145 West 12th Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 145 West 12th Street by Carter Horsley

This attractive row of three, 6-story, pre-war, apartment buildings is very attractive despite the presence of fire escapes, which normally have defaced the buildings to which they have been attached.

Here, their negative effect has been averted by the simple but pleasant quality of their design and more importantly by the fact that they have been painted white, which nicely complements the limestone and beige brick and decorative terracotta of the building's façades.

The buildings have 5-step-up entrance stairs flanked by globular light staunchions. The buildings are also setback behind very handsome and fairly ornate cast-iron fences that are painted black.

The second floor windows are archted and the buildings are also unified by the common cornice.

They are 104 cooperative apartments and the buildings have a live-in superintendent, a garden, and a bicycle room.

The buildings are across 12th Street from some of the buildings in the St. Vincent's Hospital complex, some of which will be renovated and some redeveloped in a controversial expansion plan that received its final public approvals in 2009. The hospital will move into a new building on the existing site of the O'Toole Medical Services building, a 1964 low-rise building on the west side of Seventh Avenue between 12th and 13th Streets with a nautical motif that was erected by the National Maritime Union. Once it has relocated, its properties on the east side of Seventh Avenue will be developed residentially by the Rudin family.

This location is centrally located in Greenwich Village and convenient to public transportation and many restaurants.