The Clare, 301 East 61st Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 301 East 61st Street by Carter Horsley

This 19-story, hybrid, showy, blender of an apartment building on the northeast corner of Second Avenue and 61^st at 301 East 61^st Street was erected in 2017 by Third Palm Capital LLC, which is sponsored by the Dart family, and Real Estate Inverlad Development LLC, of which Luis Donaldson and Chance Gordy are principals.

It has been designed by Manuel Glas in an elegant, post-post-modern style of asymmetry and a sexy smorgasbord of thin and tall windows peering out through a Bladerunner’s paradise of limestone crags. 

One suspects that snowy egrets have nestled in its delicate rooftop pergola with double struts on which to dry their fabulous feathers.  How else could one keep the city’s pidgeons down in the street, one might wonder.

The building will have 30 condominium apartments, some with 18-foot-high ceilings in the living rooms, and is known as The Clare.

Bottom Line

An extravagant exercise in patchwork architecture, this building bursts out of its limestone shell with an excess of filigree and some promontory platforms to issue decrees.

Description

The building has a double-height lobby with Bulgarian limestone floors and walls, a Calacatta gold marble service desk, and walnut wood panels.

The building has 1,035 square feet of retail space.

Amenities

The building has a 24-hour doorman, a roof terrace, a bicycle room and a 13^th floor amenity space with a fitness center, a lounge with a bar and entertainment area and an 800-square-foot terrace with Porcelanosa pavers.

Apartments

The four-bedroom penthouse triplex has a 14-by-22-foot skylight and private roof space with a hot tub..

Apartments have seven-inch white oak floors, painted white swing and pocket doors, and open kitchens with Poggenpohl cabinetry and Miele ovens, gas cooktops and refrigerators.  Master bedrooms have 9-foot-high ceilings and all floors have radiant heating.

Some apartments are duplexes and apartments average 1,456 square feet.  Apartments have washers and dryers.

Apartment 9A is a two-bedroom, duplex unit with 1,629 square feet with a 27-foot-wide, double-height great room with an open kitchen with an island and a 17-foot-wide balcony and a bedroom on the lower level and a 16-foot-long master bedroom on the upper level.

Apartment 12B is a two-bedroom unit with 1,416 square feet with a 17-foot-long Great Room with a pass-through kitchen and a 25-foot-long terrace.

Apartment 4B is a two-bedroom unit with 1,250 square feet and a long entry foyer that leads to a 27-foot-long living/dining room with an open kitchen with an island.

Apartment 5C is a studio unit with 563 square feet and a 16-foot-long living room with a 9-foot-wide, pass-through kitchen.