The Beacon Tower, 85 Adams Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 85 Adams Street by Carter Horsley

The Manhattan Bridge was erected in 1909 almost a quarter century after the Brooklyn Bridge and doesn't get any respect as the joke goes even though it is much more graceful and lissome.

(The bridge was designed by Leon Moisseiff. There are four subway tracks on the bridge. On the Manhattan side, the south side tracks, used by N and Q trains, connect to Canal Street on the BMT Broadway Line while the northside tracks, used by the B and D trains, connect to the Chrystie Street Connection through Grand Street. On the Brooklyn Side, the two pairs merge under Flatbush Avenue to a large junction with the BMT Fourth Avenue Line and BMT Brighton Line at DeKalb Avenue.)

This building is right next to the bridge and to ensure that it is noticed it is crowned with a distinctive, angled "beacon" designed by Fisher Marantz Stone that has rows of fluorescent lights beneath angled louvers.

At the topping out of the tower in June, 2006, the building was more than 80 percent sold.

Sites, like this one, adjacent to bridges can be a visual joy but since this bridge has roaring subways it could also be aural hell.

Leviev Boymelgreen acquired a lot adjacent to it at 85 Adams Street in the Dumbo section of Brooklyn and was not too intimidated by the noise problem.

According to a February 17, 2005 article by Motoko Rich in The New York Times Leviev Boymelgreen decided to market their "Beacon tower as an oasis of 'Zen-like calm,' despite a location that evokes not an oasis but that scene in 'Annie Hall' in which a younger Alvy Singer sits at a rattling kitchen table beneath the Coney Island roller coaster."

Denis R. Milsom, an expert in noise control, was quoted in the article as stating that "Clearly, if they want to sell this as a luxury building...having this kind of noise pass by every two or three minutes would be objectionable."

Mr. Milsom, a partner in Shen Milsom & Wilke, the article continued, "recommended sound-muffling windows from a company that makes them for airport terminals" and "the architects, Cetra/Ruddy, meanwhile altered the blueprints, converting the original squat eight stories into a slender 23-story tower, so that many of its 79 condominium units will simply try to rise above the noise."

At the Beacon Tower, buyers could inspect a sample window in the sales office and note two half-inch-thick panes "sandwiching eight inches of sound-deadening air." "Mr. Milsom, the acoustics consultant," the article continued, "said the custom windows would reduce decibels to 40 inside from 96 outside, below the New York City zoning code maximum of 45 decibels, equivalent to a quiet conversation.

Eliot Locitzer, the construction manager, said the cost of installing the soundproofing windows was roughly double the cost for conventional windows.

The Beacon Tower has one-, two-, and three-bedroom units ranging in size from 779 to 1,784 square feet.

The 23-floor building has spectacular views, a 24-hour concierge, a fitness center, landscaped roof terraces, a private garden with a teahouse, a garage, Bosch electric oven/gas cooktops and dishwashers, Jenn-Air stainless steel refrigerators, built-in washers and dryers and Kohler sinks and faucets, and 10-foot-six-inch ceilings.

The building's architects consulted Benjamin Huntington, a Feng Shui expert, on designing the interiors.

The building is about a three-minute walk from ferry service to Manhattan and five subway lines are also nearby.