555 West End Avenue today from the corner of 87th Street and West End (CityRealty/Ondel)
In 2015, now-veteran developer and architect Cary Tamarkin won city approvals to convert the landmarked school building of St. Agnes School for Girls into condos and erect a discreet, single-floor penthouse on its roof. Since that time, the ornate, Collegiate Gothic-styled structure at 555 West End Avenue has been cloaked in construction netting, hiding away its carved stone cartouches, medallions, and crenelated roofline. But alas, the netting has been cast away, allowing the scholastic gem to grace the Upper West Side’s most stately avenue in tip-top condition.
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Anchoring the corner of West End and West 87th Street, the visual feast of red-brick, limestone, and terra-cotta was designed by William A. Boring for the New York Protestant Episcopal Public School in 1908. Built as St. Agatha’s School for Girls then home to St. Agnes Boys’ High School, Tamarkin picked up the seven-story building for $50 million from the Archdiocese of New York in 2014.
The building sits within a 2012 extension of the Riverside-West End Avenue Historic District and in 2015 Tamarkin was given the green light from the LPC to perform modest alterations that include the installation of a new canopy, new windows (historic replicas of the originals), and a rooftop addition mostly indiscernible from the street.
Early rendering of 555 WEA's new penthouse (Tamarkin)
Already well known for their beautifully-detailed condo buildings that have sprouted up and down the island’s west side, 555 is Tamarkin’s first uptown endeavor and comes on the heels of the sales launch of their 550 West 29th Street condo some sixty blocks south. Unique to the neighborhood, 555 will host 13 grandly-proportioned spreads in duplex and triplex layouts. A duplex penthouse with a two-level terrace will crown the corner structure, presenting views of the Hudson River and surrounding turn-of-the-century architecture most everyone with taste adores. City filings show other amenities will include a fitness center, tenant storage, communal roof deck and a recreation space/gymnasium.
Rendering of the understated and unpretentious finishes of the kitchenes
Baths are equally quiet and refined
Pricing has yet to be released but the offering plan on file with the Attorney General’s office shows a whopping $161 million sellout is on tap — penciling out to an average of $12 million a pop. This compares to the $2.397M ($1,774 / ft²) condo listing average along the lengthy Riverside Drive/West End Avenue corridor, per CityRealty data. Just east down 87th street, is the nearly-finished condo The Chamberlain condo which has on the market two-beds priced from $2.45 million and a 5-bedroom penthouse listed for $10.5M.
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New Developments Editor
Ondel Hylton
Ondel is a lifelong New Yorker and comprehensive assessor of the city's dynamic urban landscape.
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