4705 Center Boulevard: Review and Ratings

Review of 4705 Center Boulevard by Carter Horsley

The Club at 4705 Center Boulevard in Long Island City, Queens, is a very handsome, 30-story tower with 394 rental apartments.

It was developed by Rockrose Development Corporation and completed in 2011.

It is part of the large complex of apartment towers behind the Pepsi-Cola sign in the Queens West neighborhood on the East River waterfront across from the United Nations complex in Manhattan.

It was designed by Arquitectonica and SLCE. The Rockwell Group was responsible for the interiors.

Bottom Line

This very handsome tower is notable for its angled balconies that fan out as they recede from the river to maximize views of the Manhattan skyline for many of its apartments.  Tucked back a bit from the edge of the river, it has an inland, low-rise bustle that does not mar its riverside silhouette and contains its large garage and landscaped amenities spaces.

Description

Arquitectonica is one of the country’s more adventurous architectural firms and is best known for its colorful buildings in Miami with cut-outs and cascading terraces, a fabulous oval bank building in South America and the colorful Westin Hotel on West 42^nd Street with its curved incised “spine” and angular base.

Here, however, in the lee of the magnificent United Nations complex in Manhattan, it avoided flashy dynamics and opted for a cool, glassy sobriety with a very fetching rhythm created by his many fanned angled balconies.

The building has a large entrance marquee with a revolving door entrance.

In an October 10, 2011 article in The Wall Street Journal, Robbie Whelan observed “rippling rhythm” to the building’s façade.

Amenities

The building has a 35,000-square-foot roof deck, a skylit swimming pool with retractable roof, and a dramatic lobby.

It also has a garage, a fitness center, a Club Room, a grocery story, a pharmacy and a 10-seat screening room, and a billiards table.

The building is pet-friendly.

Apartments

Most of the apartments in this tower are small but have very big vistas out their floor-to-ceiling windows.

History

In 2009, the Elghanayan family divided up the Rockrose empire with H. Henry Elghanayan, the eldest of three brothers, keeping the Rockrose name and his younger brothers, K. Thomas Elghanayan and Frederick Elghanayan, creating a new company known as TF Cornerstone.

Rockrose is retaining control of this building, also at Queens West, as well as 200 Water Street in the Financial District; the Archive at 666 Greenwich Street and 100 Jane Street in Greenwich Village; and 22 River Terrace and TriBeCa Pointe in Battery Park City. 

TF Cornerstone is keeping control of The View condominium building in Queens West; the rental buildings 505 West 37^th Street, 455 West 37^th Streets and 340 East 34^th Street; Turtle Bay Towers on East 46^th Street in Midtown; 99 John Deco Lofts, 2 Gold Street and 45 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan; and Chelsea Centro, the Fairfax at 201 East 69^th Street, and 95 Horatio Street in Greenwich Village.

Location

The development is one subway stop from Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan and near the Gantry Plaza State Park.