121 East 22nd Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 121 East 22nd Street by Carter Horsley

This rather bold, mid-rise apartment building at 121 East 22^nd Street was developed by Toll Brothers City Living and was designed by OMA, the architecture firm founded by the great Rem Koolhaas. Shohei Shigematsu of OMA has designed the building, which has 133 condominium apartments.

SLCE is the architectural firm of record.

The project consists of an 18-story building at 122 East 23^rd Street on the southwest corner of Third Avenue and 23^rd Street and a 13-story building at 121 East 22^nd Street. They are scheduled for completion in 2018.

Toll Brothers purchased the site that formerly was the Gramercy headquarters for United Cerebral Palsy for $135 million in 2013.

Bottom Line

With its distinctive black framing, this building is near Gramercy Park and has an eye-catching zig-zaggedness corner at 23^rd Street with many differently flaring “notches” and unusually angled balconies on its rear plaza.

Description

The building’s tower is setback at the 13^th floor.

Its whittled corner is very dramatic, daring and asymmetrical as opposed to the symmetrical notches that Sir Normal Foster employed at the Hearst Building on the southwest corner at 57^th Street and Eighth Avenue and the asymmetrical bracing that Jean Nouvel has used at Tower 53 adjacent to the Museum of Modern Art.

Those buildings, however, are much larger and more visible.

Koolhaas, the author of the very influential and popular book, “Delirious New York,” was the architect of the CCTV tower in Beijing, a very large and vertiginous lean-to office building, his very daring masterpiece, and a multiple-stepped cantilevered building with glass windows on part of the floors on 22^nd Street adjacent to One Madison Park on 23^rd Street at the base of Madison Avenue that was not built.

The building has a large lobby whose angles funnel towards the elevator banks.

Its courtyard has a long, angled window on one side and a large tapering window on an adjacent side.

The building’s entrance has a small glass marquee and angled window surrounds with multiple recessed frames.

The two buildings are connected at the ground floor where four retail condominium units are located.

Amenities

The building has a landscaped courtyard, an indoor pool, an indoor/outdoor residents’ lounge, a rooftop terrace with fire pit and grill, a private dining room and catering kitchen, a screening room, a children’s playroom, bicycle storage, private storage, full concierge service, a 24/7 attended lobby, a fitness center and an automated indoor parking system. 

Apartments

Apartments have high ceilings, wide plank white oak floors and washers/dryers.

Some have angled balconies.

Kitchens have Gaggenau appliances, polished quartz countertops and acid-etched, back-painted glass cabinetry.

Master baths have Calacatta Paonazzo marble countertops, tub decks and accent walls.

Apartment N1702 is a three-bedroom unit with a long entry foyer that leads a 26-foot-long living/dining room with an open kitchen with an island and a 26-foot-wide balcony.

Apartment N905 is a three-bedroom unit with a long entry foyer that leads to a 23-foot-corner living/dining room with an open kitchen with an island.

Apartment N1007 is a two-bedroom unit with an entry foyer that leads to a 26-foot-long, living/dining room with an open kitchen with an island and is flanked by the bedrooms and the larger one has an angled glass wall that opens onto the 28-foot-long, angled balcony that also is accessed by the other bedroom and the living/dining room.

Apartment N1504 is a one-bedroom unit with a long entry foyer that leads to a 21-foot-long living/dining room and an open, pass-through kitchen.

Apartment S501 is a two-bedroom unit with an entry foyer that leads to a 19-foot-long living/dining room with an open kitchen with an island.