A six-story addition to the two-story structure at 77 Ludlow Street at Broome Street on the Lower East Side is nearing completion.

The building will contain 8 residential condominium apartments.

An article by Dana Rubinstein in yesterday's edition of The Wall Street Journal said that the building "stands out subtly, a tribute to the success of architect Michael Schwarting's design, which has created an inventive building that fits in with, but doesn't kow-tow to, its surrounding environment."

The lower two floors were remnants "of a fire that took down the rest of the building in the 1930s. According to Mr. Schwarting, who is a principal at Campani and Schwarting Architects of Port Jefferson, Long Island, he and the developer, Listom LLC, of which Lily Han is president, "decided to keep the existing structure, rather than remove it and start from scratch," the article said, adding that Mr. Schwarting said ""We wanted to keep a little bit of the history, but it also helped tie it into the neighborhood."

The top six floors are clad in deep red aluminum panels that the article said "complement, rather than mimic, the existing red brick of the surrounding buildings" and

"the elevator core is clad in gray aluminum, woven like a stripe down the edifice's Ludlow side, from the aluminum top to the red brick bottom. The latter is still decorated with the original gargoyle-like lintels featuring the face of a glowering old man."

"The corner of the building is covered in wrap-around, floor-to-ceiling windows," the article continued, "while the rest of the fenestration is offset, to break up the structure's bulk. And, in a smart final touch, the building's balconies, rather than jutting obtrusively from the building's facade are flush with it, and placed at the divide between the new construction and the Broome Street building directly to the west."

The Department of Buildings signed off on the project November 12.