Much of the Lower East Side has been gritty and run-down for most the past century with only a few new public housing projects broaching its generally low skyline.

That may be about to change if this 11-story building at 7 Essex Street across from Seward Park is any indication. It is a "luxury" condominium of loft-style apartments and it was completed in 2004.

Its floor-through apartments have east and west exposures and initial sales were in the $500 to $600 a square foot range and the two penthouses were priced about almost $900 a square foot, levels that would have been at or very near of the top of the market in the city just a few years before.

Close to the intersection at Straus Square of Canal Street and East Broadway, this building, in sharp contrast with the area s tenements, is minimalist modern in style with broad expanses of windows and no fire escapes.

This neighborhood, between the Manhattan approaches to the Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges, borders on Chinatown and has a rich ethnic diversity. The East Broadway stop of the "F" subway line is about half a block away.

Seward Park was renovated just as the building was nearing completion when the residential condominium market in Lower Manhattan was at fever pitch with some spectacular units in SoHo and TriBeCa broaching ten-figure asking prices.

The building has a common roof deck and was built by Jeffrey M. Brown Associates for 7 Essex Street LLC of which Doern is a managing partner. Franke Gottsegen Cox were the architects.

The building, which is about five stories higher than its neighbors, has apartments with about 1,600 square feet on floors 3 through 8 and the penthouses have about 2,600 square feet and two woodburning fireplaces. There are two triplex "townhouse" units on the garden, first and second floors.

The apartments have ceilings that range from 9 feet 8 inches to 10 feet 2 inches.

The building has a two-story limestone base with a glass door entrance and no sidewalk landscaping and no doorman.