and Wales. Commonhold is a creature of statute and comparatively rare, and condominiums are more likely to be found in

12166-411: The equivalent to a condominium is a "multi-owner building" or "building in multiple ownership". These are sometimes part of a private housing estate comprising multiple buildings but often consist of a single building owned in common. The relationships among the parties, including rights of exclusive occupation of flats and parking spaces, are defined by the deed of mutual covenant ("DMC", analogous to

12320-465: The establishment of conditions for joint ownership and use of inter-apartment stairs, elevators, corridors, roofs, technical basements, non-apartment engineering equipment, adjacent territory, and other common areas. In Singapore and Malaysia , "Condo" or "Condominium" are terms used for housing buildings with some special luxury features like security guards, swimming pools, or tennis courts. In Singapore, most houses without such features are built by

12474-481: The expenditure of money to perform. This did not create a significant problem until the 1950s when flats (where ownership is divided horizontally) first began to appear on the market as more affordable, particularly for first-time buyers. Until then flats had been confined to short-term unsaleable tenancies, with varying degrees of statutory rent protection and security of tenure. It was soon learned that freehold flats were an unsatisfactory form of ownership because it

12628-526: The exterior of the units. Generally, these sets of rules and regulations are made available to residents and or as a matter of public record, via a condominium or homeowners association website, or through public files, depending on the state and its applicable laws. Condominiums are usually owned in fee simple title , but can be owned in ways that other real estate can be owned, such as title held in trust . In some jurisdictions, such as Ontario , Canada, or Hawaii US, there are "leasehold condominiums" where

12782-404: The exteriors of the dwellings or yards, and "site condominiums", where the owner has more control and possibly ownership (as in a "whole lot" or "lot line" condominium) over the exterior appearance. These structures are preferred by some planned neighborhoods and gated communities . The description of the condominium units and the common areas and any restrictions on their use are established in

12936-447: The facade had been built to the second floor. At the time, the building was expected to cost $ 800,000 and rise 14 stories. The structure was significantly taller than most of the other buildings in the vicinity, which were generally three to four stories at most. Stokes said in late 1900 that 150 people had applied for apartments at the hotel, although he had not publicly announced the building's name. Sixteen hundred workers were employed in

13090-539: The facade has remained largely intact. Stokes headed the Onward Construction Company, which acquired the site in July 1899 and built the hotel there. The restaurants in the hotel were dedicated in February 1903, though the hotel itself did not formally open until April 16, 1904. Frank Harriman leased the Ansonia in 1911, turning it into a short-term hotel, and the Bowman-Biltmore Hotels chain took over in 1918 and renovated

13244-524: The form of leaseholds because of long-standing legal differences between leasehold and freehold tenure. By virtue of the landmark case of Tulk v Moxhay , in English law only restrictive covenants can be enforced against freehold land. This means it is not possible to enforce a positive covenant on successive owners of freehold land, other than to maintain a boundary fence, without creating an elaborate trust. A positive covenant is, broadly, one that involves

13398-436: The freedom to select whom to sell to, under-the-table payments are common. Current public policy favors condominiums over housing cooperatives, and recent legislation has aimed at making the latter more condominium-like. For example, since 2005, cooperative shares may be used to secure bank loans. (However, Danish mortgage banks still may not mortgage individual housing cooperative apartments.) In England and Wales , one of

13552-441: The governmental Housing Development Board (HDB), and such HDB units can be possessed for rent or individually bought from the government. Condominiums and HDB flats make up the overwhelming majority of available residential housing in the country. Rutgers Presbyterian Church 40°46′46.6″N 73°58′56.5″W  /  40.779611°N 73.982361°W  / 40.779611; -73.982361 Rutgers Presbyterian Church

13706-467: The ground level and add a ballroom there. The hotel began to attract sportsmen like boxer Jack Dempsey , in part because of what writer Steven Gaines described as "the Ansonia's racy reputation as a home to gamblers and spies and deposed dictators". After World War I, many New York Yankees players stayed at the Ansonia, including Babe Ruth , Bob Meusel , Lefty O'Doul , and Wally Schang . One resident, Chicago White Sox first baseman Chick Gandil , held

