60 White Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 60 White Street by Carter Horsley

In 2010, The Sorgente Group of America, which is headed by Veronica Mainetti, bought the three handsome cast-iron buildings at 60, 62 and 66 White Street in the TriBeCa East Historic District and converted the office buildings at 60 and 62 to 8 luxury residential condominiums.

The Second Empire, five-story buildings were designed by William W. Gardner in 1869.

Bostudio Architecture designed the conversion and the CTS Group was the preservation architect.

Sorgente converted two SoHo cast-iron buildings at 32 and 34 Greene Street to 7 residential condominiums in 2008 and owns an interest in the Flatiron Building on the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 23^rd Street.  It also owns the very handsome Neo-Romanesque office building at 811 West 7^th Street in Los Angles that was built in 1926 and was formerly known as the Signal Oil Building, the Havenstrite Building, and the Global Marine House.   

The firm was founded in Italy in 1910 and in 1919 began fabricating structural components for many buildings in New York including the Chrysler Building.  After World War II, it got involved with the precision construction of building components for industrial developments in Italy including Alfa Romeo in Arese and steel mills in Terni.  In the 1990s, the group was reorganized by Valter Mainetti, the current majority shareholder and in 2004 Veronica Mainetti was named the president of The Sorgente Group of America.

On the company’s website, she said that “We take immense enjoyment out of being able to breathe new life into these buildings that, in a way, reinforce much of what we love about this country,” adding that “it is so incredibly rewarding to be able to save their embodied energy and together with their cultural significance will only increase with the passage of time.”

Bottom Line

Two very handsome and ornate 1869 cast-iron office buildings in TriBeCa have been converted into 8 environmentally friendly residential condominiums with high ceilings, radiant heated floors, “Green” walls, a fitness center, a lounge and a video doorman.

Description

The building’s conversion has eliminated all volatile organic compounds and more than 80 percent of the materials used in its conversion were part of the existing structures and the remainder was locally sourced.

The marble kitchen countertops, for example, come from the Vermont Quarries in Danby, Vt.

Amenities

The building has a residents’ lounge with a “Green Wall” solarium, a package room, storage, and a Video Doorman.

Apartments

Ceiling heights range from 10 ½ to 16 ½ feet high.

Penthouse E is a duplex with a large living room with an open kitchen with an island and two bedrooms on the lower level and a second level with two large rooms and large front and rear terraces.

Apartment 4E is a two-bedroom unit with a 22-foot-long living room with a 16-foot-wide kitchen with an island, and a 9-foot-wide home office.