- The Lucida - 151 East 85th Street
- The Brompton - 205 East 85th Street
Two new condo apartment houses offer a look at differing design approaches in an established and densely populated urban setting like New York's Upper East Side. The Lucida and The Brompton have been dueling it out in full page ads in the New York Times magazine. Developers Extell and Related are the warring parties here, and they have each hired blue chip firms to design their condo battleships. We take a look at the different styles on offer after the jump.
Both of these apartment towers are LEED certified green buildings, the first of their kind on New York's Upper East Side. Above right is Extell's Lucida at 151 East 85th Street designed by Cook + Fox architects. They have used a crystaline glass curtain wall here that gives this project a sleek, glossy look. At street level there will be a partial limestone base, and a very minimal glassy residential entrance notched into the corner of 85th Street. The Lucida is a large mixed-use development taking up almost half a city block. In addition to 110 condos, the 18-story building will have a separate rental portion. There will also be large-scale retail here, with H&M, Barnes & Noble, and Sephora already signed up.
This stretch of Lexington Avenue has long been a rather dowdy amalgam of small retail serving an overcrowded sidewalk above the subway station at 86th. The choice of glass and modern clean lines here suggests a desire to unify the streetscape in one bold stroke. The whole mood of this part of Lexington will change overnight.
The Brompton (above left), at 205 East 85th Street is a 206-unit condo developed by the Related Companies. The design here is by Robert A.M. Stern, opting for a neo-gothic style inspired by some of the grand pre-war apartment houses of Park Avenue. Red brick with stone accents will clad a large corner structure. Interior courtyard gardens will fill the space in back. Apartments will range in size from studios to five bedrooms. The traditional scheme here is in keeping with what Stern has delivered at such crowd pleasers as The Chatham at 181 East 65th Street and 15 Central Park West.
