Welcome to Stratford Residences

There are buildings in this city that age out of usefulness, and there are buildings that keep finding new ones. The address at 117 West 70th Street belongs to the second kind. Built in the early 1920s on a side block between Columbus and Amsterdam, it was a residence before Lincoln Center was Lincoln Center, before the 1/2/3 ran express through 72nd, before Magnolia opened around the corner. It has watched the neighborhood reinvent itself twice and still has the limestone, the cornice line, and the unhurried lobby that make a Lincoln Square block feel the way it should.

We took the building on for a simple reason. The Upper West Side is full of long-term apartments and full of hotels, and there is almost nothing between the two. People who come to New York for three months at a time, on an internship, on a residency, on a temporary contract, on a season at Juilliard, on a sabbatical, end up paying hotel prices for hotel rooms or scrambling for sublets that may or may not exist. Our hypothesis is that there is a third option, and that the right building in the right neighborhood is most of what makes it work.

What we are building

Stratford Residences is a coliving residence. Every room is furnished, every bill is included, every stay is booked in four-week chunks so you only pay for the time you are here. The building has a roof deck, a coworking lounge on the garden floor, a laundry room, gigabit WiFi on every floor, bike storage, and a small on-site team. None of this is unusual. What is unusual is how close all of it is to the rest of New York.

You can walk to Lincoln Center in five minutes. You can be in Central Park in two. The 2 and 3 trains at 72nd will put you in Midtown in five minutes and at Wall Street in twenty. The Hudson River Greenway is a ten-minute ride. Beacon Theatre is four blocks north, Columbus Circle is six blocks south, Whole Foods is in the basement at Time Warner Center, and the closest very good coffee is at Joe on Columbus. None of these are unusual either; what is unusual is having all of them at the same address.

Who we have in mind

We expect the building to attract a mix that the neighborhood has been quietly attracting for a hundred years. Summer interns at banks, studios, and labs. Performers and trainees with rotations at Lincoln Center, Juilliard, or the Met. Visiting researchers and clinicians at the medical centers. Graduate students between leases. Early-career professionals who took the job in New York and then realized the broker fee was almost a month of rent. We do not require a US guarantor or US credit history. We accept program letters, offer letters, school enrollment, and corporate sponsorship.

The point of the room types is to let the level of privacy match the budget. The Private Room with shared bath is the most common; the Deluxe is a larger version of the same; the Jack and Jill is a small innovation we are bringing to this building, two private bedrooms that share a single bathroom with no one else, which works for a pair of friends or two interns from the same program who want to live next door. The Studio Basic is a self-contained option for residents who want their own bathroom and a little more independence.

What is next

We open this summer. The website you are reading is the first public step. The booking is open at /reserve, with no payment required to hold a room while we confirm dates. Tours, in person or by video, run on weekdays at /tour, and the application for longer stays lives at /apply. We have a small editorial calendar planned for the months ahead, including a Lincoln Square neighborhood primer, a guide to taking the 1/2/3 like you live here, and a piece on what the 70s feel like compared to the 80s on the Upper West Side.

If you are thinking about a stay this summer or fall, the easiest first move is to send a reservation request with your dates and the room type you would prefer. We respond within one business day, and we will keep you in the loop as the building comes online.

Welcome to the block.