13860-403: The hotel for 20 years for a total of $ 5.5 million. Walter S. Schneider was hired to design a renovation of the building costing $ 500,000. The plans included a gymnasium, swimming pool, ballroom, and indoor golf course. The golf course on the second floor, as well as handball courts on the roof, were unpopular and were removed shortly thereafter. The Stokes family continued to own the hotel, refusing

14014-445: The hotel on a monthly lease from November 1928 to April 1929. McClary reportedly spent $ 160,000 on renovating the hotel. Although McClary claimed to have given up the hotel's lease of her own volition. her company filed for bankruptcy several months afterward. Ansco Hotel Systems Inc. took over the hotel at the beginning of May 1929, with Paul Henkel in charge. The new operators, a group of men who operated Keens Chop House, agreed to lease

14168-494: The hotel was worth $ 6.5 million, of which the land was worth $ 2.65 million and the building was worth $ 3.85 million. At the time, Stokes's wife Helen sought to divorce him, and Helen's lawyer claimed that Stokes was intentionally undervaluing the Ansonia and was receiving tens of thousands of dollars in annual rent. The same year, federal agents raided the Ansonia after discovering that its operators were selling alcoholic beverages in violation of Prohibition -era restrictions. Although

14322-471: The hotel's many issues. The tenants only won one lawsuit through 1978, which blocked the landlord from raising the rent by 13 percent between 1976 and 1977. One tenant claimed the pipes were so dirty that she had to run her faucet for half an hour before taking a bath. while another tenant said that constant flooding had damaged a light socket in her apartment. The Continental Baths in the basement had closed by 1973. When Starr died, his heirs also sought to sell

14476-458: The hotel's title to his son, W. E. D. "Weddie" Stokes Jr., but the elder Stokes would still operate the hotel. At the time, the elder Stokes had been shot several months earlier and believed that he would die. Harriman announced plans to convert the Ansonia from an apartment hotel to a transient hotel by dividing the apartments, which typically had up to eighteen rooms, into guestrooms with no more than two rooms. According to Albert Pease, who brokered

14630-543: The hotel, which was estimated to be worth $ 4.5 million. Childs Restaurants leased the hotel's Fountain Room and ground-level bank for use as a restaurant in 1927, and Keens Chop House leased the main dining room the same year. The Onward Construction Company then leased the hotel to the Ansonia Hotel Corporation until November 1928. Zue McClary, proprietor of the Ansonia Hotel Corporation, then operated

14784-475: The hotel. Stokes's son W. E. D. "Weddie" Stokes acquired the hotel after his father's death in 1926. The Ansonia passed through multiple operators during the 1920s and stopped offering hotel services in the early 1930s. The building was sold three times between 1945 and 1948 before being auctioned in 1950 to Jacob Starr. The Ansonia gradually fell into disrepair through the 1970s, and Ansonia Associates eventually acquired it in 1978. Ansonia Associates repaired many of

14938-613: The important New York architect Minard Lafever, designed at a time when Lafever was transitioning from an architect who specialized in the Greek Revival to one who employed the Gothic Revival for his churches. The congregation subsequently moved into the Lenox Chapel (29th and Madison) in 1863. They razed it in 1873 and built a new church at that location. Fifteen years later, the congregation sold this property and used

15092-401: The individual retail and office spaces are owned by the businesses that occupy them, while the common areas of the mall are collectively owned by all the business entities that own the individual spaces. Unlike apartments, which are leased by their tenants , in most systems condominium units are owned outright, and the owners of the individual units also collectively own the common areas of

15246-499: The industrialist Anson Greene Phelps . Over the years, the Ansonia has housed many conductors, opera singers, baseball players, and other famous and wealthy people. The Ansonia is a New York City designated landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places . The building occupies a large, irregular site on the west side of Broadway. It has a facade of limestone, granite, white brick, and terracotta, as well as turrets at its corners, light courts along each side, and

15400-547: The interior side of the walls surrounding a condo, allowing the homeowner to make some interior modifications without impacting the common area. Anything outside this boundary is held in an undivided ownership interest by a corporation established at the time of the condominium's creation. The corporation holds this property in trust on behalf of the homeowners as a group—it may not have ownership itself. Some condominium complexes consist of single-family dwellings. There are also "detached condominiums" where homeowners do not maintain

