205 East 59th Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 205 East 59th Street by Carter Horsley

The interesting, 27-story, condominium apartment tower at 205 East 59^th Street was completed in 2004 on the former site of the Coronet and Baronet movie theaters across from Bloomingdale’s on Third Avenue between 59^th and 60^th Streets. 

This 62-unit condominium project, which also has the address of 993-7 Third Avenue, was developed by The Zucker Company, which has erected major residential towers at 30 East 85th Street and also at 34th Street and First Avenue.

The building was designed by Richard Dattner, the architect of the handsome 72^nd Street Broadway subway pavilion and the wonderful Public School 234 in TriBeCa.

Bottom Line

This rather snappy condominium apartment tower has fabulous views of the city’s most beautiful bridge, the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge to the east, the Sumerian-helmet-style top of 750 Lexington Avenue across from Bloomingdale’s to the west and the illuminated top of the handsome Cesar Pelli-designed One Beacon Tower diagonally across Third Avenue.  It also has excellent public transportation and is close to many restaurants and has fireplaces, double-height living rooms and curved balconies.

Description

The first two floors of this L-shaped salmon-colored brick building are retail and the third floor is a fitness center.

This tower of this building has curved façades.

The building entrance on 59th Street is narrow and has a glass canopy supported by thick stainless steel pipes that conjure a goliath's jungle-gym. The entrance has sliding doors and a wall of water cascading down striated slate stones with bamboo trees.

The lobby’s floor is golden granite and three columns in the lobby are wrapped with steel mesh and the ceiling has back-lit white onyx panels. The curved concierge desk is in front of a curtain of stainless steel beads.

Other features include a tiered mahogany-decked veranda with Asian-themed landscaping and shaded meditation gardens.

Amenities

The building has a "pooch park" for dogs as part of a 5,795-square foot outdoor area with views of the Queensborough Bridge to the east on the fifth floor landscaped by Thomas Balsey Associates.

The building also has a concierge, a doorman, a garden, a health club, a roof deck, a children’s playroom, and basement storage space.

Apartments

There are many balconies, but no sidewalk landscaping and no garage.

Each apartment has a remote-controlled gas-burning fireplace and at least one balcony.  They also have washers and dryers, and stainless-steel Viking and Sub-Zero appliances.

Two apartments on every floor have solariums and living rooms on odd-numbered floors have ceilings that are 20 feet 8 inches high.

Apartments 7A, 9A, 11A, 13A, 15A, 17A, 19A, 21A, 23A and 25A are two bedroom units with double-height, 24-foot-long great rooms with corner gas-burning fireplaces and open kitchens and 9-foot-long solarium and two curved balconies.

Apartment 14B is a two-bedroom unit that has a foyer that leads to a 28-foot-long living/dining room with a corner gas-burning fireplace and an open kitchen and a small balcony.  It also has a 15-room long master bedroom with a 9-foot-long solarium and a large balcony. 

Apartment 12C is a three-bedroom unit with a large entry foyer that leads to a 23-foot-long, double-height great room with a small balcony, a corner gas-burning fireplace and an open kitchen. 

Apartment 10A has a 29-foot-long great room with a gas-burning fireplace, an open kitchen and a curved balcony.  It also has a 17-foot-long bedroom with a 9-foot-long solarium and a large curved balcony.

History

The two demolished theaters on this site were just to the south of Cinema 1 and Cinema II, mid-block movie theaters. 

In their excellent book, "The A.I.A. Guide to New York City, Fourth Edition," (Three Rivers Press, 2000), Elliot Willensky and Norval White observed that at Cinema 1 and Cinema 2, which each had their own marquee beneath a two-story-high blue-mosaic wall, "Modern architecture met the movies for the first time (in New York)."

The buildings opened in 1962 and were designed by Abraham W. Geller & Associates. "A duplex that has since become a triplex, it was at first a piggyback pair. Geller and his wife, who did the interiors, produced a simple elegance with counterpoints of rich paintings and graphics. Now shopworn and somewhat degraded within," Mr. Willensky and Mr. White continued.

The Baronet and Coronet Theaters on this site opened a few years after Cinema I and Cinema II and were flashier in style although about the same size. The four theaters combined with three other individual movie theaters within two blocks made this area a pretty substantial entertainment district. Coupled with the fact that there are many restaurants on 58th Street one block to the south and Serendipity, the dessert emporium and store, around the corner on 60th Street, this would be a bustling location even if Bloomingdale's were not across the street.

The full block south of Bloomingdale's was for many years occupied by Alexander's department store, which was demolished by Vornado Realty Trust and replaced by One Beacon Court, a silvery and sparkling mixed-use skyscraper designed by Cesar Pelli & Associates that is one of the tallest buildings in midtown.

While Third Avenue to the north has been largely populated by tall luxury apartment towers in the sixties and seventies, this important corner of the Midtown District had been something of an anomaly because of the long-closed Alexander's store and the general blandness of much of the Bloomingdale's exterior.