Tag Archives: residential

The Montague

Brooklyn, , , , , , , , ,

The Montague is one of three Queen Anne style apartment buildings designed by Parfitt Brothers on Montague Street; the other two, a joined set of near twins, are just three doors up the street.

The eight-story Montague started out as elevatorless(!) apartments, but were converted at the turn of the century into an apartment hotel (see New York Sun advertisement).

Apartment hotels competed with “bachelor flats” of the era: Daily maid service was included, but there were no kitchens – residents could take their meals in a ground floor cafe on the European Plan.

As the neighborhood changed, so did the building – becoming a welfare hotel, and returning to an apartment building. It’s now a 25-unit co-op, with one- and two-bedroom apartments listing for $750,000 and up.

The Montague Vital Statistics
  • Location: 105 Montague Street, between Hicks and Henry Streets
  • Year completed: 1885
  • Architect: Parfitt Bros.
  • Floors: 8
  • Style: Queen Anne
  • New York City Landmark: 1965
The Montague Recommended Reading

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Casino Mansions Apartments

Brooklyn, , , , , , , , ,

Casino Mansions Apartments lacks the stepped gables of its western neighbor (Heights Casino), but the brickwork is distinctly Flemish bond, and the stone detailing aligns perfectly. No coincidence – the apartment building stands on the site of the Heights Casino’s former outdoor tennis court, land that was sold with the condition that the new building blend in with the old. It helped that the same architect designed both: William A. Boring.

As built, the luxury rental building had one eight-room/two-bath and one nine-room/three bath apartment per floor. Among the “best modern conveniences and improvements” reported by The New York Times in 1910 were steam clothes dryers, sanitary garbage closets, electric plate warmers, porcelain-lined refrigerators, and wall safes.

The apartments are now co-op, with units going for $1 to $3 million.

(Also see Heights Casino.)

Casino Mansions Apartments Vital Statistics
  • Location: 200 Hicks Street at Montague Street
  • Year completed: 1910
  • Architect: William A. Boring
  • Floors: 8
  • Style: Flemish Revival
  • New York City Landmark: 1965
Casino Mansions Apartments Recommended Reading

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Blue

Manhattan, , , , , , , , , , ,

Blue is much too young to be a landmark in the historical sense, but it has certainly made its mark in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

The towering (in the local context) cantilevered glass box, with its Mondrian-esque grid of blue and black, stands out like the proverbial sore thumb against the Lower East Side’s historic tenements (the Tenement Museum is three blocks away). Not long after the controversial apartments went up, New York City Council rezoned the East Village and Lower East Side, limiting building heights to preserve “neighborhood scale and character.”

The architect – charged, after all, with the task of creating a profitable building – said the structure was the logical result of maximizing square footage within the separate requirements of two lots. The cantilevered south section (103 Norfolk Street) rises over a commercial zone lot; the north section (105 Norfolk Street) is on a residential zone lot.

You must admit it’s an arresting design from any angle, even on a cloudy day.

Blue Vital Statistics
  • Location: 103 & 105 Norfolk Street between Delancey and Rivington Streets
  • Year completed: 2007
  • Architect: Bernard Tschumi Architects, SLCE Architects
  • Floors: 17
  • Style: Postmodern
Blue Recommended Reading
  • The New York Times Real Estate article (September 11, 2005)
  • Bernard Tschumi Architects website
  • Street Easy listing

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Mulberry House

Manhattan, , , , , , , ,

Mulberry House demonstrates how architects can play zoning restrictions to circumvent the intent of community planning boards. Here, zoning restrictions were written to preserve the character of the neighborhood. (Mulberry House is directly across the street from the landmark Puck Building.) But as the architects described in ArchDaily:

“Making a literal interpretation of code written for classical ornamentation allowed us to project our enclosure over the property line at 10% intervals for every 100 square feet. Maximizing the amount of projected area, while minimizing the overall depth of the enclosure became key criteria for our design. When coupled with material properties and fabrication constraints, these criteria began to define an approach that was a contemporary reinterpretation of brick detailing. By customizing a standard precast brick panel system, we were able to achieve maximum effect at minimum cost. The building then becomes veiled by an textured wrapper around the street walls in contrast with the simplicity of the inner core.”