15554-527: The judge ruled in the ARA's favor, Garland said that "people were concerned for my safety" because Starr was furious at him. Unable to raise rents at the Ansonia, Starr announced plans to demolish it and build a 40-story tower in its place. The ARA first tried to find a rich buyer for the building, without success. Residents then asked the LPC to designate the building as a city landmark. At a public hearing in April 1970,

15708-416: The legal power to collect that. Condominium ownership is also used, albeit less frequently, for non-residential land uses: offices, hotel rooms, retail shops, private airports, marinas, group housing facilities (retirement homes or dormitories), bare land (in British Columbia ) and storage . The legal structure is the same, and many of the benefits are similar; for instance, a nonprofit corporation may face

15862-551: The masonry workers went on strike in May 1902, Stokes offered $ 1,000 to end the strike. That August, the Bank for Savings lent the Onward Construction Company $ 1.5 million to complete the building. The hotel's construction was delayed by numerous other labor strikes. For example, plasterers went on strike in July 1902 for six months. Carpenters and painters, plumbers, gas installers, and marble installers each went on strike for several weeks. As

16016-605: The master deed described above) and the Building Management Ordinance Cap. 344. Condominiums are a very common form of real estate ownership in contemporary Hungary, as most state- or municipality-owned apartments were privatized following the end of socialism in Hungary in 1989. Historically, condominiums ( Hungarian : társasház ) were formalized as a legal ownership structure as early as 1924. Condominiums in Hungary are traded and mortgaged on

16170-447: The money to buy more apartment buildings. That February, tenants formed a committee to fight Broxmeyer's management of the building, and state and federal judges signed separate orders preventing the Ansonia's furnishings from being sold off. Menin was appointed as trustee of Ansonia House Inc. the same month. Some tenants refused to pay rent after Menin took over the Ansonia, prompting him to begin evicting these tenants that June. Broxmeyer

16324-485: The most important law considering condominiums is the Wohnungseigentumsgesetz (abbreviated WoEigG). It is the basis for all legal regulations involving individual freehold ownership, the rights, and duties of homeowner associations, and the management of condominiums. The WoEigG dates back to 1951, but it was re-enacted in 2007. Now, homeowners are invested with partial legal capacity, which means that

16478-502: The neighborhood, the LPC designated the building as a city landmark on March 15, 1972, preventing the facade from being modified or demolished without the LPC's approval. Despite the landmark designation, the Ansonia continued to suffer from what the Times called "steadily deteriorating mechanical systems and a warren-like layout". In addition, the designation only applied to the facade, as interior-landmark designations did not yet exist. By

16632-402: The next year, Adams was found in his room, dead of a gunshot wound. The Ansonia also faced several lawsuits after its completion. For example, contractor Vinton Improvement Company sued Stokes for $ 68,000 in 1904, claiming that Stokes had failed to pay the company while the labor strikes were ongoing. Another contractor sued Stokes in 1907 for $ 90,000. Stokes defended himself by claiming that Duboy

16786-637: The northeast, the Apple Bank Building to the east, and the Dorilton one block south. Directly south of the Ansonia is Verdi Square and an entrance for the New York City Subway 's 72nd Street station , serving the 1 , ​ 2 , and ​ 3 trains. The city's first subway line was developed starting in the late 1890s, and it opened in 1904 with a station at Broadway and 72nd Street. The construction of

16940-535: The obligations of the owners with regard to assessments, maintenance, and use of the units and common areas, although those obligations are often found in the condominium's founding documents. Finally, they may set limits on the conduct of unit owners and residents. These are more readily amendable than the declaration or association bylaws, typically requiring only a vote of the governing body. Typical rules include mandatory maintenance fees (perhaps collected monthly), pet restrictions, and color/design choices visible from

17094-539: The other being a Co-operative Housing Society (CHS) or Co-operative Group Housing Society (CGHS), which needs to be registered with the municipal authorities. Iranian government has begun supporting villas and opposing apartment building concerned by people's manner. In Israel, condominiums (known "בתים משותפים" , "shared houses" or "cooperative houses") are a common form of home ownership. Public housing has historically been organized as subsidized purchases and mortgages in government-constructed condominiums. In Italy,

