The Prewar at Gramercy Square, 225 East 19th Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 225 East 19th Street by Carter Horsley

This 9-story building at 225 East 19^th Street in the Gramercy Park section of Midtown East was erected in 1920 as part of the Cabrini Medical Center complex that closed in 2008 and was converted in 2016 to a 48-unit residential condominium project as part of the four-building Gramercy Square complex by The Chetrit Group, which is headed by Joseph Chetrit, Clipper Equity, which is headed by David Bitricer, and the Read Property Group.

The 223-unit complex occupies 1.4 acres in the middle of the block bounded by Third and Second avenues and 19^th and 20^th Streets.

It includes three other buildings: the 10-story Tower at 215 East 19^th Street that contains 130 condo apartments, the 8-story Boutique at 220 East 20^th Street that contains 8 condo apartments, and the new Modern at 7-story 230 East 30^th Street that contains 37 condos.

Woods Bagot is the architect for the new building and the three conversions.

The complex has almost half an acre of landscaped grounds with a solarium and the courtyard has been designed by M. Paul Friedberg & Partners.

The hospital complex was founded in 1892 in Greenwich Village by Frances Xavier Cabrini, who was subsequently canonized, and was known as Columbus Hospital.  It relocated to 20^th Street in 1895.

A hospital building on the northwest corner of the complex’s site that contain its emergency room was removed and replaced by gardens.

Bottom Line

The handsomest of the buildings in this complex, it has an elaborate and very attractive, three-story base with a six-step-up entrance beneath three large arched windows and flanked by sidewalk landscaping.

Description

The top floor of the three-story base has three pairs of small arched windows beneath a broad central bandcourse flanked by two narrow bandcourses.  Broad bandcourses are above the second floor on either side of the central entrance.

The top floor has setback window walls at either end with non-setback central windows with pediments.  The central five window bays have two protruding piers that create a short crenellated central roofline.

There are half-windows beneath a bandcourse at either side of entrance.

Amenities

The complex has The Gramercy Club, which is run by La Palestra and has 18,000-square-feet of amenities with direct access from all four buildings.  The amenities include a dining room with a catering kitchen, a gym and a 75-foot-long swimming pool, a bicycle room, a valet, a children’s playroom, a golf simulator and storage.  Each building will have a 24-hour doorman.

Apartments

Apartments 406 through 806 are two-bedroom units with 1,255 square feet with 5-foot-wide entrance galleries that lead past an 8-foot-wide kitchen with a breakfast bar to a 16-foot-wide great room.

Apartments 401 through 801 are one-bedroom units with 816 square feet, a 5-foot-wide entry foyer that leads past the 8-foot-wide kitchen with a breakfast bar to the 19-foot-wide living/dining room.

Apartment 305 is a one-bedroom unit with 693 square feet, an 11-foot-wide entry gallery next to an 8-foot-wide kitchen with a breakfast bar and a 15-foot-wide living/dining room.