Brownstone East Village, 224 East 14th Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 224 East 14th Street by Carter Horsley

The mid-block, 6-story building at 224 East 14^th Street between Third and Second Avenues was converted into four residential condominium apartments in 2009 by The Brownstone ’05 LLC, of which William Peterson and Carol Swedlow are principals.

The project is known as The Brownstone East Village and is distinguished by having several “retractable” façades that will be operated like garage doors and when opened rise up and fold inside the apartment beneath the ceiling.

Linea LLC, of which Lisa Vangelas is the principal, is the architect for the project, which called for recladding the building with an ultra-light brownstone façade.

The “garage door” feature is to be used on the front of the building on the second floor and on the 6^th floor setback.  It will also be employed at the rear of the building overlooking a garden.

Cobblestoner, a poster at Curbed.com, noted yesterday that the garage-door design was “not exactly the most pet or child friendly creation,” adding that “you can’t exactly hang picture frames or art and such on or near that wall.”

Bkynhome, another poster at Curbed.com, however, loved “the idea of the building – it’s amazing! C’mon, it’s pretty slick…It’s just a shame that we can’t have these kind of ideas in the lower end of the market.”

The building, which was originally erected in 1920, faces on a tree-lined street and is very close to the great Con Edison Building and around the corner from a new condo tower at 110 Third Avenue by Toll Brothers and not far from New York University buildings that replaced Julian’s Billiard Academy and the Palladium disco with Trader Joe’s.   

Bottom Line

Like a convertible car, this low-rise building near Union Square can literally open some of its façades for the proverbial breath of fresh air.

Description

The building, which is notable for have some openable façades, has two floor-through units and two triplexes.  It is close to Union Square and has convenient public transportation. 

It is only about 14-and-a-half-feet wide.

Amenities

The building has keyed elevator access, parcel-sized mailboxes, central heating and air-conditioning, video intercom, washing-machine-and-dryer hook-ups, and a custom glass storefront with rusticated porcelain screen.

Apartments

Apartments have original brick walls, polished concrete floors, SubZero refrigerators, Viking appliances, Duravit wall-hung toilets, Lefroy Brooks lavatory sinks, and Zuma bathtubs.

The garden triplex apartment will have 1,971 square feet, 12-foot-high ceilings, a decorative fire-place with wiring for plasma TV, 400 square feet of south-facing garden with private 100-square-foot conservatory, a fully-retractable wall/façade on the parlor level and an “air curtain bug screen, thermal and noise barrier.”

There will be two full-floor apartments with 890 square feet of space each, one with 10-foot-high ceilings and the other with 9-foot-ceilings and both with decorative fireplaces.  One of these units was priced initially at about $980,000.

The penthouse triplex apartment has 1,788 square feet of space with 12-foot-high ceilings, a 160-square-foot setback terrace at the opening from the kitchen, a 608-square foot rooftop terrace with roof cabana and a fully-retractable glass garage door.  It was priced initially at about $2,495,000.