‘Glass House’ Draws Praise And Price Bids
by tony barsamian with linda j. wilson

Rothenstein house viewed from the outside.

Forty years ago, two 10-year-old boys watched a most unusual structure being built across the street from the field where they played soccer in Astoria Park. Tony Argento and Demetrius Partridge couldn’t have known at the time that they were witness to the construction of one of a very few reinforced concrete slab houses ever built in the United States, but as they saw the building rise, they wondered what the inside would look like. “One day, we’ll be there,” they resolved.

Partridge and Argento both grew up to be two of the most successful realtors in the Astoria area—Argento, alone, owns 1 million square feet of real estate, including Silvercup Studios, one of the busiest and most successful film and television production facilities on the East Coast, and the Partridge name is well known for commercial and residential sales and rentals in Astoria. Last week, the two finally got their wish, born on that soccer field long ago, to see the inside of the four-story, 5.400-square-foot home at 14-22 Astoria Park South that they saw go up and which they will always know as “the glass house”.

Views of the Triborough Bridge and Astoria Park.

The house was designed by Guy Rothenstein, a pioneer in the field of pre-cast reinforced concrete slab construction. The technique is widely used in Europe for both small buildings and multi-family housing, but never caught on in this country, where the poured concrete technique is more commonly used. The house is built of 6-foot-wide, 10-inch-thick, 32-foot-tall concrete panels, and its walls are solid concrete, reinforced with steel. It was an experiment in the U.S. at the time and is the first such structure in New York City of its size. Rothenstein used the technique in his design for the Hall of Education at the 1964-65 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. He planned the house across the street from Astoria Park at the same time. Construction started on the house in 1964 and when the building was finished in 1965, Rothenstein and his family moved in.

As Partridge and Argento noted as they watched the house being built, the façade on the side of the house that faces Astoria Park is almost entirely of glass. The house, which is listed in the American Institute of Architects Guide to New York City, holds three apartments, a two-car carport and a 500-square-foot roof garden. A professional apartment consisting of two rooms, a bathroom and a kitchenette, takes up the basement level. Another apartment, with six rooms and two bathrooms, opens onto a ground floor garden. The second and third floors are occupied by the building owner’s apartment—an eight-room duplex, also with two bathrooms. The owner’s duplex has access to the roof garden and extensive views of Astoria Park.

Interior views of the Rothenstein House.

The house has been offered for sale by Richard T. Grimes, Rothenstein’s stepson and the owner and trustee of the property. Tom Dellis of Royal George Realty Inc. is handling the sale. “Six realtors went for it, and I got it,” he noted happily. All offers received for the property to date have exceeded the $1.2 million asking price. Most of the bidders seem intent on turning the building into a one-family home.

Program announcing the Feb. 14, 1963 groundbreaking for the 1964-65 World’s Fair Hall of Education, designed by Guy Rothenstein and built with the same reinforced concrete slab construction technique as Rothenstein’s house at 14-22 Astoria Park South.

Argento and Partridge were ecstatic at having finally gotten their wish to see the inside of the building they still call “the glass house.” Despite their successes, the two are modest and low-key about their accomplishments, among which they listed the long-awaited tour of the Rothenstein house. “They felt honored to be there,” Dellis said.