New York City Luxury Condos

Some blocks in Manhattan just knock your socks off.

This short block between Madison and Park Avenues has four distinctive towers and this is the most exquisite of the lot.

It is a mixed-use tower that was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, one of the world's leading architects of commercial buildings. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill handled the interiors.

The building combines five stories of private club facilities, known as The Core Club, and has 76 condominium apartments including a duplex penthouse on the 44th and 45th floors with terraces.

It was one of the first residential designs to be undertaken by Kohn Pedersen Fox, which would follow it up in 2006 with its undulated glass façade design by William Pedersen for an 11-story apartment building at 122 Greenwich Avenue.

Park Avenue Place, as 60 East 55th Street is known, was developed by Davis/RFR of which Aby Rosen was a principal. Mr. Rosen, who owns Lever House and the Seagram Building, both nearby Park Avenue Place, is a partner with Hines Interests in the residential project at 122 Greenwich Avenue.

Park Avenue Place looks a little like a high-tech, stainless-steel aircraft carrier, minus its superstructure, standing on one end, which is to say that it is very elegant and has a precision feel.

As such, it is a good neighbor to Heron Tower, the slightly smaller tower just to its east that is a pleasant, conservative, pin-strip office building that lends a calming effect to an otherwise "wild" block.

Across the street from the Heron Tower is Helmut Jahn's obelisk office building, known as Park Avenue Tower, that has four slanted towers, an open pyramid roof ornament, bulbous stringcourses, and a very large plaza across from the Heron Tower.

While Jahn s design is flamboyant and colorful, it is quite tame compared with the building on the southeast corner at Madison Avenue where shards of glass façades shimmy and shake their angled way from the top down to the second floor, as if scurrying to get out of the way of the avalanche of polished red granite on the angle base of the skyscraper across the avenue at 520 Madison Avenue.

In the midst then of such slanting mayhem, Park Avenue Place introduces the stability of its traditional, set-backs, that are too shallow to diminish its quite imposing mid-block height.

The Core Club is an expensive new private club with a Tom Colicchio restaurant, a fitness center, private dining rooms and meeting spaces.

The tower occupies all of its 86 by 100 feet lot and it has a built floor-to-area-ratio (F.A.R.) of 17.38.

The offering plan of November 24, 2003 was $141,175,000.

The building has a 24-hour attended lobby with doorman and concierge, a garage, an on-premises valet, private storage lockers.

This building was initially named "de Resident" when ground was broken for it in early 2000 by Trevor Davis because of a recent trip he had made to the Netherlands.

Apartment layouts were designed by H. Thomas O'Hara and range in size from abut 446 to 2,950 square feet. Prices started at $675,000 and ascend to $9,000,000.

The kitchens have stainless steel Miele and Sub-Zero appliances, wine coolers and espresso coffee makers, with black granite counters and white-lacquer wood cabinetry. Each apartment has its own Bosch washer/dryer.

The Harrison at 205 West 76th Street is situated on the Upper West Side and is comprised of two separate buildings designed to blend in with the neighborhood’s pre-war architecture.

Constructed in 2009, it features more than 120 residences in its two towers. The Harrison is also LEED-certified, as units are equipped with modern appliances that are Energy Star-rated. Master bathrooms have premium fixtures and marble finishes and all apartments feature large, energy efficient windows that help regulate temperature, reducing monthly heating and cooling bills.

Amenities include concierge service, a full-time doorman, an entertainment lounge, a landscaped courtyard, a children’s playroom, a rooftop deck, a garage and a health and fitness club. Located between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, the Harrison is near cultural and entertainment attractions including the Beacon Theater, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Central Park and the American Museum of Natural History. Public transportation is only a few blocks away.

Spring at 225 Lafayette Street was designed by Cass Gilbert, the architect of the legendary Woolworth Building.

Africa Israel Investments converted the 14-story former East River Savings Bank Building into 40 residences and 12,000 square feet of retail space in 2004. A rooftop penthouse with a wrap-around terrace was added in the conversion. Modern residences range in size from one to three bedrooms and offer sleek and sophisticated styling that reflects the neighborhood’s fusion of fashion, design, entertainment and recreation. Apartments have high ceilings, large walk-in closets and state-of-the-art kitchens with topnotch cabinets, appliances and counters. Master baths include Kohler fixtures and deep, two-person soaking tubs.

