The Riviera, a twelve-story cooperative located at 790 Riverside Drive on the corner of 157th Street in New York City, has long been a coveted address in the Washington Heights area. This extraordinary masonry building was built in 1910 by the architectural team of Rouse and Goldstone in the Beaux-Arts style.
The Beaux-Arts style combined ancient Greek and Roman forms with Renaissance ideas, to create an eclectic neoclassical design. Because of the size and grandiosity of these buildings, Beaux Arts became a favored style in New York after many American architects began to study in France in the late nineteenth century.
Today, at nearly 100 years old, the Riviera has its original, ornamental and architectural details intact. After walking through the black wrought iron and glass doors, one enters the grand marble lobby lined with stained glass windows. Above is a beautiful hand-painted coffered ceiling. In the center of the building are gilt-iron and marble double staircases.
The Riviera stands on a lot that was once part of a farm belonging to the painter and naturalist, John James Audubon, land that later passed into the family of George Bird Grinnell, founder of the Audubon Society. It is just a few steps away from Audubon Terrace, a complex of buildings that was Americas first planned cultural center, designed by Archer Milton Huntington in 1904. Today Audubon Terrace houses The Hispanic Society of America, The American Academy of Arts and Letters, and Boricua College.
The Riviera, with its views overlooking the Hudson River, is conveniently located just one block west from the #1 train. This magnificent building, which has been the residence of numerous notable New Yorkers including publisher and humorist Bennett Cerf, economic journalist Meryle Ruckeyser and radical leader, Stokely Carmichael, remains one of the historic jewels of the neighborhood.
Click here for a slide show of the Riviera