The Capri, 235 East 55th Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 235 East 55th Street by Carter Horsley

This slim, 46-story, mixed-use tower was completed in 2001 and has 120 apartments for students of Marymount Manhattan College on its lower 31 floors and 42 condominium apartments on its top 15 floors.

The midblock skyscraper, designed by Costas Kondylis for Arun I. Bhatia, is a slab design whose setback form resembles that of 30 Rockefeller Plaza at Rockefeller Center except that street façade will be mostly glass rather than limestone. Its party- or side-walls are mostly plain.

The $57-million project was been founded by $39.5 million by the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, which sold tax-exempt bonds to raise money for the college's portion of the project, the remainder of which was funded by Bhatia Development, which has built several apartment towers in Manhattan including the attractive one of the southwest corner of 10th Avenue and 43rd Street.

The college is located at 221 East 71st Street and has space on six floors in an apartment building on East 72nd Street. Its enrollment doubled in the 1990s and more than 500 of its students were then housed in several locations such as the St. George Hotel in Brooklyn, the 92nd Street Y on Lexington Avenue, the Manhattan park on Roosevelt Island, and the Rupert-Yorkville Towers on Third Avenue at 92nd Street.

The sliver tower is setback slightly from the building line and has a canopied entrance and an Art Deco-style rooftop watertank enclosure.

Mr. Bhatia purchased the seven-story building that had been on the site from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

This is an exciting area close to a cluster on interesting skyscrapers on Third Avenue such as the Lipstick Building and Citicorp Center and the many-sided black tower at 875 Third Avenue, as well as some famous restaurants such as P. J. Clarke's at 55th Street.

There is good crosstown bus service on 57th and 50th Street and there are subway stations on Third Avenue at 50th, 53rd and 59th Streets.

There is considerable traffic in the vicinity because of a major post office facility across the street and avenue traffic to and from the Queensborough Bridge four blocks to the north. There are some parks a few blocks to the east along the East River.