Approx. Prices for Apartments at The Sovereign, 425 East 58th Street

When it was erected by Sigmund Sommer in 1971, this behemoth startled the Sutton Place community because of its enormous bulk that stretches along the south side of the Manhattan approach to the Queeensborough Bridge, the city's most picturesque.

There was no uproar about any shadows it might cast since it was on the north end of this area and actually helped to serve as a noise buffer from bridge traffic. Moreover, it brought a lot of new, affluent residents to the area and was quite distinguished looking for a high-rise residential tower at the time because of its stepped plan, its landscaping and its strong horizontal banding.

In addition, it gained considerable attention for housing for several years the city's most expensive restaurant, The Palace, on its north side.

The stepped-plan design, which would several years later be used at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue at 56th Street, permitted many corner windows and because it was 47 stories high the building afforded most of its residents spectacular views of midtown, the bridge, the United Nations and the East River.

The building has a driveway, a garage and a concierge and is close to several small parks just to the east. It is not close to subways but there are cross-town buses on 57th Street.

Several years after it was completed, a different developer erected a slightly lower and much smaller tower that directly abuts the Sovereign's western facade, which had been blank. The adjoining building is capped with a pitched roof that is a bit incongruous with the Sovereign's neat and utilitarian lines, but on the whole it fits in fairly well and could actually be described as contextual. The Sovereign has a simple, but potent presence, while the other tower is nice but corny. Together, however, they present an imposing wall to this very important gateway. Some years later, another developer, Jeffrey Glick of The Glick Organization planned to erect very large twin towers on the north side of the bridge approach, but community activists and a declining economy thwarted that ambitious plan that was much glossier than the Sovereign's.

Just to the west on 59th Street one of the city's longest-running controversies over development was the reopening of the great vaults under the bridge and their conversion to new uses. The vaults had been enclosed and used by the city primarily for storage and Harley Baldwin, a developer from Aspen, CO., planned Bridgemarket, a food "festival" marketplace that would occupy the Piranesian-like vaults under the bridge. Some Sutton Place area civic activists, however, howled that such a use would bring too many people to the area and despite literally hundreds of public meetings the project never got started. Finally, Mr. Baldwin's interest was taken over by Terence Conran, a British retailer of home furnishings, who was the prime retail tenant initially in Citicorp Center several blocks away. Mr. Conran finally opened part of the "Bridgemarket" venture around the turn of the millennium and there were no immediate signs that residents were fleeing Sutton Place especially since it appeals mostly to a high-end clientele.

With 370 large apartments, the Sovereign is one of the city's largest "luxury" towers and its many major views remain fantastic. Despite its proximity to the bridge, its entrance street is rather quiet.

Carter B. Horsley