12 East 88th Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 12 East 88th Street by Carter Horsley

This very handsome, 13-story, red-brick building at 12 East 88^thStreet across from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum was designed by Rosario Candela, one of the foremost architects of luxury apartment buildings in the city, for Fred T. Ley & Co., Inc.

It was erected in 1931 by the Carlton Company and originally had 67 rental apartments.

The rental apartment building was acquired by the Simon Baron Development Group in 2014 for $105 million and an article by Damian Ghigliotty in the February 25, 2014 edition of The Commercial Observer said that HKS Capital Partners had arranged a $120 million loan for the acquisition from Goldman Sachs.  The seller was Nostra Realty, a company run by the Kwiat and Ferman families in New York. 

According to Matthew Baron, the president of Simon Baron Development Group, the building will have only 24 condominium apartments and the conversion will install multi-paned windows that were originally on the building.  A December 2015 article in The New York Times by C. J. Hughes noted that there were 17 units in the building with tenants “paying regulated rents.”

Kuinlin Rutherfurd is the architect for the conversion.  Champalimaud has designed the public spaces and Vincente Wolf is the interior designer for the conversion.

The building is just outside the Carnegie Hill Historic District.

It is around the corner from a Morton Williams supermarket and a block away from a Duane Reade and a coffee shop. It is close to many cultural and religious institutions.

Bottom Line

This very attractive, mid-block building has some fireplaces, large apartments and a quiet and prime location in Carnegie Hill that is close to many private schools and religious institutions and Central Park and it is across 88^th Street from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Description

This building has a two-story, rusticated limestone base with a canopied entrance and a balustrade bandcourse above the second floor and a stringcourse above the third floor. 

The building has quoins at its corners and is distinguished by its two flying buttresses on the east side of its top, which has two setbacks on its front and one on its sides. 

The building has an attractive rooftop water-tank enclosure.  

The center window on the 10^th floor has a handsome window surround with pediment as have two on the 12^th floor.

The building no longer permits window air-conditioners. 

The building’s setbacks are topped with stone and the bulky red-brick flying buttresses have sloped stone tops rising to a bank of chimneys.

Amenities

The building has a concierge, a live-in superintendent, a children’s playroom, a gym, a media room, a package room, storage, a laundry and a garden.

Apartments

Penthouse 12A is a two-bedroom unit with 1,948 square feet with an 8-foot-long entry foyer that leads to an 11-foot-wide gallery that opens onto a 22-foot-wide living room with a fireplace and a 17-foot-long dining room and a 12-foot-wide enclosed and windowed kitchen. 

Apartment 11A is a two-bedroom unit with a large, “L-shaped” entry foyer that leads to a 23-foot-long living room with a fireplace and an entrance to a 41-foot-wide terrace and to an 18-foot-long dining room next to an 8-foot-wide butler’s pantry and an 11-foot-wide, windowed kitchen and an 11-foot-wide maid’s room. 

Apartment 4A is a five-bedroom unit with 3,905 square feet with an 11-foot-wide entry foyer that leads to a 23-foot-long living room with a fireplace and a 16-foot-wide dining room next to a 9-foot-long bar and a 22-foot-long enclosed and windowed kitchen with an island. 

Apartment 9A is a four-bedroom unit with 2,980 square feet with an 11-foot-long entry foyer that leads to a 27-foot-long living room and an enclosed, 17-foot-wide dining room next to a 20-foot-long, windowed kitchen. 

Apartment 8C is a two-bedroom unit with a long entry hall and gallery that lead to a 23-foot-long living room, 12-foot-long entry foyer that leads to a 23-foot-long living room with a fireplace and a 13-foot-long kitchen.