32 Facts About The Dakota

1.

Dakota, known as the Dakota Apartments, is a cooperative apartment building at 1 West 72nd Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States.

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2.

The Dakota was constructed between 1880 and 1884 in the Renaissance Revival style and was designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh for businessman Edward Cabot Clark.

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3.

The Dakota occupies the western side of Central Park West between 72nd and 73rd Streets.

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4.

The Dakota has historically been home to many artists, actors, and musicians, including John Lennon, who was murdered outside the building in 1980.

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5.

The Dakota is at 1 West 72nd Street in the Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City.

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6.

The Dakota is one of several apartment buildings on Central Park West that are primarily identified by an official name.

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7.

Unlike other large apartment buildings on Central Park West, the Dakota was not named after a previous building on the site.

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8.

The row houses were in the middle of the block, where land values were lower, whereas the Dakota was built on the more valuable site next to Central Park.

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9.

The Dakota is a nine-story building; most of the building is seven stories high, although there are two-story gables.

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10.

The Dakota's use of soft-hued buff brick contrasted with the facade of the Van Corlear, which was a "harsh red".

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11.

The Dakota's basement contained a laundry, storerooms, a kitchen, and the mechanical plant.

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12.

The Dakota had a ladies' reception room with an artwork by the Misses Greatorex.

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13.

The Dakota is New York City's oldest surviving luxury apartment building, although it was not the first such structure to be built in the city.

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14.

The more likely origin for the "The Dakota" name was Clark's fondness for the names of the then-new western states and territories.

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15.

The Dakota's remoteness did directly give rise to the nickname "Clark's Folly".

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16.

Work on the Dakota was delayed in August 1883 when the plasterers went on strike to protest the employment of non-union laborers at the site.

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17.

The Dakota was followed by the Osborne, a large apartment building on 57th Street, in 1885; a law restricting the height of large apartment houses in New York City passed the same year.

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18.

The Dakota's address was originally 301 West 72nd Street, since the address numbers of buildings on Manhattan's west–east numbered streets were based on the building's distances from Fifth Avenue.

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19.

The Dakota's completion spurred the construction of other large apartment buildings in the area, several of which were named after regions in the western United States.

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20.

Nonetheless, the Dakota remained the only large apartment building in the neighborhood until the end of the 19th century.

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21.

The Dakota had its own power plant, so the lack of municipal electric service did not affect the building.

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22.

Whereas the Dakota underwent few alterations in its first fifty years, the neighborhood changed dramatically during that period.

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23.

The Dakota was one of twelve apartment buildings on Central Park West to be converted into housing cooperatives in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

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24.

The Dakota's board voted in 1975 to ban the installation of air conditioners that protruded through the building's facade, since the LPC would have to approve every air conditioner that was installed.

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25.

The Dakota's board had rejected numerous high-profile personalities who had wanted to move into the building.

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26.

The Dakota's board decided to repair the most deteriorated bricks rather than replace the whole facade.

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27.

The Dakota had fewer apartments than nearby co-ops, maintenance expenses tended to be much higher.

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28.

The Dakota's board maintains a set of house rules for residents and their guests; in 2011, The New York Times characterized several of the rules as appearing "like they could have been drafted when the building opened".

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29.

Stern wrote in 1999: "The Dakota was an undisputed masterpiece, far and away the grandest apartment house of the Gilded Age in New York and rivaling, if not exceeding, in logic and luxury any comparable building in Paris and London".

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30.

The Dakota has appeared in several popular media works, including Roman Polanski's 1968 film Rosemary's Baby.

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31.

The Dakota was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and was re-added to the NRHP as a National Historic Landmark in 1976.

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32.

The Dakota is part of the Central Park West Historic District, which was designated as an NRHP district in 1982, as well as the Upper West Side Historic District, which became a New York City historic district in 1990.

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