Carter's View

The fourth quarter of 2011 had the lowest number of sales of luxury apartments in Manhattan in six years, 2,011, and 12.4 percent less than in the prior year quarter, according to the Elliman Report, which suggested that the decline was "perhaps related to the unusual surge in sales in the prior quarter," noting that "pending sales were also below the prior year level."

The report indicated that there were 7,221 active listings at the end of the fourth quarter, "essentially unchanged from the same period last year, but 2.6 less than the ten-year quarterly average of 7,412."

Extell Development has raised condominium apartment prices at One57, its 1,004-foot-tall mixed-use development at 157 West 57th Street that is under construction now and is already several stories higher than Jumeriah Essex House and Hampshire House on Central Park South just to the north across 58th Street.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously yesterday to approve revised and significantly reduced rooftop additions to the Puck Building at 295 Lafayette Street on the southeast corner at Houston Street.

The building is owned by the Kushner Companies. Jared Kushner, the head of the company and the publisher of The New York Observer, a weekly newspaper in Manhattan, had proposed in August adding six penthouse units on the stepped roofs of the 1885-6 building that had been originally designed by Albert Wagner. Mr. Kushner is married to the former Ivanka Trump, whose father is Donald Trump.

The stocky and robust, 13-story, rental apartment building at 500 West 23rd Street on the southwest corner of Tenth Avenue opens for occupancy next month, filling in the last gap at this very important intersection in Chelsea.

It is known as "Ten23" and has 111 apartments and overlooks the High Line Park and there is elevator access to the park on the sidewalk in front of this building.
The building is notable for the subtle patterning of its cast-concrete piers, some of which are partially curved to provide depth for some "inset" windows and give the light-gray facades considerably more visual interest.

When William Zeckendorf started his redevelopment of the full-block Madison Square Garden site between Eighth and Ninth Avenues and 49th and 50th Streets in the mid-1980s, Eighth Avenue in Midtown was a dreary place full of tourist stores, pornography dens and bars despite its proximity to the theater district.

It has since been dramatically transformed with more than 15 new high-rise projects between 41st Street and Central Park South divided about equally between office buildings and residential towers.

The almost finished building in a bluestone suit at 41 Bond Street in Noho is the latest addition to one of the city's most spectacular blocks.

While its "pin-stripes" are horizontal rather than vertical, this very elegant building sedately, and very nicely, fills a gap on this cobblestone block that was already noted for its architectural distinctiveness.

Although brownstone has long been the relatively fragile facade of choice for much of the city's townhouse inventory, this 9-story building's bluestone is a welcome alternative. Its seven apartments have already sold out.

"Tis better to give than receive" is an increasing popular anthem for some of the uberrich.

At least that's probably what they're humming in the penthouse corridors of 15 Central Park West that quickly became the city's standout residential property for sale when it opened in 2007.

An article by Josh Barbanel in today's edition of The Wall Street Journal noted that Sanford I. Weill, the former chairman and chief executive office of Citigroup Inc., has decided to sell his large penthouse in the building for $88 million and give the proceeds to charity.

Now that New York by Gehry has begun to be occupied, and now that 1 World Trade Center is rising mightily, and 4 World Trade Center is up 50 stories or so, one might think that the downtown skyline might be ready to catch its breath.

This, of course, is not-dead-yet New York and yesterday it was reported that the stalled, 830-foot-tall tower planned for 56 Leonard Street a few years ago by Alexico, which is headed by Ivan Senbahar and Simon Elias, the developers of 165 Charles Street, a Richard Meier-designed apartment building on West Street, has been revived by Hines Interests.

The weekend's snowstorm downed a lot of trees in the New York metropolitan region, but created the most havoc at the epicenter of Manhattan, the plaza on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 59th Street.

It did not knock down one tree but decapitated all ten trees in the semi-circle at the north end of the block that extends to 60th Street behind the gilded statue of General Tecumseh Sherman by Augustus St. Gaudens, probably the city's most visible public sculpture after the Statue of Liberty.

The 96th Street Station of the West Side IRT subway has a spanking new station that resembles a 22nd-century riverboat paddle-wheeler and its glass and grey-granite superstructure is throwing down its gloves to neighboring buildings to get with it.

Already, it's gotten one positive response at 208 West 96th Street where a narrow 8-story building with curved, perforated balconies has arisen from among a row of tenement structures weary from wear. The new 8-story rental building is a mix of the wavy balconies at 11 Kenmare Street in Soho and the Highline 519 building with its cloud-like balcony screens. All three are pleasant variations on small buildings with fire-escapes, the stable of the city's housing inventory. There are a few, attractive fire-escapes that are best used to guide wisteria up the outside of a building as one has yet to come across historical statistics on how many lives have been saved by them as opposed to how many streetscapes they have ruined with their spindly netting of attractive facades.