The Max, 606 West 57th Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 606 West 57th Street by Carter Horsley

This huge, 42-story, apartment building at 606 West 57th Street resembles a broad mountain of blocks, some teetering, and was erected in 2018 by T. F. Cornerstone, which is headed by Tom and Fred Elghanayan and has erected several riverfront towers in Hunter's Point, Queens near the Pepsi-Cola sign. 

The dark-glass building was designed by Arquitectonica, the architectural firm that designed some of the most flamboyant towers in Miami, where it is based, and the colorful tower with rakish angles on the northeast corner of 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue. 

The building has 1,028 apartments, including 206 "affordable" units set aside for residents earning 60 percent of the area's median income. 

The 1.2-million-square-foot building has more apartments than any other structure in the city other than the taller Sky Building erected in 2016 by the Moinian Group on the northeast corner at 11th Avenue and 42nd Street.  That building, which was designed by Goldstein Hill & West, has 1,115 apartments. 

The interiors are by the Rockwell Group. 

This building occupies most of the block founded by 11th Avenue and the West Side Highway and 56th and 57th streets except for small sites at the block's four corners. 

It is across 57th Street from two major apartment buildings erected by The Durst Organization, Via 57 West, the very dramatic, pyramidal apartment building designed by Bjarke Ingels, which opened in 2016, and The Helena at 601 West 57th Street, which was built in 2003 and designed by Fox & Fowle that also designed 3 Times Square, Sky House and 35XV. 

This building has 26,253 square feet of ground-floor retail space and a garage for 400 cars. 

Bottom Line

A chunky, grey-brick apartment behemoth straddling most of a large block at the west end of 57th Street, this building contains 1,028 apartments and is directly across from Via 57, Bjarke Ingalls's very dramatic pyramidal residential tower.  The building has a very handsome, split-level "social staircase" in its fitness center for residents eager to show off their plummage.

Description

In an August 25, 2015 article at 6sqft.com, Ondel Hylton noted that the building's "blocks" are "interconnected" and "visually separated through enclosed glass skybridges, cantilevers and varying façade treatments....like the bursting seams of the Hulk's blue jeans." 

"This trendy drunken-checkerboard look," the article continued, "has made appearances at the base of Goldstein Hill & West's One Riverside Park condo and SCLE's 21 West End Avenue nearby." 

While far less spectacular and not as beautiful as Steven Holl's "Linked Hybrid" 2009 project in Beijing, or his Simmons Hall dormitory at M. I. T. in 2002, this development is one of the city's few "megastructure" projects. 

A May 4, 2018 article by C. J. Hughes in The New York Times that the building's charcoal façades is "unusual for TF Cornerstone, which has historically opted for a lighter palette.  "Dark tones also turn up in hallways, on apartment doors, and on the oxidized-maple tables in a third-floor lounge, which offers views of a courtyard filled with planters and benches," the article continued. 

"Similar colors," it added, "are being mixed for the courtyard's mural, a massive 28,000-square-foot creation spanning the back side of a Department of Sanitation facility that abuts the building's property.  A current rendering shows silvery clouds, whose dimples and furrows are crisply detailed, floating above a gray New York skyline." 

The mural, which is a project of Karlssonwilker, is visible from the sidewalk. 

Another feature is the double-height fitness center, which has a "social staircase" that is very broad with seating areas and a split lower section that could serve as a dramatic showcase for fashion shows or for residents very proud of their plummage. 

The building also helps to anchor the substantial "new" residential neighborhood clustered around McKim Mead & White's impressive and long subway building with a tall smokestack between 59th and 60th Streets at West End Avenue and west of Lincoln Center and Columbus Circle. 

The nearest subway is almost six-tenths of a mile away. 

Amenities

The smoke-free and pet-friendly building has about 50,000 square feet of amenities for which tenants must pay $50 feet.  The amenities include a 24-hour doorman, several roof decks, a fitness center, a full-court basketball court, a screening room, a residents' lounge, a children's lounge, a "social staircase lounge" beneath a tall, vertical neon "garage" sign that had been on a building on the site, storage, and bicycle storage.

Apartments

Apartments have 9-foot ceilings, solar window shades, white-oak flors, and Caesarstone kitchen counters. 

Apartment 2402 is a three-bedroom unit with a windowed bath, a dining alcove, a washer/dryer and an initial rent of $8,240. 

Apartment 716 is a two-bedroom corner unit with a walk-in closet, a washer/dryer and an initial rent of $7,105. 

Apartment 749 is a one-bedroom corner unit with a windowed kitchen, a washer/dryer and an initial rent of $4,225. 

Apartment 1924 is a studio unit with a walk-in closet and floor-to-ceiling windows and an initial rent of $3,125.