Whether you like SHoP Architects’ design or not, you have to admire the texture of the brickwork and its construction. Look up along the building’s southern edge on Mulberry Street, to see the brick-on-concrete panels.* And if you like to see how things are made, Mulberry House’s construction is richly documented on line – browse the Recommended Reading links below for very detailed views and explanations.

Alas, the original developer bailed out on this condo project when the real estate market tanked; the new developer has reconfigured Mulberry House as a rental building. The eight full-floor apartments start at $10,500/month; the one triplex penthouse is reportedly $25,000/month.

* In most modern construction, a steel and/or concrete frame supports the building; brick is only a decorative/protective skin that is attached to the frame.

Mulberry House Vital Statistics
  • Location: 290 Mulberry Street between E Houston and Prince Streets
  • Year completed: 2013
  • Architect: SHoP Architects
  • Floors: 13
  • Style: Postmodern
Mulberry House Recommended Reading

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One Kenmare Square

Manhattan, , , , , , , , ,

One Kenmare Square is a modern addition to SoHo, with a wavy brick and glass face that breaks the building line – as if its towering form and made-up address wasn’t enough to make it stand out. (Kenmare Square no longer exists – the park of that name was renamed in 1987.)

Except for the undulating Lafayette Street facade, the design is minimalist: No decoration softens the industrial-grey brick. The ribbon windows are reminiscent of the Starrett-Lehigh Building (warehouse/office complex) in West Chelsea.

One Kenmare Square Vital Statistics
  • Location: 210 Lafayette Street at Kenmare Street
  • Year completed: 2005
  • Architect: Gluckman Mayner Architects
  • Floors: 12
  • Style: postmodern
One Kenmare Square Recommended Reading

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Langham Place

Manhattan, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Langham Place (formerly Setai Fifth Avenue) is a towering grid of limestone, concrete and glass with emphatic vertical lines that mimic the nearby Empire State Building.

The 57-story building is a mix of retail (floors 1-3), 214-room hotel (4-26), and 164 condominium apartments (28-56). The 10-story limestone base has a rounded corner; a 46-story sheer concrete tower sits atop that. Unusual floor-to-ceiling windows – two panes angled with the bottom pane facing down, top pane facing up – are paired in columns all around. On the residential floors, corner apartments have wrap-around windows. The windows give Langham Place’s facade a unique faceted texture – quite striking from nearby.

The two-story flared stainless steel crown hides water tanks and other mechanical details, and elevator machinery. The crown is illuminated at night.

Among other notable projects in New York City, Gwathmey Siegel & Associates designed the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, W New York Downtown, and Astor Place Tower.

Langham Place Vital Statistics
  • Location: 400 Fifth Avenue at W 36th Street
  • Year completed: 2010
  • Architect: Gwathmey Siegel & Associates
  • Floors: 57
  • Style: Postmodern
Langham Place Recommended Reading

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Eventi Hotel-Beatrice Residences

Manhattan, , , , , , , , , ,

Eventi Hotel-Beatrice Residences is a recent 53-story mixed-use tower at the edge of Chelsea. The lower 24 floors are the 290-room hotel operated by Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants; floors 25 though 53 contain 302 luxury rental apartments and a residents’ lounge. The Eventi Hotel lobby opens on Sixth Avenue, while Beatrice Residences lobby opens on W 29th Street.

The facades of the hotel floors are precast concrete panels interspersed with large floor-to-ceiling windows in alternating patterns; the apartment floor facades are almost solid glass; the two sections are separated by a black band – a mechanical floor.

The hotel’s restaurants face the mid-block plaza – which is dominated by a jumbotron display. Windows in the four-story base can be lit with LEDs for a colorful display at night. A three-level, 500-car garage sits under the hotel.

