The building is noted for its curved facade, unusual among New York City buildings, and impressive marble lobby.[2] Across 116th Street, The Colosseum faces The Paterno, another building with a similar curved facade. The New York Times has said that the "opposing curves, (form) a gateway as impressive as any publicly built arch or plaza in New York."[3] The unusual curved facades are the result of an 1897 plan to make the land between Claremont Avenue and Riverside Drive into a public park in order to give veterans' parades a large park adjacent to Grant's Tomb as a terminus. The street was redesigned to enter the proposed park in a gracious curve, but the city never appropriated funds to buy the land.[3]
The Colosseum was designed by Schwartz & Gross and built by the Paterno Brothers, Charles and Joseph, in 1909-1910. The luxury four-bedroom apartments with sweeping views of the Hudson River rented for $150 to $175 a month.[3]
_cropped.jpg)
