425 Fifth Avenue: Review and Ratings

Review of 425 Fifth Avenue by Carter Horsley

The very tall and slender apartment tower at 425 Fifth Avenue was a major addition to the midtown skyline when it was completed in 2004 as it was the tallest building near the Empire State Building, which is four blocks to the south. (In 2010, another tall building was erected nearby at 400 Fifth Avenue.)

The striking, 54-story building was developed by RFR/Davis, and it was designed by Michael Graves, the architect best known for his very controversial and ultimately abandoned plans to enlarge the Whitney Museum of American Art on Madison Avenue at 75th Street.

This 617-foot-high condominium tower contains 81 condominium apartments on the top 27 floors, 16 floors with 94 extended-stay, furnished residences operated by the Envoy Club, four floors of office and professional spaces and two floors of retail.

Bottom Line

With its white and yellow façades, chamfered tower floors and a piered crown, this very tall tower has fabulous views and a good Murray Hill location.

Description

The slender tower has four setbacks, and many apartments on higher floors have spectacular views and terraces.

The building has a plaza designed by landscape architect, Thomas Balsey, and an elliptical lobby with ebonized mahogany paneling.

Amenities

The building has a concierge and large windows, a two-floor health club with swimming pool, a business center, a children's playhouse, an entertainment lounge, a cinema room, a wine cellar and a private storage facility.

Apartments

Apartment 30A is a two-bedroom unit that has an entry foyer that leads to a 17-foot-long living room with a corner 7-foot-long dining room across from the open 12-foot-long kitchen.

Apartment C on floors 18 through 27 is a studio apartment with a 5-foot-long gallery that leads past an enclosed kitchen to an 11-foot-long living area and a 12-foot-long sleeping area.

Apartment 62B is a two-bedroom unit with a 18-foot-long living room that opens onto a 12-foot-long angled dining with a corner bay window area next to an enclosed kitchen.  The 17-foot-long bedroom has a corner bay window.

Apartment 46B has an 18-foot-long gallery that leads to a 15-foot-long living area with an open kitchen.

Apartment 43BC is a two-bedroom unit with a 22-foot-long living room with an enclosed 12-foot-long kitchen and a long, narrow terrace.

Apartment 49A is a two-bedroom unit that has an 11-foot-long gallery that opens onto a 28-foot-long living/dining room with a corner bay window next to an enclosed kitchen.  A long terrace wraps abound the living/dining room and a master bedroom with a corner bay window.

History

Michael Graves is one of the nation's most famous "post-modern" architects and his most popular buildings are a public building in Portland, Oregon, and the headquarters of the Humana Society. He also designed an interesting mixed-use tower for Sotheby's for its York Avenue and 72nd Street facility, but it was never built. His colorful architectural drawings are among the most prized, and he has also designed housewares.

The development was designed initially in 1998, by Robert A. M. Stern, in consultation with H. Thomas O'Hara Architects. Mr. Stern withdrew from the project, however, in 2001, and Mr. Graves took over the assignment.

James Garner of The New York Sun, said that this building and the Westin Hotel on West 42nd Street, that had been designed by Arquitectonica, were "among the ugliest our city has ever seen," adding that they represented "a kind of mongrelized modernism - an arch allusion to that movement, with none of its tough integrity."

While the pale yellow and beige palette of the tower was weak, Mr. Graves's design was an improvement over Mr. Stern's because Graves chose to emphasize its verticality with center white-colored piers, while Stern's design had thin, horizontal components that disrupted the verticality.

Initial architectural resentment against the project also stemmed from its incursion into the long solitary precinct of the Empire State Building.

Since its completion, however, several other tall towers have blossomed nearby to not only compete with this tower, but also to lessen its impact on the skyline.

While certainly not a masterpiece, it is not the clinker suggested by Gardner. For that matter, neither is the Westin. More importantly, the building heralded a rediscovery of the SoFi (South Fifth Avenue) area.