Residents of Spring have access to such amenities as 24-hour concierge service, a private roof deck and basement storage. 225 Lafayette Street is close to the great shops, restaurants and night life in SoHo and NoHo.

535 West End Avenue is on the Upper West Side and was completed in 2011.

The building’s apartments are either half- or full-floor residences and range between 3,740 and 8,450 square feet. The light-filled units have well-appointed kitchens and bathrooms with topnotch appliances and finishes.

Amenities include a 24-hour doorman, an indoor swimming pool, a garage, a billiards and ping pong room and an expansive private dining space with an outdoor courtyard.

535 West End Avenue is near public transportation, retail stores and restaurants and it's less than a block away from Riverside Park.

The 17-story residential condominium building at 240 Park Avenue South on the northwest corner at 19^th Street was developed by Linjan Associates, of which Yitzchak Tessler is a principal. 

Gwathmey Siegel was the architect for the building, which was completed in 2009 and is notable for the rounded corner of its base. 

The building, which is also known as 49-55 East 19^th Street, has 51 apartments. 

170 East End Avenue overlooks Carl Schurz Park in Yorkville.

It is 19 stories and contains 110 apartments that are split among its different wings, with a landscaped garden with a waterfall serving as a focal point. Some residences have fireplaces and balconies; kitchens have new, top-of-the-line appliances; and master bathrooms are equipped with premium fixtures and oversized baths. The development extends from 87th to 88th Streets in the Upper East Side.

An attended lobby, concierge service, a full-service garage, a health club and a children’s playroom are among the amenities residents have access to. 170 East End Avenue is located near cross-town bus service, which runs along 86th Street. Yorkville has restaurants and cafes as well as parks and other recreational areas, making it a perfect location for families, writers and those in search of a quiet living space in the city.

This very handsome, 7-story building at 109 Greene Street was completed in 2005 and is a modern interpretation of the historic district s famous cast-iron structures that uses I-beam and riveted girders in the style of early 20th Century bridge construction.

The building is known as The Lofts at Greene Street II and it is one of the most stunning new buildings in SoHo.

It was developed by Goldman Properties and designed by Cook + Fox.

The façade of the mid-block building is painted in two tones of gray and the very large windows are framed in black and the overall effect is both historic and high-tech, subtle yet dramatic.

It is in stark contrast to some of the street's other buildings such as 101 and 103, which were also developed by Goldman Properties and are known as The Lofts at Greene Street.

The cast-iron façades of both are painted white and the façade of 103 was copied and applied to 101, whose original façade was burned in a fire in 1950.

This cobblestone street has several famous retailers such as Louis Vuitton and Mont Blanc. The building has a very central location in SoHo and is located between Spring and Prince Streets and it is very close to a former post office on Greene Street between Prince and West Houston Street that is now an Apple store.

Many of the apartments have 13-foot-high ceilings. The building central air-conditioning and a key-locked elevator and it is on a block that has been described as "SoHo's best."

There is subways nearby.

This asymmetrical tower is one of the few prominent buildings in New York to have a mix of façades.

At the north end of the intersection of Broadway and Columbus Avenue at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, this quite striking, 30-story building was erected as a condominium in 1995 by Millennium Partners, developers also of the buildings directly across Broadway and 67th Street. Millennium Partners is headed by Philip E. Aarons, Christopher M. Jeffries and Philip H. Lovett.

The building has a low-rise base at the north end of the full-block site that houses an Eddie Bauer store. The base of the tower on 66th Street for many years had a large  Barnes & Noble store that was eventually replaced by a Century 21 store.

The asymmetrical slab tower was designed by Gary Edward Handel + Associates with Schuman, Lichtenstein, Claman & Efron as architect of record. It has 143 apartments.

The rear of the tower has a center indentation.

At first glance, this appears to be just another mid-rise apartment tower, but its design is quite rigorous and varied and interesting.

Despite the area's hubbub, this tower offers great views and a great location surrounded by major retail and the convenience of Lincoln Center.

One Lincoln Square is the second of the three major apartment towers erected by Millennium Partners at the north end of the intersection of Broadway and Columbus Avenue just to the north of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Art.

The first was the Park Millennium, the name of the residential condominium section of the 545-foot-high, mixed-use tower that occupies the full block bounded by Broadway, Columbus Avenue and 67th and 68th Streets. It was originally called Millennium Tower and was developed by Millennium Partners and completed in 1994. It was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, Gary Edward Handel & Associates and Schuman Lichtenstein Claman & Efron and it replaced the four-story Ansonia Post Office building that had been designed by H. J. Feldman in 1955.

