Location: 10 West End Avenue (between W. 59th and W. 60th Streets)
Size: 191 units, 33 stories
Prices: $710,000 – $5.7 million
Expected Occupancy: Late 2007
Developer: Apollo Real Estate Advisors
Architect: SLCE Architects
Interior Designer: Nick Dine
Sales & Marketing: Sunshine Group

Overview: Available for Immediate Occupancy!
10 West End Avenue joins the spate of new condominium developments (Adagio, The Element) in the Lincoln Square vicinity – the West End Avenue to Amsterdam, W. 59th Street to W. 60th Street quadrant. While the building is commanding in height, the exterior design of 10 WEA is not distinguishable from the plethora of all-glass new developments.

River views are impressive from the 31st floor, particularly the two corner three-bedroom apartments with their 24’ x 14’ great rooms.

We arrived just in time to see two of the four designer apartments that 10 West End Avenue had commissioned from four home publications: Annie Selke for Country Living, Celerie Kemble for House Beautiful, Samantha Cook for O at Home, and Barclay Butera for Veranda. Interesting to see the different use of space by nationally recognized designers. You can see the designed apartments at www.designervisionsonline.com.

Ordinary folk have a wonderful basis to complete their own home designs: 10 WEA condominium interiors include tasteful Pianeta Legno Afrormosia wood floors, similarly colored kitchen cabinets with Sub-Zero refrigerators, Viking range/convection oven, Bosch dishwasher, and U-Line temperature-controlled wine storage.

Amenities at 10 West End Avenue include:
50’ pool in a spa-like retreat with silver blue slate floors and abundant natural light.
State-of-the-art fitness center designed by Ari Weller
Children’s Activity Center created by the Children’s Museum of Manhattan.

10 West End Avenue offers world-class concierge services — utility setup, move-in coordination, maid services, dinner reservations — through Abigail Newman and Michael Fazio. www.abigailmichaels.com/services.html.

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Location: 219 W. 81st St. (at Broadway)
Size: 111 units, 12 floors – not all are condominium units
Prices: From $.7 million – $3 million
Occupancy: Late 2007
Developer: Group of real estate professionals/institutional investors
Architect: Originally designed by Gaetano Ajello; renovation by Gruzen Samton
Interior Designer: Allen + Killcoyne
Sales & Marketing: The Marketing Directors, Inc.

Overview: Old-World Charm Meets New-World Comfort
With a variety of influences and people, a jumble of parks, theaters, historic buildings, museums and prestigious universities, the Upper West Side boasts its own unique character and charm. Co-ops with high ceilings, crown molding, and hardwood floors make up most of the pre-war inventory here. You say you want a condo apartment in a pre-war building that has new finishes? Wow, is that a rare jewel!

Yes, Avonova is that rare jewel. This pre-war condo conversion combines old-world charm with new-world comfort. A mid-rise with 12 floors and 111 apartments, the building was originally designed in 1911 by the eminent architect Gaetano Ajello, who is responsible for much of the characteristic “look” of the Upper West Side. It has been lovingly restored by Gruzen Samton, an architectural firm specializing in period restorations.

The renovations include a façade restoration with new windows; a roof and parapet wall replacement; new plumbing and electrical highways; and new elevator cabs and mechanical systems.

Some rent-stabilized and rent-controlled tenants remain. Market rate tenants are being offered the option to buy, so as their leases come up, more apartments may become available.

Amenities include doorman; fitness center; residents’ lounge with catering kitchen; children’s playroom; courtyard; roof terrace; owner storage and bike storage.
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Every so often we feel inspired to write about a New York building that isn’t a condo, where there are no apartments for sale or even for rent, a building that has no doorman, health spa, chef-style kitchens or other fabulous amenities. Why? Read on and find out….

Did you know that New York City has its own Gothic ruin – an equivalent of the great Gothic, romantic ruins of medieval Europe?

If you drive along the FDR Drive near East 52nd Street, you can see it from your car –a Gothic Revival ruined castle-like structure, the Renwick Ruin, at the southernmost tip of Roosevelt Island.

After dark, because the Ruin is well lit at night, you can see its ghostly outline clearly from Manhattan. You might feel like you are in a different continent, or even a different space-time continuum. You barely recognize that it is part of New York City’s 2007 skyscape.

