Windsor Court, 155 East 31st Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 155 East 31st Street by Carter Horsley

This complex of 710 rental apartments in two 31-story towers was erected by Milford Management in 1988.

The beige-brick towers occupy the full block bounded by Lexington and Third Avenues and 31st and 32nd Streets. Sitting within their own, large landscaped plaza, they typify the notion of "Towers in a Park" that was promoted on a much larger scale by famed architect Le Corbusier.

The façades of the towers, which have no setbacks, are nicely modulated by bay windows.

The buildings have a health club and pool, a concierge, a doorman, a garage, a driveway, a bicycle room, video security, valet service, a sundeck and a laundry on every floor.

The complex, which is known as Windsor Court and has the addresses of 155 East 31st Street, 134 East 32nd Street, 450 Third Avenue and 179 Lexington Avenue, is very convenient to the Midtown South business district and public transportation is convenient.

For many years, the East Side between Gramercy Park to the south and Murray Hill to the north was something of a no-man's land residentially in the lee of the Empire State Building, but the emergence, beginning in the 1980's, of the Flatiron District as one of the city's trendiest neighborhoods, and the redevelopment of the former B. Altman's store on 34th Street have led to a widespread upgrading of the neighborhood as has the cluster of luxury high-rises near the East River around the entrance to the Queens Midtown Tunnel at 36th Street. In addition, there has been considerable new residential development in and around Madison Square Park in the 21st Century.

There are many fine views in this complex, which was built by the Milstein family one year after they erected the much larger Normandie Court rental complex between Lexington and Third Avenues and 95th and 96th Streets.