The three buildings are known collectively as Lincoln Square.

While the design of One Lincoln Square also incorporated a large red-brick masonry base at 67th Street similar to that at the Park Millennium, the tower, placed at 66th Street, had a much more modern glass and metal façade.

One Lincoln Square replaced the 4-story Lincoln Square building that had been designed by Louis C. Maurer in 1906 and the two story Colonial Bank designed by Alfred H. Taylor in 1898 that later was used by Bank Beumi and was rebuilt for Bankers Trust by Oppenheimer, Brady & Lemrecke in 1963.

The third building of the Lincoln Square complex, the Grand Millennium, was also a rather modern looking 32-story apartment and retail building on the west side of Broadway between 66th and 67th Streets.

While the Millennium Tower is marred by its unattractive masonry base, all three Millennium Partners buildings here significantly reinforced the Lincoln Center district with their expansive retail spaces that included a large Barnes & Noble bookstore at One Lincoln Square and until 2007 a huge Tower Records in the Grand Millennium. The crowds attending the movie theaters at the Millennium Tower give a constant pedestrian traffic to an area otherwise congested mostly at curtain time at Lincoln Center. Together, this area is surpassed in liveliness only by Times Square and its Theater District.

The building at 150 Columbus Avenue is also known as 1960-1978 Broadway, 101-105 West 66th Street and 102-112 West 67th Street.

The SoHo Mews at 311 West Broadway is made up of two residences – one facing West Broadway and the other overlooking Wooster Street – that are separated by a private landscaped garden.

The 67 apartments include lofts, penthouses and private entry townhouses that feature large windows, high ceilings and wide-plane oak flooring. Custom kitchens have unique cabinetry and smoked matte glass, topnotch appliances and granite countertops. Bathrooms are equipped with double vanities and white marble floors and walls.

Amenities at the SoHo Mews include a 24-hour doorman, attended parking and a Drive 495-managed fitness center. 311 West Broadway is across the street from the SoHo Grand Hotel and is easily accessible to excellent public transportation, retail stores and many restaurants and cafes. TriBeCa, NoLiTa and the West Village are also nearby.

Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 101 Warren Street was completed in 2008 and occupies nearly an entire city block at the southern tip of TriBeCa.

The 35-story 101 Warren Street has 227 residences and 163 rental units. It offers five different types of apartments – ranging from one- to five-bedroom residences – that feature floor-to-ceiling windows offering spectacular city views. Units are a mix of simplexes and duplexes, some of which have double-height outdoor spaces.

Services and amenities include a fitness center and spa, attended parking and indoor and outdoor children’s play areas. 101 Warren Street also has a board room with screening area and a Bloomberg Financial Lounge. Its TriBeCa location is close to notable restaurants, boutiques and excellent public transportation options, including the Chambers Street subway station.

This very handsome pre-war, 11-story building was erected in 1887 and was converted to a condominium with 28 apartments.

It is located on one of the city's most attractive streets of converted lofts and it has a doorman and an attractive, spacious lobby with a fountain and apartments with high ceilings. It has arched windows on its four top floors and an excellent TriBeCa location, two short blocks from the highway on West Street and flour blocks south of Canal Street. There are many attractive restaurants in this neighborhood, which is not too far from City Hall and the Financial District.

The building has a garage and nice architectural detailing. It has no health club, no balconies and no sidewalk landscaping. It is on a cobbled street and there are garages nearby but supermarkets and public transportation are several blocks away.

Place 57 at 207 East 57th Street sits at the intersection of Midtown and the Upper East Side.

Completed around 2006, Place 57 is 36 stories high and contains 68 apartments. Many units offer sweeping views of the Manhattan cityscape and Central Park, while all feature mahogany floors, walk-in closets, individual safes and washers and dryers; kitchens have modern, premium appliances and master bathrooms are outfitted with whirlpool tubs and separate shower stalls. What’s more, there are, at most, two apartments – ranging from two to three bedrooms – per floor.

Place 57 amenities include an attended lobby, a fitness center, a children’s playroom, a residents’ lounge, individual storage units and 24-hour concierge service provided by Quintessentially. 207 East 57th Street is situated between Third and Second Avenues and is near Central Park and the shops and restaurants along Madison Avenue.

