Avalon Bowery Place, 11 East 1st Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 11 East 1st Street by Carter Horsley

Avalon Bowery Place is a very attractive, 9-story rental apartment building that is also known as 1-9 First Street and 285-303 Bowery.

It was completed in 2009 and designed by Arquitectonica and Schuman Lichtenstein Claman and Efron.

It has 209 apartments, a landscaped sundeck, a garage, a fitness center, a screening room, a landscaped courtyard and a residents' lounge with a billiard room. It is pet friendly.

It was designed by the same architects behind the 7-story, 96-unit Avalon Bowery Place II.

They are both close to another large project by the same developer, Avalon Chrystie Place. a 14-story apartment building with 361 apartments.

Avalon Bowery Place has a silvery motif whereas Avalon Chrystie Place has a red-brick motif. The latter is also notable for its inclusion of a Whole Foods Store.

This building is part of a major redevelopment of the Bowery that began at the start of the Millennium and includes several notable projects include a major new academic building for Cooper Union designed by Morphosis; the tall and very handsome 21-story Cooper Square Hotel designed by Carlos Zapata Studio with its delightful 2nd story garden and bar; and the New Museum of Contemporary Art designed by SANAA that opened at the corner of Prince Street.

A February 6, 2008 article by Janet Huege in therealdeal.com noted that plans called for a part of "the Lower East Side to be reborn as pedestrian mall."

"New Yorkers all want a little something extra, especially when it comes to space. And with developments popping up in areas that would have seemed unheard of a few years ago (such as luxury hotels in Harlem and high-end rentals near the Holland Tunnel), those in real estate are looking for any extra space they can find. Down in the Bowery, developers are creating an entire street out of what was" a largely industrial area, the article noted.

"The appropriately named Extra Place is located north off East First Street, parallel to and nestled between the Bowery and Second Avenue. The city-owned cul-de-sac has caught the attention of a handful of developers, real estate brokers, landlords, architects, foodies and fashionistas, all of whom are working together to create 'a slice of the Left Bank, a pedestrian mall lined with interesting boutiques and cafes," said Extra Place retail consultant and leasing agent Michael Ewing, principal at Williams Jackson Ewing, the article continued.