The Maximilian, 5-11 47th Avenue: Review and Ratings

Review of 5-11 47th Avenue by Carter Horsley

This 12-story residential building at 5-11 47^th Avenue in Long Island City is close to the East River and the large Pepsi-Cola sign and has 188 rental apartments.

It was built in 2013 by Rose Associates and O’Connor Capital Partners, which was founded in 1983 by Jeremiah W. O’Connor Jr.

SLCE was the architect.

Bottom Line

Rather sedate on the outside, this mid-rise development rocks inside with day-glo furnishings on its large roof deck to match its breath-taking vistas, a club room with impressive library shelving behind glass by a wooden billiards table and  a long, chocolate-colored Caesarstone counter for snacking and kibbutzing, and a dizzy double-height lobby with riveted metal plates behind the wooden concierge stand across from the wavy popsicle-stick enclosed, mirrored alcove and crazy floor patterning: a drunkard’s Surrealist haven.

Description

The dark-brown-brick and glass façade has a vertical fenestration pattern punctuated by discrete air-conditioners and book-ended by corner windows.

The building’s website says that it “pays homage to the rich history of its Long Island City surroundings” where “understated elegance meets warm industrial style in a location that radiates sophistication, quality and character.”

Its “warm industrial style” is evident in the large and handsome multi-paned glass wall to its main residents’ lounge and its many wood-and-glass enclosed bookcases, wood paneling, and wood billiards table.  Its location, however, is very modern and very classy glass skyscrapers along the river that provides a very dramatic foreground to the great, lacy structure of the fabulous Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge to the north especially when viewed from the bright-green upholstered lounge furniture and canary-yellow railing of the landscaped roof desk.

This building a five-story base topped with a 7-story tower that has a setback on one of its long sides.

The third through the fifth floors at one end of the base have long balconies, presumably an homage to its surrounding high-rise clusters of glass residential towers with glistening balconies.

Amenities

This building has a concierge and a doorman, a gym, a bicycle room, a roof deck and a laundry, but no garage and no sidewalk landscaping and very few balconies in contrast to its handsome, high-rise neighbors.  The building is pet-friendly.

Apartments

Residence H on the 7^th floor is a corner, two-bedroom unit with a foyer that leads to an open, pass-through kitchen and an 18-foot-long living/dining area that opens onto a 964-square-foot, wrap-around terrace.

Residence C on the 3rd floor is a two-bedroom unit with an entry foyer that leads past a pass-through kitchen to an 18-foot-long living/dining area that opens onto a 382-square-foot terrace.

Residence G on the 7^th floor is a one-bedroom unit at the building’s southeast corner that has an 18-foot-long living/dining room that opens onto a 574-square-foot terrace.

Residence A on the 7^th through the 11^th floors is a studio with a 17-foot-long living area and an 11-foot-long alcove and pass-through kitchen.

Residence A on the 3^rd floor is a studio unit with a 19-foot-long living area and a pass-through kitchen.

Residence N on the 12^th floor is a studio unit with a 29-foot-long living area with an open kitchen and a 225-square-foot terrace.