The Siena, 188 East 76th Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 188 East 76th Street by Carter Horsley

By purchasing the air rights from the adjacent and very beautiful St. Jean Baptiste Roman Catholic Church on Lexington Avenue designed by Nicholas Serracino and erected in 1913, the developers of the Siena apartment tower at 188 East 76^th Street on the southwest corner of Third Avenue were able to create a most imposing and impressive tower of considerable power. 

The 31-story tower contains 125 condominium apartments, more than half of which are larger than two-bedrooms. 

The building was developed by Frederick P. Rose, Daniel Rose, Adam R. Rose, Daniel Brodsky and Robert Quinlan. 

It was designed by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates and Schuman, Lichtenstein, Claman & Efron.

Bottom Line

The Siena’s exceeding attractive tower provides the adjoining very handsome church with a wonderful campanile composition.  The tower is very nicely modeled and detailed and convenient to many excellent restaurants in a very central Upper East Side location.

Description

The tower, which is one of the best Post-Modern designs in the city, pays excellent respect to the impressive church structure with a base of cast stone and granite that matches the cornice line of the church's rectory and a quite complex top to the red-brick, chamfered tower. 

The tower is well proportioned and finely detailed with setbacks and recesses. 

In their great book, "New York 2000, Architecture and Urbanism Between The Bicentennial And The Millennium" (The Monacelli Press, 2006, Robert A. M. Stern, David Fishman and Jacob Tilove said that the tower complemented the church "not by mimicking its style but by echoing the geometry of its corner bell towers with corner towers of its own surrounding a thirty-five-foot-high octagonal mechanical equipment enclosure at the top." 

"Few could dispute the contribution that the Siena's rich sculptural form and lively surface patterning made to a neighborhood burdened by so many uninspired block-like apartment buildings," they remarked. 

The mid-block building has two floors of medical offices. 

Amenities

The building has concierge service, a fitness center and a children’s playroom.  The building is also pet friendly.

Apartments

Units have nine-and-a-half-foot-high ceilings, eat-in kitchens, washers and dryers and large layouts. 

Apartment 7P is a two-bedroom unit that has an 7-foot-long entry foyer that leads to a 20-foot-long corner living room with five windows. 

Apartment 9A is a three-bedroom unit that has a very long gallery that leads to a 23-foot-long corner living room with six windows next to a two-window, 14-foot-long den that is adjacent to a 9-foot-long open and windowed kitchen. 

Apartment 17A is a three-bedroom unit with an 11-foot-wide foyer that leads to a 22-foot-long living room with three windows next to a 17-foot-long dining room with six windows off an enclosed kitchen with a 13-foot-long breakfast room.  The apartment also has a 9-foot-long study. 

Floors 18 through 27 have only two apartments per floor.  Floors 28 through 30 are full-floor units and the two penthouses are duplexes.

History

Its site was formerly a parking lot.

Location

With its central Upper East Side location, this building is very convenient to such fine restaurants as Atlantic Grill and P. J. Melon’s on Third Avenue and Orsay on Lexington Avenue. 

It is also close to Lenox Hill Hospital and nearby coffee shops and magazine stores and La Terrine, a store on Lexington Avenue that specializes in very colorful and elegant china.