17248-792: The owners themselves; in the 21st century, however, the owners' convention typically hires a professional building manager who does not personally live in the building. Decisions that involve changes to the terms and conditions, or larger common expenses, still need to be approved by the convention, however. Voting power is based on the percentage of property owned. In India, condominiums are known as "Apartments" or "Apartment Buildings/Complexes" or "Societies" or "Flats". Each building consists of multiple floors and flats/living units with different configurations. The most common configurations are "1-BHK", "2-BHK" and "3-BHK" (BHK stands for bedroom-hall-kitchen). The association of homeowners has many names - two common names are Resident Welfare Association (RWA) and

17402-733: The owners through their association, such as a homeowner association or its equivalent. Scholars have traced the earliest known use of the condominium form of tenure to a document from first-century Babylon . The word condominium originated in Latin . Condominium is an invented Latin word formed by adding the prefix con- 'together' to the word dominium 'dominion, ownership'. Its meaning is, therefore, 'joint dominion' or 'co-ownership'. Condominia (the Latin plural of condominium ) originally referred to territories over which two or more sovereign powers shared joint sovereignty. This technique

17556-493: The proceeds to build a chapel (1888) and church (1890) at the corner of 73rd Street and Broadway—near the Ansonia Hotel . The church has largely embraced social justice, and has broken with mainstream Christian beliefs. Its congregants are not strictly required to have a traditional based belief in God, the church has hung up a Black Lives Matter banner, and gender fluid buttons are available for its members. Today's Rutgers Church

17710-552: The property, such as the exterior of the building, roof, corridors/hallways, walkways, and laundry rooms, as well as common utilities and amenities, such as the HVAC system and elevators. In other property regimes, such as those in Hong Kong and Finland , the entire buildings are owned in common with exclusive rights to occupy units assigned to the individual owners. The common areas, amenities, and utilities are managed collectively by

17864-521: The property. That October, Louis Schleiffer agreed to buy the purchase contract for the Ansonia, as well as take over the hotel's $ 2.17 million mortgage. The Ansonia Realty Corporation, headed by Edwin S. Lowe, took title to the building in February 1946. That April, Lowe announced that he would convert the second floor into the Ansonia Professional Center, with 42 offices for doctors and dentists. The Dajon Realty Corporation bought

18018-412: The province and districts within the various municipalities. Apartments (Danish ejerlejlighed , literally "owner-apartment") comprise some 5% of Danish homes. They are traded and mortgaged on the same markets as freestanding houses, and are treated legally much like other forms of real estate. Each owner-tenant directly owns their own apartment; the rest of the building and the ground on which it stands

18172-481: The provisions to create enforceable positive covenants in freehold blocks of flats were occasionally mooted but never gained currency. On 21 July 2020 the UK Law Commission reported on the existing difficulties and made proposals to improve the law and encourage the acceptance of commonhold as the preferred form of tenure. In Finland, a condominium-like arrangement where the ownership of the real estate

18326-409: The public rooms were decorated in the Louis XIV style . An art curator, Joseph Gilmartin, was hired to display the hotel's collection of 600 paintings. The ground floor was devoted to public rooms and consisted of various offices and corridors. Originally, there were several storefronts at ground level, including a bank, a florist, and a pharmacy. The hotel's lobby included a fountain with live seals and

18480-413: The purchase of a flat, for the requirements for a fully marketable flat remain complex. The Law of Property Act 1925 , s. 153, contains provisions for the "enlargement" of leases into freeholds, one of the effects of which is to preserve the enforceability of positive covenants contained in the lease against the resulting freehold. There are clear, but stringent, requirements. Artificial schemes using

18634-464: The rent freeze, but some tenants received a 300 percent rent increase. This prompted the ARA to begin a rent strike in March 1980, making their rent payments to an escrow account. Some of the tenants were unable to pay the increased rates, as they were retired and lived on Social Security payments. The owners and the ARA settled their dispute in February 1981. The settlement limited the extent to which