The central part of this Gothic Revival structure, designed by James Renwick, was built in the 1850s by prison labor to treat, house and quarantine the victims of smallpox. Two wings of a similar design were added to the original block between 1903 and 1905. Thousands of patients who entered the Gothic-style structure would never live to see the outside of its thick stone walls again.

After a century of use, the hospital was abandoned in the 1950s. The magnificent building fell into disrepair and has been consumed by ivy and dense overgrowth.

All that remains are its turreted stone exterior walls, and a crumbling brick interior with no roof, no inner walls, and barely any floors. The hallways are consumed by large rock piles, and big trees occupy the rooms once filled with sick and dying patients. In winter, as water freezes and melts, cornice stones fall from the facade. But the building’s grandeur shows through the flaws.

The building was granted landmark status In 1975 by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The Commission suggested in its designation report that its ruined state was picturesque and attractive. The plan is to preserve what remains, keeping it as a romantic ruin. In 1994, the composer Meredith Monk wrote a choral piece to be performed at the site, called “American Archeology” and featuring a cast of dozens, including actual hospital patients and doctors. The music she wrote is as mysterious as the ruin itself.

Much has changed in the 150 years since the Renwick hospital was built. With its views of Manhattan just across the river, Roosevelt Island now is more than ever a prime real estate location.

Roosevelt Island is owned by the city, but was leased to the State of New York’s Urban Development Corporation for 99 years in 1969. Today, developers and urban planners are building modern glassy buildings on this island.

With the historic Renwick Ruin inspiring the Gothic imagination and an eerie romantic mood, and the cable car flying cross the sky, Roosevelt Island’s magnificent modern real estate has a distinct personality and allure that no other place can match.

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Location: 18 W. 48th Street (at Fifth Avenue)
Size: 34 floors, 152 luxury condominium units
Prices: $.9 million – $2.5 million
Occupancy: 2007
Developer: JD Carlisle Development Corp
Architect: Perkins Eastman
Interior Designer: Philip Koether
Sales & Marketing: The Marketing Directors

Overview: A Home Away from Home for Traveling Executives
At the southeast corner of Rockefeller Center, the Centria is a striking floor-to-glass condominium, steps away from the NBC studio and the Ice Rink, and across the street from Saks Fifth Avenue.

The Centria caters especially to business executives, as reflected by its unusual sales strategy: It never had a first offering in Manhattan. Instead, this condo was sold, pre-development, to two Irish hedge funds, which then sold individual units to their investors. Many investors bought several units.

The businesslike lobby is upscale and welcoming. The staff is exceptionally pleasant and helpful.

Apartments are on the small side. Kitchens are mostly Pullman, or alcove, kitchens – compact, but with stoves that vent out, as opposed to filtering and recirculating the air. Microwave ovens are placed so high as to make them unusable. (Who cooks when you’re on an expense account?)

In addition to the now usual high-tech business center and health club, the Centria condo boasts a humidor and wine lounge.
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Location: 16 W. 19th St. (at Fifth Avenue)
Size: 57 condominium units, 12 floors
Prices: $.5 million – $3+ million
Occupancy: 2006
Developer: The Copper Group
Architect: Perkins Eastman
Interior Designer: YOO (working in collaboration with Jade Jagger)
Sales & Marketing: SHVO

Overview: Romantic Spell, Otherworldly “Pods”
On a recent snowy afternoon I took a tour of the Jade Building, located at 16 W. 19th St. in Chelsea, to get myself in sync with Jade Jagger’s idea for “pod” designs in loft living. I was immediately spirited into Jagger’s romantic spell when I walked into the reception room and saw soft seating, a Moroccan carpet and Moroccan lanterns.

Jagger’s “pod” was conceived for efficiency of space, and to give each condo apartment a loftlike feel. It is a cubelike structure incorporating a mosaic-tiled bathroom, a sleek kitchen (with Miele and Sub-Zero appliances), a closet and a washer-dryer.
When it’s closed, the pod looks like an architectural cube set down in the middle of the living space. It comes in color variations from gold to black and red.

Even though big chef’s kitchens have become important to marketing New York loft condominiums these days, the truth is that most of us eat out seven nights a week, and the kitchen is used only for very simple cooking. For efficiency of space, the Pod kitchen really makes sense.

