25 Park Row: Review and Ratings

Review of 25 Park Row by Carter Horsley

This attractive, 49-story, mixed-use tower at 25 Park Row overlooking City Hall Park on part of the former site of J & R Music & Computer World was developed by the family that controlled J & R and the L + M Development Partners Inc. 

CookFox was the architect for the large development that was completed 2018. 

It replaces three low-rise buildings on the block that once was part of the city's historic Newspaper Row. 

Studio Mellone designed the major amenity spaces that include a 20,000-square-foot Park Row Club. 

It contains 110 condominium apartments and 67,000 square feet of commercial space. 

J & R was founded in 1971 by Joseph and Rachelle Friedman and at one point owned most of this block.  At the southern end of the block, at Fulton Street, they erected a mid-rise building that they now intend to redevelop, according to an October 29, 2018 article by C. J. Hughes in The New York Times.  The building at 41 Park Row was home of The New York Times before he moved to midtown and is now part of Pace University. 

This building, which is across City Hall Park from the ornate Woolworth Building at 233 Broadway, is just north of 15 Park Row that was designed by R. H. Robertson with twin cupolas and four carytids on the fourth floor.  15 Park Row was the world's tallest building at 386 feet from when it was built in 1899 to 1908 as that title shifted in 1910 to the 792-foot-high Woolworth building designed with Gothic exuberance by Cass Gilbert.

Bottom Line

A huge, mid-block tower that is an modern and attractive bouillabaise almost twice the height of the massive twin-cupola tower at 15 Park Row that was the block's tallest tower when it was completed in 1908.

Description

This asymmetric tower has about ten setbacks as it rises from north to south and it makes a contextual gesture with a thin, dark red façade at its north end across Beekman Street from the very handsome and ornate Queen Anne-style 1886 Potter Building clad in red terra cotta designed by Norris G. Starkweather for Orlando B. Potter at 145 Nassau Street. 

On its south flank, it makes another contextural gesture towards its impressive neighbor at 15 Park Row by setting back a bait above its 17th floor to permit between views of that building's glorious twin towers. 

This building has an entrance marquee and no sidewalk landscaping. 

Its highly articulated façades have a dizzying potluck of design elements, a nice doffing of its cap to the past glories of Park Row and the dazzling glimmer of Frank O. Gehry's twisted flutes nearby at the towering 8 Spruce Street. 

Amenities

The building's amenities include the Park Row Club, which includes a library with fireplace, residents' lounge, golf simulator, billiards room, children's playroom, private dining room with 14' ceilings and views of City Hall Park, and furnished terrace. Health and wellness offerings include a park-facing fitness center, a yoga and meditation studio, spa treatment room, and 65-foot indoor pool. 

Apartments

Residents can chose between a cerused white oak or walnut kitchen finish with Miele appliances, a SubZero wine refrigerator and Calacatta Gold marble countertops and backsplashes. 

Apartment 42A is a four-bedroom unit with 3,588 square feet of interior space with an entry foyer that leads to a 29-foot-long living/dining room and a 19-foot-wide terrace, and an enclosed kitchen 

Apartment 15B is a four-bedroom unit with 2,909 square feet on interior space and 1,022 square feet of outdoor space with a long entry foyer that leads to a 25-foot-wide living/dining room with an open kitchen and a 49-foot-wide terrace. 

Apartment 37B is a three-bedroom unit with 2,187 square feet of interior space and 1,022 square feet of outdoor space and an entry foyer that leads to a 20-foot-long living/dining room with an open kitchen with an island and a 19-foot-wide terrace. 

Apartment 12D is a three-bedroom unit with 2,115 square feet of interior space and an entry foyer that leads to a 25-foot-wide living/dining room with an open kitchen with an island. 

Apartment 28A is a three-bedroom unit with 1,808 square feet of space and an entry foyer that leads to a 21-foot-long living/dining room with an open kitchen and a 14-foot-wide terrace.