18788-452: The rents could be raised, provided tenants with rent abatements and concessions, and placed restrictions on the scope of the renovations. A group of dissenting residents, led by Thomas Soja, formed the Ansonia Tenants Coalition (ATC). Members of the ATC also paid rent into an escrow account, then sued Krasnow using the interest collected from that account. The Ansonia's owners planned to convert

18942-532: The rest of the interior. Existing residents disliked these changes so much that they asked the LPC to designate the building's interior as a city landmark. An article in The Village Voice , documenting the changes, was published under the headline "Barbarians Rape the Ansonia". Residents and officials also raised concerns that the Ansonia was being classified as a residential hotel despite no longer providing hotel services. As such, residents requested that

19096-467: The sale, the decision to convert the Ansonia into a transient hotel had been influenced by the proximity of the 72nd Street station, which at the time was only one station away from Grand Central Terminal . Upon taking over the hotel. Harriman spent over $ 100,000 on renovations, including a new restaurant and restoring the basement swimming pool. Federal and city officials thwarted a 1916 plot by German operatives Franz von Papen and Karl Boy-Ed to detonate

19250-401: The same market as any free-standing single-family home ( Hungarian : kertesház ; "garden-house"), and are treated much like other forms of real estate. The condominium acts as a non-profit legal entity maintaining the common areas of the property, and is managed by a representative ( Hungarian : közös képviselő ) elected by the owners' convention. Historically, this representative was one of

19404-427: The security of flats unless certain basic provisions were included. This benefited owners whether or not they borrowed money since the purchase was invariably conducted through a solicitor or licensed conveyancer trained to reject leases failing to meet the necessary standards. Despite these standards, the actual form of leasehold systems is variable. Highly favoured are arrangements where the leases are granted out of

19558-487: The structure's construction by early 1901, when the hotel's facade was nearly complete. The hotel was known at the time as the Anson-Stokes, after William's grandfather, and was projected to be the world's largest hotel, beating out the old Waldorf-Astoria . The hotel's construction was delayed by numerous labor strikes , including a six-week strike among bricklayers and a two-month strike among masonry workers. After

19712-461: The subway spurred the development of high-rise apartment buildings on the Upper West Side along Broadway; many of these buildings were constructed on land that had never been developed. The Ansonia was one of several large apartment buildings developed on the Upper West Side in the early 1900s, along with such structures as the Dorilton and the Astor . The Ansonia was built as a residential hotel and

19866-746: The table napkins and towels three times a day and the bedsheets twice a week. Other objects such as soap, stationery, and light bulbs were cleaned or replaced regularly. Although the apartments were originally priced at $ 600 to $ 6,000 a year, some of these suites were rented for $ 14,000 a year. Hawes wrote that the Ansonia, with its massive size, "effectively outdid every apartment building that had preceded it". The Ansonia's thick walls and large apartment sizes attracted many musicians, particularly opera singers and conductors. It also attracted gamblers, prostitutes, and other "shady characters" in its early years. As early as 1906, Stokes had rented an apartment to gangster Al Adams, who had recently been released from prison;

20020-404: The tenants who had most strongly opposed the condo-conversion plan. In 1990, the tenants and Ansonia Associates finally agreed on a condo offering plan, wherein they could either buy or continue to rent their apartments. Tenants who wished to buy their apartments would pay 60 percent below market rates; for a one-bedroom apartment, this equated to $ 125,000, although many tenants could not afford even

20174-542: The time of the Ansonia's construction, it was the largest-ever plumbing contract. Of the 340 original apartments 222 were classified as housekeeping suites, whose residents could hire one or two servants who lived in the apartment. The modern-day Ansonia has 425 apartments, as well as a garage and a rooftop terrace. The hotel contained about 175 mi (282 km) of pipe, about ten times as much as in similarly sized office buildings. The pipes carried gas; hot, cold, and iced water; electrical wiring; and sewage. The boilers had

20328-468: The top floors. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) began collecting photographs and other documents for several buildings, including the Ansonia, in 1963 after Fortune magazine published an article titled "Vanishing Glory in Business Buildings". At the time, the LPC did not have the power to designate buildings itself. The nonprofit organization American Music Center

