111 Murray Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 111 Murray Street by Carter Horsley

This very impressive downtown tower is a very significant new landmark in Lower Manhattan because it is a couple of blocks to the north of the World Trade Center and thus very visible on the skyline from uptown. It is also one of the most graceful and beautiful new towers in the city in several decades even if it is not a “super-tall.”

This very elegant 58-story, glass residential tower at 111 Murray Street in TriBeCa between Greenwich Street and the West Side Highway is notable for its dramatically flared top, which is somewhat similar to that atop the residential tower planned by Ian Bruce Eichner under construction at 45 East 22^nd Street and designed by the same architects, Kohn Pedersen Fox.  The Eichner top, however, is angular and this top is curved.

This 792-foot-high tower was developed by Fisher Brothers, which erected Park Avenue Plaza just to the west of the Racquet and Tennis Club on Park Avenue, the Witkoff Group and Howard Lorber of New Valley, the chairman of Douglas Elliman. It is expected to be completed in 2018 and have 157 condominium apartments.

The tower’s reflective-glass façades are extremely smooth and are among the city’s most beautiful.

The tower’s main façades bulge very slightly that adds considerably to the tower’s gracefulness.

The entrance on West Street is a one-story, slightly curved pavilion with a slightly angled roof that rises toward the south and is next to a landscaped garden.

Kohn Pedersen Fox, which designed the curved glass, mid-rise residential structure One Abingdon Square in the West Village, also designed the very sleek, all-glass, curved office tower 333 Wacker Drive on the riverfront in Chicago as well as the stunning Shanghai Financial Center and the 108-story China Zun Tower in Beijing.

Goldstein, Hill & West Architects are the architects of record.

David Rockwell designed the lobby that has anodized steel walls, hand-blown glass lighting and travertine floors.

David Mann of MR Architecture & Décor was the interior designer.

Hollander Design Landscape Architects have designed the plaza.

The building has a very enviable site across from Battery Park City, a block north of 100 Barclay Street, the former telephone building designed by Ralph Walker, a block south of P.S. 234, the nautically-themed public school designed by Richard Dattner, and not far from Cesar Pelli’s great Wintergarden at the World Financial Center, David Smith’s fine One World Trade Center tower and observatory, and Santiago Calatrava’s flamboyant, winged transit terminal.

Bottom Line

With its “apostrophe” top and slightly flaring narrow vertical slits, this elegant tower now rising at 111 Murray Street along the West Side Highway has all the allure, and sexiness, of an irresistible, slim and sophisticated dragonlady.

Description

The “apostrophe” top to the slightly-flaring-as-it-rises tower has its higher edge on its south side and its “slits” face northeast and southwest.

The tower’s reflective-glass façades are extremely smooth and are among the city’s most beautiful.

The tower’s main façades bulge very slightly that adds considerably to the tower’s gracefulness.

The entrance on West Street is a one-story, slightly curved pavilion with a slightly angled roof that rises toward the south and is next to a landscaped garden.

The building has a 10,599-square-foot plaza with 362 linear feet of seating.

The plaza has a water feature and a ramp to the double-height lobby and another to the street and a 60-foot-high building with retail on Murray Street.

Amenities

The building has a 24-hour concierge, a spa and fitness center, a garden, a veranda, a teen arcade, a children’s playroom, a children’s splash pool, a private dining room, a media room, a hair salon, and bicycle storage of 81 bicycles on the second floor.

It will also have a patisserie where James Beard’s bakery, Baked TriBeCa, will produce nibbles and expressos next to the building’s residents’ lounge and gardens.

Apartments

There are three apartments on the third floor, the 12^th through the 26^th floors and the 28^th through the 39^th floors and five apartments on the 4^th through the 11^th floors.  There is are mechanical floors on the 2^nd, 27^th, 51^st and 60^th through the 62^nd floors.  There are two apartments on the 40^th through the 50^th floors and the 52^nd through 57^th floors.  There is one apartment on the 58^th and 59^th floors.

Kitchens are windowed and have cabinetry by Molteni in cerused White Oak, marble waterfall countertops, and Wolf, Sub-Zero and Miele appliances.

Bathrooms have radiant floor heating and many master baths have travertine walls and free-standing BluStone tubs in front of floor-to-ceiling windows.

Apartment 61W is a 5-bedroom unit with 4,014 square feet with a large vestibule off the elevators leading to a very long entry hall that leads to a 30-foot-wide curved living/dining room next to an enclosed, 17-foot-long, eat-in kitchen with an island.

Apartment 54W is a 5-bedroom unit with 3,366 square feet with a vestibule that opens onto a very long entry hall that leads to a 30-foot-wide curved living/dining room next to an enclosed, 17-foot-long, eat-in kitchen with an island.

Apartment 58E is a 3-bedroom unit with 2,995 square feet with a vestibule that opens onto a very long entry hall that leads to a 30-foot-wide living/dining room with two angled walls and one very slightly curved wall next to a 20-foot-wide eat-in kitchen with an island.  The 23-foot-wide master bedroom has a very large curved window wall.

Apartment A on floors 7 through 15 is a one-bedroom unit with 1,126 square feet with a 7-foot-loong entry foyer that leads to the open, pass-through kitchen adjacent to the 22-foot-wide living/dining room with a slightly curved glass wall.

Apartment B on floors 33 through 43 is a 2-bedroom unit with 1,654 square feet with a 17-foot-long entrance gallery that leads to a 25-foot-wide great room with a very large curved window wall and an open kitchen with an island.

Apartment D on floors 7 through 15 is an alcove studio with 755 square feet and an 8-foot-long entry foyer that leads to a 9-foot-wide dining room adjacent to the 24-foot-wide living room with a very slightly curved window wall and an open kitchen and an alcove.

Apartment C on floors 7 through 15 is a one-bedroom unit with 829 square feet with an 8-foot-long entry foyer that leads to a 21-foot-wide living/dining room with a very large curved window and an open kitchen with an island.