NoLiTa Place, 199 Bowery: Review and Ratings

Review of 199 Bowery by Carter Horsley

There was a time when the Bowery was no-man's land or the boulevard of lost souls and was best known for its "bums," the car window-washing denizens of homeless shelters.

This mid-rise apartment building was built in 2002 and was a pioneer in the transformation of the Bowery from low-rise shabbiness to towered chic. Since its completion, it has been joined by several other taller structures included the New Museum for Contemporary Art, a hotel and an luxury condominium building just to the north.

To the east, THOR (The Hotel on Rivington), stuck chicness onto the Lower East Side map.

So rapid was the change in the neighborhood that community activists campaigned successfully for a downzoning to prevent more towers, which, of course, makes the few existing ones even more attractive and valuable.

There is considerable charm in this area ranging from Cinderella transformations of old buildings into luxurious lofts and exotic lounges.

The building has 65 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments.

Its retail spaces are occupied by BLVD, a large and very handsome restaurant and nightclub that also includes Crash Mansion. The building is across the Bowery from the eastern terminus of Spring Street, one of the main cross-streets of SoHo.

The building has a 24-hour attended lobby, a large, landscaped roof garden and storage spaces. Many of the apartments have windowed kitchens and corner living rooms.

The building has a setback tower on a one-story base that extends to the building line. It has a large, angled lobby and the tower is also setback on its north façade.

The building was developed by the Carlyle Group and designed by H. Thomas O'Hara.

It was converted to condominiums in 2005.

An article April 14, 2002 by Dennis Hevesi in The New York Times noted that the building was immediately to the north of the Andrews Hotel where "rent for a 7-by-5-foot sleeping cubicle" was $9 a night. Three floors were subsequently added to the Andrews, which is just to the north of the 16-story apartment building at 195 Bowery.

This building, which is between Rivington and Delancey streets, is known as NoLiTa Place. NoLiTa stands for North of Little Italy. The red-brick building is distinguished by a vertical, light-colored façade element near its north end that culminates in a small top floor.