20482-399: The unit owners, manages the condominium through a board of directors elected by the membership. This exists under various names depending on the jurisdiction, such as "unit title", "sectional title", " commonhold ", "strata council", or " tenant-owner's association ", "body corporate", "Owners Corporation", "condominium corporation" or "condominium association". Another variation of this concept

20636-413: The units open directly to the outside and are not stacked. Alternatively, detached condominiums look like single-family homes , but the yards (gardens), building exteriors, and streets, as well as any recreational facilities (such as a pool, bowling alley, tennis courts, and golf course), are jointly owned and maintained by a community association . Many shopping malls are commercial condominiums in which

20790-434: The verge of falling off the facade. Starr refused to rectify any of these building-code violations, claiming that they were too expensive to resolve, so he did not receive a certificate of occupancy. General neglect continued to characterize the Ansonia in subsequent years. Following a series of robberies at the hotel, its managers added CCTV systems to the elevators in 1960, and vigilante groups of residents began patrolling

20944-430: The walls might be derived from Stokes's mistrust of insurance companies and his desire to make the structure fireproof. There were also reportedly 175 miles (282 km) of pipes and tubes laid throughout the building. Embedded in the walls was a system of pneumatic tubes , which allowed residents and staff to communicate easily. Each apartment had a landline for long-distance calling and call bells to summon staff; there

21098-456: The walls, and the skylight at the top of the building's main staircase was blacked out. A piece of the hotel's masonry cornice fell to the ground in 1944, killing an employee. The Stokes family's Onward Construction Corporation agreed in August 1945 to sell the building to a client of attorney Abraham Traub for $ 2.5 million. The client, Rexby Realty, announced plans to spend $ 200,000 on renovating

21252-501: The weekends. Meanwhile, the Ansonia had been reclassified as a residential hotel after the city's zoning codes were modified in 1968. Harry Garland, one of many voice coaches who lived at the Ansonia, established the building's first tenants' association, the Ansonia Residents Association (ARA). Members of the ARA petitioned a state judge to freeze the Ansonia's rents until Starr had made the repairs. After

21406-409: Was 12 years old, he installed a radio transmitter on the roof of the hotel. For a short time in 1929, the roof contained handball courts. Residents lived in "luxurious" apartments with multiple bedrooms, parlors, libraries, and formal dining rooms. The smallest units had one room and one bath, while the largest units had 18 rooms with several baths and toilets. Generally, the apartments were designed in

21560-534: Was also a hall attendant on every floor. The walls also included a system of pipes that carried freezing brine , which was characterized as an early version of an air-conditioning system. The brine pipes allowed the building to maintain a constant temperature of 70 °F (21 °C) year-round. Many of the smaller guestrooms initially did not have kitchens because they were intended for short-term guests; instead, there were refrigerators in these units. Apartments with kitchens were equipped with electric ranges . After

21714-460: Was being repaired. Krasnow had spent $ 21 million on renovations by 1980; he had created a $ 4 million reserve fund for the building, and he opened a 100-space parking garage in the basement to provide income for the Ansonia. Even so, Krasnow continued to face considerable opposition from residents. The owners had renovated the 12th-floor hallway with dropped ceilings and two types of wallpaper and carpeting, intending to extend these design features to

21868-476: Was completed. Leading from the lobby was a large stairwell, characterized as a spiral staircase. The marble-and-iron stairway was intended to complement the lobby's marble floor, which was designed in a black-and-white checkerboard pattern. The stairway was topped by a skylight , which was blacked out during World War II. The building reportedly had about 4.5 mi (7,200 m) of hallways in total. Hallways measured 10 ft (3.0 m) wide. Each story also had

22022-467: Was decorated with Louis XVI style grilles and scrollwork, leading the Ansonia to be nicknamed "the Wedding Cake of the Upper West Side". The building is topped by a convex mansard roof , which measures three stories high. Prior to World War II, the building had a copper cornice and seven copper cartouches , each weighing 4 to 5 short tons (3.6 to 4.5 long tons; 3.6 to 4.5 t). Each domed cupola

