Features

The bucolic Church of the Transfiguration, and its cloister garden has graced East 29th Street between Madison and Fifth avenues since 1849. Today, this Little Church Around the Corner, famed through novels, film, and theater, is ringed with big towers on all sides, as the Midtown South neighborhood rebrands itself into trendy NoMad (North of Madison Avenue). CityRealty checks in to track progress at several high-rises in various stages of development - 9 East 30th Street, Madison House, 277 Fifth Avenue, Rose Hill, and 30E31.
The freshest development of the bunch is steadily rising at 9 East 30th Street, where the building more than haf way in its 24 floor cimb. The slender mid-block tower, being developed by Castellan Real Estate Partners, with SWA Architecture PLLC handling the design will hold 49 units (likely rentals), an improvement in scale and design over the previous, slimmer plan by Kossar + Garry Architects with 21 stories and 20 units.

Design firm Pixel Studios presents three iterations of the setbacked high-rise, one with a pattern of cascading rectangular panels and two more with Deconstructivist angles and diagonals slashing across the facade and the balconies in the upper portion. What appears to be the final design (since it’s featured on the on-site construction board; on the right in images) seems to pay homage to a variety of New York buildings - the slashed glass of the LVMH Tower, an undulating balcony array akin to Hero LIC, a robust sculptural aesthetic reminiscent of New York by Gehry, and the spectacular courtyard balcony array at OMA’s 121 E 22nd. Despite all the hat tips, the tower holds a distinctive aesthetic of its own and its jagged balcony array will be a positive, if minor, contribution to the growing NoMad skyline.


Speaking of the NoMad skyline, the tower stands a few doors away from Madison House, which topped out last year at 806 feet as the tallest apartment building in Midtown South outside of Hudson Yards, with a nearly-finished facade and interior work in full swing. Handel Architects’ slant-peaked tower has already launched sales for its tall-ceiled units with floor-to-ceiling windows with prices ranging from $1.48 million for a one-bedroom unit (#17A) to $13.73 million for a four-bedroom penthouse (#57A).
Down the block to the west stands Rafael Viñoly’s 55-floor condo tower at 277 Fifth Avenue, with a streamlined vertical aesthetic reminiscent of the architect’s sky-scraping 432 Park Avenue. 277 Fifth Avenue, which prepares to officially open in the coming weeks, offers prices just a notch above those at Madison House, with a range from $1.735M for a one-bedroom unit (#11C) to $24M for a four-bedroom penthouse (#PH54).





Two more high-style, high-market high-rises are nearing completion nearby: CetraRuddy’s 46-story, Art Deco-flaired Rose Hill at 30 East 29th Street and Morris Adjmi’s 30E31 at 30 East 31st Street, a slender, 42-story tower that reimagines Neo-Gothic motifs in a modern manner. Units in both are priced on equal footing with their above-mentioned neighbors, with studios starting at $1.365M in Rose Hill (#21B) and one-beds from $1.49M (#4B) at 30E31.
This eclectic tower bunch creates an instant skyline next to established trailblazers such as the Instrata NoMad at 10 East 29th Street (1999, 46 stories, rental) and Sky House across the street at 11 East 29th Street (2008, 55 stories, condo). Stay tuned for further updates, for there is still room for vertical growth among NoMad’s storied blocks.

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