Eventi Hotel-Beatrice Residences Vital Statistics
  • Location: 835 Sixth Avenue between W 29th and W 30th Streets, 105 W 29th Street
  • Year completed: 2010
  • Architect: Perkins Eastman
  • Floors: 53
  • Style: Postmodern
Eventi Hotel-Beatrice Residences Recommended Reading

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Lipstick Building

Manhattan, , , , , , , , , ,

The Lipstick Building – officially named “53rd at Third” – is New York’s most distinctive architecture; its shape and color are impossible to confuse with any other skyscraper.

The developer, Gerald D. Hines Interests, asked for a shape that would stand out – and make “every office a corner office.” Hines, incidentally, was also the developer of curvilicious One Jackson Square and flare-topped 425 Lexington Avenue.

Architect Philip Johnson likely didn’t need much encouragement – he designed the Sony Building (originally AT&T headquarters), nicknamed the “Chippendale Building” for its massive split pediment roofline.

The rationale for such a dramatic and expensive building (polished red granite doesn’t come cheap) was to attract high-rent tenants to the then (1986) less-desirable neighborhood. Apparently that strategy didn’t quite work: the building’s owners went bankrupt in 2010.

Although the so-called Lipstick Building is best known for its 34-story elliptical telescoping shaft, there’s a nine-story box behind the shaft that is also part of the site. The box for the lipstick?

Of historical note: This is where Bernie Madoff made off with $65 billion. His companies leased the 17th through 19th floors.

Lipstick Building Vital Statistics
  • Location: 885 Third Avenue at E 53rd Street
  • Year completed: 1986
  • Architect: John Burgee Architects with Philip Johnson
  • Floors: 34
  • Style: Postmodern
Lipstick Building Recommended Reading

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Beekman Regent

Manhattan, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Beekman Regent is the private development of a New York City-owned property, P.S. 135 (originally Primary School No. 35) in the Turtle Bay section of Manhattan.

The original buff-colored five-story Romanesque building of 1893 was used as a school until the 1970s, when the Board of Education decided to sell it. The prospective developer intended to demolish the building, but neighborhood groups fought to save the school.

Preservationists succeeded in getting the building listed in the National Register of Historic Places – but not NYC Landmark status. Nonetheless, the city relented and required preservation of the school facade as a condition of the school’s sale. A decade later, the city found a developer that would observe those terms.

Within the first five floors – the original building height – are retail space (currently a Duane Reade drugstore) and four floors of loft apartments with 14-foot ceilings and 10-foot windows. Above that are duplex, standard and penthouse condominium apartments – homes, in developer-speak.

The apartment tower and historic base are different colors and architectural styles. The effect isn’t as drastic as the glass and steel tower that erupts from the Hearst Building (Eighth Avenue at W 57th Street), but it is odd, like the NYU dorm built behind a fragment of St. Ann’s Shrine Armenian Catholic Cathedral on E 12th Street.

Beekman Regent Vital Statistics
  • Location: 931 First Avenue / 351 E 51st Street
  • Year completed: 1893 (original); 2002 (conversion)
  • Architect: George W. Debevoise (original); Costas Kondylis & Partners LLP Architects (conversion)
  • Floors: 21
  • Style: Romanesque
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1980
Beekman Regent Recommended Reading

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4545 Center Boulevard

Queens, , , , , , , ,

4545 Center Boulevard is a new (still leasing at this writing) apartment tower in Long Island City designed by Miami-based Arquitectonica. The balcony-studded, rippled glass facades rise 40 floors over the East River, part of the Queens West development behind the giant Pepsi sign and Gantry Plaza State Park.

An attached six-story parking garage/amenities center is topped by a 50,000-square-foot “amenity deck” indoor/outdoor recreation area, replete with deck chairs.

This was the last of five towers along three blocks developed by TF Cornerstone. (TF stands for Tom and Fred Elghanayan.)

4545 Center Boulevard Vital Statistics
  • Location: 4545 Center Boulevard at 46th Street
  • Year completed: 2013
  • Architect: Arquitectonica
  • Floors: 40
  • Style: Postmodern
4545 Center Boulevard Recommended Reading

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