The Briarcliffe, 171 West 57th Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 171 West 57th Street by Carter Horsley

New York's chaotic patterns of development in Midtown have resulted in very few intersections that are stunning architecturally.

This is one of those rare locations. (Another is two long blocks to the east at Fifth Avenue.)

Here this building faces venerable Carnegie Hall and its superb modern tower, designed by Cesar Pelli, directly across 57th Street, the robust brownstone goliath of an apartment building known as the Osborne, directly across Seventh Avenue, and a very pleasant mid-size office building with a nicely detailed light-colored façade diagonally across 57th Street.

The location is further enhanced by the phantasmogoric decorative façade of the Alwyn Court apartment building, which shares the avenue frontage with this building on this block. The ambiance here is jarred a bit by the rather bland, green glass skyscraper at 888 Seventh Avenue that wraps around the corner building on the southwest corner, but at least it underwent a major redesign of its retail spaces that resulted in one of the city's most impressive group of "high-tech" light-stanchions.

In the 1990s, the long-delayed redevelopment of Times Square began to "come together" and many theme restaurants, such as Planet Hollywood on 57th Street, blossomed to take advantage of the city's improved tourism with the result that the West Side began to become much more exciting. Planet Hollywood flourished for a while and in late 1999, Warner LeRoy finally completed his rebuilding of the famed Russian Tea Room restaurant just across the street but in a few years he lost the restaurant.

But the neighborhood did not suffer for long as demolition of the New York Coliseum site at Columbus Circle for a major new mixed-use complex known as the Time-Warner Center further reinforced this area's strength and desirability, especially because it had a huge and superb Whole Foods store in its very large basement.

New restaurants and a supermarket also opened nearby joining such other neighbors as The Art Student's League, Lee's Art Store, Radio Shack, and a locksmith, to say nothing of Central Park, two blocks to the north.

Seventh Avenue never had a great deal of allure, but the stunning "new" Times Square has led to a widespread renaissance in the area.

In 2011, Extell Development began building a mixed-use tower more than 1,000 feet high a little to the east of this building and Carnegie Hall kicked out its many resident artists above the concert hall to provide more office space for its operations.

This handsome, pre-war building, which was converted to a condominium in 1999, has a two-story limestone base and its brown-brick façade is framed with limestone quoins. The canopied entrance has some large decorative elements on the second floor, and the top floor has two bandcourses.

The building's penthouse is one of the most famous in the city.

Originally a triplex of more than 20 rooms that for many years belonged to a publisher who was also the bridge columnist for The New York Times, it had an enormous ballroom with extensive terraces that would later be used for many lavish parties by the next tenant who was the publisher of The Celebrity Register. In 2007, it sold reportedly for almost $19 million after being featured in an issue of Architecture Digest because of its 19.5-foot-high vaulted ceiling in the living room with two fireplaces and three large French doors leading to a very large terrace.

The 13-story building has large apartments with high ceilings and a doorman, but no garage, no health club, and no sundeck. There is considerable traffic in this area, which attracts many tourists.