22176-551: Was dedicated on May 13, 1798. According to the Rutgers Church's official Website, "By 1830… Rutgers had become the largest Presbyterian church in the denomination, with 1,157 members. The old frame church was replaced in 1843 with a large stone structure (still standing and in use as the Roman Catholic Church of St. Teresa )." Church records indicate that this building is a hitherto unrecognized work by

22330-412: Was flanked by two banks of elevators. Next to the main entrance, on 73rd Street, was a palm court and assembly room. The ground-floor restaurant, decorated with chandeliers and hand-painted murals, could fit 550 people and included a balcony from which an orchestra performed at night. Also on the ground floor was a small grill room. There was a ballroom on the second floor, which was briefly converted into

22484-506: Was formally introduced in 1983. Approximately 19% of Norwegian homes are condominiums, as approximately 50% of the owner-occupied flats and duplexes, approximately 30% of the rowhouses, and 2.5% of the detached houses are organized as condominiums. The title "Condominiums" is not used in Pakistan rather they are called "Flats" for average-style buildings while "Complexes" for sophisticated and larger buildings. The minimum number of floors for

22638-579: Was frequently used to settle border disputes when multiple claimants could not agree on how to partition the disputed territory. For example, from 1818 to 1846, Oregon Country was a condominium over which both the United States and Great Britain shared joint sovereignty until the Oregon Treaty resolved the issue by splitting the territory along the 49th parallel and each country gaining sole sovereignty of one side. The distinction between

22792-512: Was headquartered at the Ansonia in the 1960s. To earn money from the hotel, Starr converted its long-abandoned basement pool to a gay bathhouse, the Continental Baths, during 1967 or 1968. The Continental Baths also hosted cabaret shows, and Bette Midler provided musical entertainment there early in her career, with Barry Manilow as her accompanist. The Continental Baths' cabaret performances attracted large crowds, especially during

22946-516: Was in an insane asylum in Paris and that, when Duboy signed the final plans for the hotel in 1903, he was already insane and should not have been making commitments in Stokes's name concerning the hotel. A grillroom opened at the Ansonia Hotel in December 1908. In September 1911, Stokes leased the entire hotel for 30 years to Frank Harriman for $ 9 million. Stokes also announced that he would transfer

23100-426: Was killed and 16 others were injured after the plaster ceiling of a croissant shop at the Ansonia's ground level collapsed. An investigation found that the collapsed ceiling had supported the weight of a false ceiling and mechanical equipment that had been installed in the 1980s; the original ceiling had been further weakened when contractors drilled holes to install pipes and wiring. Meanwhile, Krasnow began buying out

23254-540: Was known as the Ansonia, although it had not formally opened. The hotel's ground-floor restaurant was formally dedicated on February 13, 1903, although the Broadway entrance was not yet complete. By August 1903, Stokes had leased most of the larger apartments, but many of the smaller units were still vacant. The hotel was dedicated on April 19, 1904; it had cost $ 6 million, eight times the original budget. The Ansonia's development coincided with that of other nearby hotels like

23408-487: Was not possible to impose essential maintenance requirements. As such, flats became virtually unmarketable because they were an unacceptable form of security to lenders. Thus solicitors, the principal property lawyers in England and Wales in those days, began to use leases instead, where such limitations did not apply. Progress was haphazard and piecemeal, but over time things became more standard. Improvements became universal as institutional lenders refused to advance money on

23562-481: Was operated by Samuel Broxmeyer, president of Ansonia House Inc., until January 1949, when Abraham I. Menin was appointed as receiver for Broxmeyer's company. Residents claimed that Broxmeyer was significantly increasing their rent, while employees alleged that they could not cash the checks that they had received as salary. Federal officials also investigated claims that Broxmeyer was collecting advance rent from tenants and failing to pay his creditors; instead, he used

23716-417: Was subsequently sentenced to five years in prison, and his assets were sold off. In April 1950, a federal judge approved Menin's recommendation that the hotel be sold to a syndicate that had placed a $ 1.021 million mortgage on the property. The buyers, led by Jacob Starr, bought the hotel for $ 40,000 or $ 50,000 in cash and assumed a $ 1.623 million mortgage. The new owners then announced that they would renovate

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