Plans for the building, between 65th and 66th Streets, were filed by architectural firm Schwartz & Gross at the behest of Victor Earle and John C. Calhoun, for whom they were working. Earle, and his brother Guyon, had been actively developing the Upper West Side of New York City since the 1910s. The structure is considered to be mostly "second tier" by the socialite New Yorkers who occupy most of the buildings along Central Park West. It was opened as a rental property in 1930. Its neighbor to the south is the earlier Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. Upon its opening Real Estate magazine praised it as resembling "Jungfrau, that most beloved snowcapped Alpine peak." Musician Rudy Vallee and industrial designerRaymond Loewy were two of the building's earliest residents. Ginger Rogers was one of its residents during her Broadway days in the early 1930s. Hat designer Lilly Dache with husband Jean Despres of Coty Perfume were residents following their 1931 marriage until 1935. Other residents of the building have included Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Noel Ashman, Ring Lardner, Jr., and Marsha Mason. The duplex penthouse on the 19th and 20th floors was owned by composer Jerry Herman in the 1970s, before he sold it for $1 million to Klein. David Geffen later purchased it for $6 million, before selling it for $8.6 million to music executiveSteve Gottlieb, who in turn listed it the week his record label TVT Records filed for bankruptcy. He sold the apartment to Marc Lasry for $33 million in 2014.
Architecture
The building was the first fully Art Deco structure on the street.
Interior
When the building opened in 1930 it had apartments ranging from three to nine rooms, the largest of which had four bedrooms. The apartments featured a dropped living room, developed by the Earle brothers, which set the interior apart from most others constructed around the same period. An original rental brochure shows the dropped living room nearly entirely open to the entrance gallery; traditionally the gallery was held as a different room.
Exterior
The exterior of the building is somewhat non-traditional. As the brick facade rises from the ground it changes shade from deep purple to yellow-white. Color was widely used during the 1920s as a tool in architecture for overall effects. The rental brochure stated: "new modernistic design of exterior with beautiful shaded color scheme". The New Yorkers architecture critic, George S. Chappell, praised the building's use of color, said, "the total effect is exhilarating."
Significance
The building is a contributing property to the Central Park WestHistoric District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 9, 1982. It is also a contributing property to the New York City's Upper West Side / Central Park West local historic district. Benjamin Schwarz, writing for The Atlantic, said of the buildings along Central Park West, "no endeavor on earth is more arduous than getting into one of these buildings," and specifically cited the "details of Donna Karan's deal for her digs at 55 Central Park West." The building holds significance in American popular culture as it was prominently featured in the 1984 comedy Ghostbusters. In the film, "550 Central Park West" – known also as The Shandor Building, The Shandor Apartments or "Spook Central" by Dr. Ray Stantz – was the residence of the Ghostbusters' first client, cellist Dana Barrett. They later learn it had been designed and constructed by insane architect and surgeon Ivo Shandor, who founded and led a secret society in 1920, The Cult of Gozer. Consisting of over a thousand followers, The Cult was dedicated to the worship of Gozer the Gozerian, an ancient, ultra-powerful, apocalyptic entity first worshipped by the Hittites, the Mesopotamians and the Sumerians. The members of The Gozerian Cult were the original occupants of the apartment building, which Shandor had devised as a modern-day ziggurat. They performed bizarre rituals on the roof after its completion, seeking to summon Gozer The Destructor and end the world. Since Ghostbusters first hit theaters, 55 Central Park West has been known as the "Ghostbusters Building;" it was portrayed much taller and with the rooftop temple, via the eight floors that were added to exterior shots of it via matte painting by Production designer/Art director John DeCuir. The Gozerian Temple consisted of its massive, ornate shrine, altars, obelisks and the iconic gargoyle statues depicting The Terror Dogs, Zuul The Gatekeeper and Vinz Clortho The Keymaster.
