London Terrace

London Terrace
From the High Line
Location in Manhattan, New York City
General information
Town or city	Chelsea, Manhattan, New York City
Country	United States
Coordinates	40°44′50″N 74°0′7″W / 40.74722°N 74.00194°W / 40.74722; -74.00194Coordinates: 40°44′50″N 74°0′7″W / 40.74722°N 74.00194°W / 40.74722; -74.00194
Opened	1930
Design and construction
Architecture firm	Farrar & Watmough

London Terrace is an apartment building complex located in New York City, in the Chelsea section of western Manhattan. It encompasses an entire city block bounded by Ninth and Tenth Avenues, as well as by West 23rd and 24th Streets. Construction began in late 1929, at a cost of more than $25,000,000 (equivalent to $348,692,000 in 2016) on what was then to be the largest apartment building in the world.

The London Terrace building contains approximately 1,700 apartments in 14 contiguous buildings between 17 and 19 stories high as well as an Olympic sized swimming pool. London Terrace was constructed by Henry Mandel Companies and the architectural firm, Farrar & Watmough. The building is currently operated by two separate entities. London Terrace Towers is currently a co-op and managed by Douglas Elliman Property Management, while London Terrace Gardens is now a rental building and managed by Rose Associates.

The name of the building stems from the former development also known as London Terrace, which consisted of roughly 80 houses built in 1845 that resembled London flats. The location was selected by Mandel due to the short walk to midtown Manhattan offices, as a way to provide modern low-priced housing for "white collar" workers. Victor C. Farrar, architect of London Terrace, compared the project to Rockefeller Center, and stated that large scale projects conserve valuable space and rehabilitate the city with modern apartment buildings and stores

Descendants of Clement Clarke Moore leased the property to Mr. Mandel in 1929, which permitted the demolition of the six story "London Terrace" buildings and the smaller "Chelsea Cottage" in the rear, which were mostly constructed in 1845 by William Torrey after their 85-year leases expired. Mr. Mandel stated that "The section which we will develop is one of the most logical areas in downtown section for the purpose... here may be found about the only unbroken rows of old-style buildings which lend themselves readily to destruction without the interference of newer structures. The convenience of the section to the midtown and shopping centers offers another logical reason for such development". The cornerstone was laid by the Clement Clarke Moore, great-great-grandson of his namesake in December 1929, To finance construction of the complex, two separate $5.5 million bonds were issued, one for the "End Units" (now London Terrace Towers) and one for the "Garden Units" (now London Terrace Gardens), which leads to the buildings' bifurcated structure. The first buildings were opened for occupancy May 1930.