It would be impossible to dream the dreams we have of New York without the architecture of Rosario Candela. In the early 1900s, penthouse living had not yet caught on, and rooftop space was conventionally used for servants’ quarters. By the time Candela reached the height of his powers, in the late 1920s, the marketability of penthouses could no longer be ignored. Borrowing from the dramatic effect of Wall Street’s skyscraper district, and in response to developers’ need to achieve greater profitability through height, Candela developed the prototype for the New York setback penthouse, crowned with a roof tower.
This combination of features put his architecture in the movies and embedded his buildings in the public imagination. Think of the famous sequence in the 1936 film Follow the Fleet, where Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance on a terrace in front of a lantern-like illuminated tower: this penthouse set was directly inspired by Candela’s Park Avenue skyline.
Where such decadence sprang from is anybody’s guess. Candela himself was a rather severe, crew-cut family man, not prone to Hollywood theatrics or excess in his personal style.
To do a forensic study of who lived in a Candela building is to hold up a mirror to the social history of New York City. Brooke Astor, widowed in 1959, could have chosen to live anywhere. She moved to 778 Park Avenue and began her fabled reign as New York’s leading philanthropist from the 16th floor. Laurance Rockefeller bought 834 Fifth Avenue in its entirety in 1944 to secure continued occupancy of his penthouse apartment. His father, John D. Rockefeller Jr., did the same at 740 Park.
The 12th floor of 960 Fifth Avenue, a sprawling simplex with 13-foot ceilings, has always been considered the best apartment in New York, consistently setting price records. Ailsa Mellon Bruce, Paul Mellon’s sister, called the apartment home until her death, in 1969, after which it sold for a then record $900,000. In 1985, the apartment was bought by Sid and Anne Bass of Fort Worth, Texas, who renovated it with Mark Hampton in a striking Georgian-minimalist style and filled the rooms with masterpieces by Monet, Rothko, Agnes Martin, and Balthus.
The most famous owner of any Candela apartment without a doubt has been Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. She bought the 15th floor of 1040 Fifth Avenue as a widow in July 1964 from Mr. and Mrs. Lowell Weicker, who moved upstairs to the penthouse. One of the most balanced and satisfying of Candela’s layouts, generous if not grand, the apartment had terraces, three fireplaces, and five bedrooms. There was an easel set up in the Louis XV–paneled living room overlooking Central Park that the owner, a watercolorist all her life, actually used.
When Mrs. Kennedy first moved to the building, everyone was quite flustered by her presence. One evening, a distinguished older couple arrived in black tie for dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Charles Whitehouse (parents of the present senator from Rhode Island), who at that time lived in apartment 10/11C. The doorman—in a Freudian moment upon hearing the words “White House”—sent them mistakenly to the 15th floor. Kennedy answered the door in a cardigan, barefoot and amused.
If we seek an example of the enduring power of Candela’s work beyond its beauty, we need only to look at its value: in 1927, 1970, 1982, 2000, 2014, and 2015, the price records for a New York co-op apartment were all set in buildings designed by him.
David Netto is a New York– and Los Angeles–based interior designer
