The Future, 200 East 32nd Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 200 East 32nd Street by Carter Horsley

One of the city's rare attractive modern apartment towers with an aluminum façade, the 35-story Future at 200 East 32^nd Street on the southeast corner at Second Avenue opened in 1993. The building has 165 condominium apartments and was developed by Donald Zucker.  It was designed by Costas Kondylis and Paul Rudolph.

Bottom Line

A shiny and jagged tower with a raised, landscaped plaza and many apartments and amenities in Kips Bay.

Description

A welcome outpost of design relief from the otherwise rather drab surrounded Third Avenue environment, the Future is a bit ungainly in its tall proportions but its fenestration treatment is subtle, even delicate and most pleasing. 

Described as “notable” by Robert A. M. Stern, David Fishman and Jacob Tilove in their fine book, “New York 2000, Architecture and Urbanism Between the Bicentennial and the Millennium, the building boasts a silvery aluminum façade and is distinguished by its many sharply angled small balconies. 

“The most distinctive feature of the building,” according to the authors, “was its dizzying balconies that extended at a forty-five degree angled from the façade, creating the illusion that they were pointed sharply toward the sky or toward the ground, depending on one’s vantage point.” 

The building has a large, six-step-up, landscaped plaza at its northern end with large, rounded planters rising up from the sidewalk that has curved benches on the plaza.  The building’s façade is divided by large bay windows. 

Amenities

The building has a concierge, a full-time doorman, a live-in superintendent, a roof deck, a garage, a bicycle room, storage, a children’s playroom and a large, landscaped plaza with a drinking fountain. 

The building is pet-friendly.

Apartments

Apartment 3B is a three-bedroom unit with two large terraces that has a small foyer that opens into a 13-foot-dining room next to an enclosed kitchen and a 21-foot-long living room. 

Apartment 19E is a two-bedroom unit that has a 10-foot-long foyer that opens into a 21-foot-long living room that is next to an enclosed windowed 12-foot-long kitchen.  The master bedroom has four walls of windows. 

Apartment 13A is a one-bedroom unit that has an 8-foot-long foyer that opens into the 21-foot-long living/dining room next to an 8-foot-long, bay-windowed kitchen.  The bedroom has a balcony. 

Apartment 13D is a two-bedroom unit has a 7-foot-long entry foyer that leads to a 21-foot-long living room with a balcony and a 12-foot-long, six-sided dining room that is adjacent to a pass-through kitchen. 

Apartment 12B is a three-bedroom unit with a five-foot-wide entry foyer into the 13-foot-wide dining area next to the 12-foot-long enclosed kitchen.  The dining area is adjacent and open to the 21-foot-long living room with a balcony and there is another balcony at the opposite end of the apartment off one of the balconies. 

Apartment 22CD is a four-bedroom unit that has an 8-foot-long foyer that opens into a 24-foot-wide living room that opens into a 12-foot-long five-sided windowed dining room next to a 12-foot-long pass-through kitchen.  The apartment has two balconies.