408 Greenwich Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 408 Greenwich Street by Carter Horsley

This Post-Modern building at 408 Greenwich Street in TriBeca is 9 stories tall and has only four condominium apartments that are above the building’s retail and commercial spaces.

It was built in 2008 by Elizabeth McDonald and designed by Morris Adjmi, whose other buildings include the very handsome red-and-white Scholastic Building on Broadway in Soho and the “twisted” steel exoskeleton building near the High Line in Chelsea, and the Sterling Mason Building in TriBeCa.

Bottom Line

This Post-Modern building with many different sized arches in TriBeCa is best known for a law suit brought by residents against fellow resident Tracy Anderson, a physical therapist, for loud work-out sessions and for the garish décor of the 4^th floor apartment that led one commenter at ny.curbed.com to observe that “This is a problem that only a flamethrower can solve” and another to state that he really hates that “Independence Day” space ship “hovering over the kitchen island” in the 4^th floor apartment, adding “Where’s Will Smith when you need him.”

Description

The building is distinguished by its many broad arched windows and its rounded terracotta corner columns.

The building has about 4,000 square feet of retail, 15,000 square feet of commercial space and 15,000 square feet of residential space.

Its top floor has smaller windows and is darker than the rest of the building with a broad but flat cornice.

The base of the building has the widest arches.

Amenities

Key-locked elevator access, virtual doorman, cats and dogs allowed.

Apartments

Apartments have 11-foot ceilings.

The 8^th floor has a four-bedroom unit with a 38-foot-wide living/dining room with an 18-foot-long open kitchen with an island and a 12-foot-wide study/media room next to the 14-foot-square master bedroom.

The 7^th floor has a four-bedroom unit with a 16-foot-wide entrance gallery that leads to the 40-foot-wide living/dining room with an 18-foot-wide open kitchen with an island.  The master bedroom has a 15-foot-long vestibule and a 12-foot-wifde den/media room.

The 4^th floor has a two-bedroom unit with a 25-foot-wide entrance foyer with a curved corner that leads to the 29-foot-wide great room next to the 25-foot-wide, open kitchen with an island and a curved wall.  There is a 17-foot-wide lounge off the great room.

History

An April 16, 2004 article by Josh Barbanel in The New York Times reported that “a small investment bank has won final approval to build a 9-story building on the edge of a historic and trendy TriBeCa warehouse district, a project that is intended to weave together the old and new, both in the curved arch of its windows and the unusual mix of uses planned for the building.”

“The project at 408 Greenwich Street, approved over strenuous community opposition, is to be built on the site of a garage on the corner of Hubert Street at the southern rim of the TriBeCa North Historic District, a mélange of expensive condominiums, cobblestone streets, garages, lofts and even some working warehouse,” the article continued. 

“In keeping with this mix, the new building is meant to serve as a kind of oversize home office for the principals of Samuel A. Ramirez and Company, a privately owned downtown financial firm that describes itself as the 10th largest municipal bond underwriter and one of the oldest and largest Hispanic-owned investment banks in the United States.  Under the plan, four floors of the 50-by-80-foot building will serve as corporate headquarters of the firm….but the top two floors with view of the Hudson two blocks away, will be the home of its president and founder, Samuel A. Ramirez, and his son, Samuel Jr., an executive vice president.  The two floors immediately below will be divided into four 1,750-square-foot-rental apartments, the younger Mr. Ramirez said.  They will all share a roof deck….There will also be commercial space on the ground floor.  The project had to run a gauntlet of government approvals, including a review by the city’s Lamdmarks Preservation Commission, which eliminated two additional stories, but which celebrated the final plan…for providing a design that echoed elements of the traditional TriBeCa warehouse, in modern materials and style.  The commission said the building ‘would enhance the special architectural character of the district.”