The “pod” makes the condos in this building function more like glorified hotel suites. That may not work for everyone, but it is very suitable for the young professionals who live in New York like global nomads.
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Location: 101 W. 24th St. (at Sixth Avenue)
Size: 204 condominium units, 40 stories
Prices: From $.75 million to $4.5 million
Expected Occupancy: 2008
Developer: LCOR
Architect: SCLE
Interior Designer: BBGM
Sales & Marketing: Prudential Douglas Elliman
Website: chelseastratus.com

Overview: Woof, Woof on the Roof
The Chelsea Stratus condominium, located in the heart of Chelsea and soaring a remarkable 40 stories, is a sophisticated building that offers understated elegance and unparalleled service for Manhattan living.

If art and fashion are passions of yours, there is no more exciting place to be than here. The Stratus is the tallest building in the area, with ultra-chic condo apartments featuring spacious rooms and balconies or terraces with outstanding Manhattan views. It is a sensational home in the sky, right in the midst of the New York art scene – there are 200 art galleries at your feet, showing work by upcoming and established artists.

Building amenities include 24-hour doorman and concierge service, a ground-level entertainment area with media lounge, billiard area, fitness center and basketball court, along with ground-floor and rooftop terraces designed by landscape architect Thomas Balsley.
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Location: 151 East 85th Street (at Lexington Avenue)
Size: 110 units, 18 stories
Prices: From $1.95 million
Expected Occupancy: Late 2008/Early 2009
Developer: Extell
Architect: Cook + Fox
Interior Designer: S. Russell Groves
Sales & Marketing: Corcoran Sunshine

Overview: Green, Glamorous, a Little Glitzy
Many months ago, when my husband and I attended the cocktail opening for the Lucida Sales Office, we thought: The Lucida is not for us. Though definitely high-quality, it was, well, just a bit glitzy – “chocolate-stained” solid oak floors and doors, high-contrast polished ceramic kitchen cabinets with shiny metal trunk-like handles. Also, because it’s a mid-rise building, the views are not great, compared with other new developments.

Some months later, when I revisited the model apartments with my father, I found the quality and design of Lucida more pleasing – it’s clearly one of the highest-quality condominiums currently in development.

As the “Upper East Side’s first green condominium registered for LEED certification,” Lucida is a 20-story hybrid rental-condo building with first-floor retail space and rental units on lower-level floors. Lucida is developed by Extell. Retail and rental spaces are leased from Goldman.

Lucida’s architects Cook + Fox are known for both residential and commercial projects including On Bryant Park, Henry Miller Theater and The Caroline.

Amenities include:

- The exclusive La Palestra fitness center with pool.
- Kidville playground.
- Private wine cellar.
- Bicycle storage room.
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Have you ever wondered why you can’t get heat or air conditioning, as you please, any time of the year? In October, Manhattan buildings switch over from air condition to heating, and in May, buildings switch from heat to air conditioning.

A few weeks ago, our new development condo hunting with an out of town buyer educated us to the difference between 2 pipe and 4 pipe systems. Here is a simplified explanation — a building requires a pair of pipes to deliver heat or air conditioning. So, with only a single pair of pipes, the building can only deliver heat or air conditioning, not both at the same time. With 4 pipes, the building maintains two sets of pipes, one set for heat and one set for air conditioning. So a resident could have heat in one room and air conditioning in another room.

Why is 4 pipe desirable? Because, nowadays especially, when so residences have so many large window with intense sun, it is lovely, in the winter, to turn on your air conditioning!

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When I’m inspired to cook, I cook alot. The kitchen heats up, and I turn on the fan, located under the microwave. I’ve always wondered, just what is that puff of warm air that poofs right into your face. I accepted it as a given that all Manhattan apartments “filtered” and recirculated the yucky cooking fumes. Last week, we had occasion to really find out which Manhattan condos have external venting of kitchen exhaust. And we didn’t find many.

The Laurel condominium at 400 E. 67th Street is a winner with both external kitchen exhaust venting and 4 pipe HVAC — so owners get nice, clean air, and a custom controlled temperature throughout the apartment.

The Centria at 18 W. 48th Street, just occupied sin April 2007, also has external venting — this is interesting because the Centria kitchens tend to be small Pullman kitchen with little counter space and half size dishwashers.

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