The Grand Sutton, 418 East 59th Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 418 East 59th Street by Carter Horsley

With its steeply pitched and very attractive roof and black-glass façades, this 37-story apartment tower would be quite distinguished looking if it were free-standing. It is, however, smack up against the east "party" wall of The Sovereign, one of the city's largest apartment buildings that rises another ten stories or so higher. A "party" wall is a wall that abuts a building line of an adjacent property. Building at the party wall is quite common as the phalanx of buildings on Park Avenue and elsewhere, or rows of townhouses, demonstrate. It is unusual, however, for two major towers to share a party wall and here the effect was particularly dramatic as the Sovereign had long dominated the Sutton Place/Queensborough Bridge skyline in Manhattan.

The result, while incongruous, is not all that unhappy as this building appears not as some ugly carbuncle to the huge Sovereign but as a rather dapper sidekick and while its pitched roof is somewhat out of keeping with its more modern, Darth Vader black façades, it is handsome and nicely proportioned and sets this building off from the Sovereign nicely.

Both buildings, of course, share fabulous views of the great bridge across the street and in 2000 some of the bridge's huge and very impressive vaults across the street were converted into a very impressive new restaurant, Gustavino's and a major supermarket. In addition, Conran's, a British design store that once was housed in Citicorp Center also opened in a few standing, modern pavilion with a swooping roofline just in front of Gustavinos's in a handsome, landscaping plaza.

The canopied, arched entrance to this mid-block building is set back in a deep plaza with many handsome planters with hedges and wonderful birch trees. The first story rusticated base has several attractive lanterns and the entrance doors are wood. There are five light stanchions in the plaza. The building has balconies along its northeast edge and on its west façade, overlooking the midtown skyline.

The 37-story building, which was erected as a condop in 1988 and has only 74 apartments, has a doorman but no health club, no garage and no roof deck.

Because the Sovereign has its entrance in a very large, landscaping plaza on 58th Street, the rear of this building has considerable "light-and-air" as does the front overlooking the bridge's ramp. The floors of this building do not align with the floors of the Sovereign.

Although there is considerable traffic at the bridge's entrance on Second Avenue, there is much less at this location. There is a park that is used during the winter as a tennis facility at the east end of this block beneath the bridge as well as two other small nearby parks. There is cross-town bus service on 57th Street, but the nearest subway is several blocks away. There are numerous nearby restaurants.

Carter B. Horsley