Excavation work is proceeding for a very handsome, 7-story condominium apartment building at 259 East 7th Street between Avenues C and D.

The tree-lined block is one of the nicest in the East Village with several handsome townhouses and close proximity to several of the area's very lush and very impressive community gardens.

This building is being developed by Seth Tapper and is designed by Derek Sanders of CAN Resources and WYS Design Partnership Architects are the architects of record.

The building promises to be among the most attractive new low-rise buildings in the city and easily the most attractive in the East Village, even more attractive than the huge Lower East Side Consolidation II developments nearby that have three-story red-brick buildings surrounding large communal gardens.

This building will have a broad frontage on the street with a glass and metal entrance marquee and large multi-paned windows that recall some of the handsome pre-war industrial buildings in SoHo and TriBeCa. It is setback at the fifth floor and the top three floors are a penthouse apartment with some very large windows.

According to Gary Waisman of WYS Design Partnership Architects, this project began when architect Sanders and Mr. Tapper found a Japanese couple to pre-purchase the penthouse unit. The lower floors, he said, will contain 7 other units, mostly two-bedrooms and completion is scheduled for late summer 2006.

A rendering of the building indicates that planters will run the width of the lower floors, adding to the lushness of this quiet neighborhood.

A few doors to the west is the attractive Iglesia Cristiana Misionera at 247 East 7th Street and at 235 East 7th Street is a handsome orange-brick townhouse flanked by gardens. The northeast corner of 7th Street and Avenue C is an impressive three-story limestone building with a wonderfully colorful terra-cotta clock surround at the curved corner.

The development at 259 East 7th Street is also very close to the very handsome Police Service Area 4 building designed by the design department of the New York City Housing Authority a few years ago on the northeast corner of Avenue C and 8th Street, a banded striped two-tone gray-brick building that recalls some of the best work of architect Mario Botta. The southwest corner at the same intersection is occupied by the handsome yellow-and-red-brick, Art Deco-style, 7-story apartment building known as Eastville Gardens.

Derek Sanders is a partner with Serge Becker in CAN Resources and their portfolio includes the new restaurant at Lever House, a residential project at 115 Allen Street, the Standard Hotel in Los Angeles, the Area nightclub in TriBeCa, Fez and the Time Caf?n NoHo, the Mercer Hotel in SoHo, Joe's Bar at The Public Theater, Buddha Bar and Club USA.