In late 2004, numerous older hotel properties in the city in prime locations began to be converted to luxury condominium apartments to take advantage of a very, very strong market for such units.

Some of these projects involved total conversion such as the former Intercontinental Hotels on Central Park South and on Lexington Avenue at 48th Street and the former Stanhope Hotel on Fifth Avenue at 81st Street; others involved partial conversions such as this property and the Plaza and St. Regis Hotels on Fifth Avenue; and demolition, such as the Mayflower Hotel, whose lot is now occupied by 15 Central Park West.

This property was erected by Bing & Bing as the Gramercy Park Hotel at 2 Lexington Avenue in 1925 and was designed by Robert T. Lyons.

It replaced a house belonging to Stanford White, the famous architect that had replaced a house in which Edith Wharton, the novelist, was born. In 1930, Thompson & Churchill designed an expansion along 21st Street.

Overlooking Gramercy Park, which is private and locked and open only to residents of buildings facing it, the property has an interesting history as the residence of famous writers such as S. J. Perelman, Edmund Wilson and Mary McCarthy, and as the site of Humphrey Bogart's wedding in 1926 and of a several-month-stay shortly after it opened by Joseph P. Kennedy and his family including the 11-year-old John F. Kennedy, Jr. Babe Ruth often drank at the hotel's bar.

The developers of this project are Ian Schrager, a founding partner of Studio 54, the legendary disco, and subsequently of the Morgans Hotel Group, and Aby Rosen, a real estate investor whose portfolio includes the Seagram's and Lever House buildings on Park Avenue.

The residential section of the project, which includes about 180 hotel rooms, has 23 condominium apartments, many with 18-foot-high ceilings, and a key to the park.

The apartments ranged in price initially from about $3.75 million to $20 million and were designed by John Pawson, who designed Calvin Klein s shop on Madison Avenue and 60th Street. The kitchens are clad in American cherry wood, satin-finished Varenna cabinetry and double sinks designed by Pawson. The master bathrooms have deep, oversize tubs, travertine basins and walk-in showers. All apartments will have floor-to-ceiling windows, park views and white oak floors and many will have wood-burning fireplaces and 12-foot-four-inch-high ceilings. The building's lobby is being gutted and raised in height to two-stories and a rooftop bar will become a private club.

The brown-brick property has a two-story limestone base and is designed in Renaissance Revival style.

The hotel portion of this project has concierge service, valet parking and limousine service, access to a rooftop garden and meeting rooms. The public portions of the hotel have been designed by Julian Schnabel, the artist and movie director, in an eclectic and flamboyant style.

Apartments will have housekeeping service, room service, massage and spa services, catering services, supervised childcare and babysitting services, pet walking services, fresh flower service and private storage.

"Not only is Gramercy Park convenient to Midtown," notes the project's website, "you could say that Gramercy Park is the real 'Midtown' because it is so central to all the areas of Manhattan that one frequents. You're at Centerpoint in the functional center of New York City and New York City is the functional center of the planet."

"The hotel is being created," the website continued, "by Ian Schrager's longtime partners, Michael Overington and Anda Andrei, with a little help from some of Ian Schrager's friends which include the painter, Julian Schnabel. The Gramercy Park's idiosyncratic, eclectic vision will offer a perfect modern alternative to the institutional approach one now finds in even the most high-end boutique hotels. As Morgan's marked a paradigm shift in hotels twenty years ago and created a new industry, so the new Gramercy Park Hotel will accomplish the same impact today. It will be the most spirited and charming hotel in New York, reflecting a fabled heritage and the lively, adventurous spirit of an emerging age. A great hotel is not just a building, it's an individual, with personality, spirit and authenticity. It's original, romantic, surprising, poetic and whimsical. It evokes an emotional response like a work of art."

While the exterior of this property is pleasant with a few decorative balconies, it is not as attractive as the stately apartment building at One Lexington Avenue. In recent decades, the Gramercy Park Hotel had been rather doughty and less than luxurious, but in its new incarnation it is very lively.

This mid-block, 47-story apartment building at 135 West 52^nd Street between Sixth & Seventh Avenues was converted in 2014 from the Flatotel by The Chetrit Group and Clipper Equity.

When completed in 2015, it will contain 109 condominium apartments.

Cetra/Ruddy is the architect for the conversion.