Spare the window and hang the art!

"Unlike typical glass structures prevalent today," the 17-story residential condominium building at 240 Park Avenue South on the northwest corner at 19th Street was designed, according to one of its press releases, to have "wide spaces between windows that allow for displaying artwork and other decorative elements."

Those were fighting, but quite sensible, words in the new apartment building construction market in which it was built where may projects had expansive and huge stretches of windows.

"We wanted to create a high-profile building that would blend with the context of the Park Avenue South neighborhood," Charles Gwathmey, the building's architect, is quoted as stating in the release that contained new details about the project, adding that "it is a contemporary version of a masonry building using pre-cast stone elements" and is highlighted by "distinctive, curved corner elements in glass."

The 52-unit building has a lobby with perforated leather walls, "milk glass wall accents and Pompignon limestone floors that are echoed throughout all public spaces."

The building has have 24-hour doorman and concierge service, an entertainment library suite with daily Continental breakfast, a landscaped terrace for outdoor entertainment, and a 1,500-square-foot fitness center.

Apartments have ceilings that range from 10 to 11 feet. One- to three-bedroom apartments range in size from about 805 to 2,700 square feet, There are two full-floor "penthouses" and the top floor penthouse offered "the rare and usual option of adding a private, free-form, roof-top swimming pool," according to the press release.

Kitchens will have Jet Mist granite countertops with aluminum frame kitchen cabinets with white opaque glass and under-cabinet halogen lighting, Sub-Zero refrigerators, Kuepperbusch cook tops with grill, built-in wall ovens, Miele dishwashers, and wine coolers.

Bathrooms will have a Rositano carved stone sink, Dornbracht fixtures, cast iron tub, Toto water closet and statuary white marble tiled walls and Jet Mist granite floors.

Itzaak Tessler of Linjan Associates is the developer. Mr. Tessler was a co-developer with Max Capital of the nearby conversion of the two commercial buildings formerly owned by the United Federation of Teachers and now known as 260 Park Avenue South to residential condominiums. Mr. Tessler was also involved in the current conversion of the former Helmsley Windsor Hotel on the southeast corner of 58th Street and the Avenue of the Americas, a project on which Charles Gwathmey, the architect worked.