Le Triomphe, 245 East 58th Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 245 East 58th Street by Carter Horsley

Brutalism was an architectural style that flourished in the late 1950's and the 1960s and stressed bold structural expressionism, of which the best known examples in New York is Marcel Breuer's Whitney Museum of American Art at 75th Street and Madison Avenue and Walter Gropius's PanAm (now MetLife) Building straddling Park Avenue at 45th Street.

This building, which has 200 rental apartments, was not erected until 1985 when Post-Modernism and nostalgic allusions to past styles were very much in vogue, but it embodies much of the Brutalist aesthetic.

It is basically a simple apartment tower with balconies, but the balconies on the top two floors have side walls that are slightly angled to the roof creating the visual effect that they are hooded and making the top of the building appear to be cantilevered from some angles. There are relatively few towers in the city that bulge at the top and this gives the building, which was developed by the Olnick Organization, a distinctive, though not necessarily graceful, silhouette.

The balconies are very large and attractive and this 30-story tower has many spectacular views as it extends to 59th Street and is across from the tram to Roosevelt Island at the Manhattan entrance to the Queensborough Bridge.

The building has a health club and pool, a sundeck, a concierge, a doorman, a conference and party room, video security, and valet service. There is good bus service on 57th Street and there are subways a couple of blocks away to the west. This intersection, however, is of the busiest in the city and the neighborhood has many movie theaters and restaurants and boutiques.