It was only a week or two ago that we published a photo of a new rooftop addition to a townhouse built in 1900 on West 71st street, and our readers gasped. The comments were almost unanimously negative toward the two-story addition, which stands out in the line of townhouses on 71st between West End Avenue and Amsterdam Avenue. Said one reader: “Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.”
Well, all that construction apparently had a purpose. The townhouse at 226 West 71st street is on the market, with a very hefty increase in its price tag since the last time it was sold. As Curbed first reported on Sunday, the owners (an LLC) are asking for $15.9 million after buying it in 2011 for $5.175 million. Based on the photos with the listing, it appears the modern white exterior extends to the ground floor in the back of the building. The buyers will be living pretty extravagantly, based on this description on the Corcoran website.
“This special residence presents an elevator that services 6 floors with a layout of up to 7 bedrooms, 6 full baths and 3 half baths of living quarters, and two floors of formal space plus a fully renovated basement. The exquisite full-floor master suite includes a white marble bath with grand steam shower, free-standing Agape tub and a 21-ft custom closet and dressing room. Superb natural light floods each floor through top quality floor-to-ceiling Optima steel windows and a dramatic skylight at the peak. Originally built at the turn-of-the-century, the interior of the house was gut-renovated and elegantly conceived with a modern interpretation of historic elements. Every square inch of this home has been masterfully conceived and beautifully executed with the finest finishes, innovative systems and luxurious, sustainable amenities.”
The view from the roof deck. (Silly neighbors, we will have our chefs slice the tomatoes that you throw at our architecture, and eat it with some fresh mozzarella!)
So, has your opinion changed on the building after seeing the lovely roof deck? Let us know in the comments below.
No way they are getting $15.9M. Luck if he gets $10M.
I have commented on this property before. with new photos, it clearly presents better visually when viewed straight on than from down the block. The interior is finished well. I am sure someone will enjoy living there some day. Almost $16MM asking? Who knows? Anything is possible. It is just unfortunate exterior was designed to be so visually confronting. Glad I don’t live next door – but I wouldn’t mind living there.
Dear prospective owners: Please, please, p l e a s e spend a million bucks fixing that giant middle finger of an extension…that stick in the eye of architecture…that wayward soul of decency and taste. For my part, I’ll chip in $20 for a one-way bus ticket out of town, which you can give to the sellers on signing day, with my gratitude for leaving.
At least they are super close to the super klassy Mcdonalds …. Ahhhhhh 3pm …… When those lovely lovely children get out of school and loiter down the block …. That def. Lifts the property value
You mean the Mickey D’s next to our vegetarian chain operation MAOZ?
Perhaps a boycott of this broker, to send the message that the community — her source of revenue — objects to this overbuilding nonsense?
Of course this is the “power” broker who herself is wealthy enough to buy advertising in the local movie theaters (when I’ve saved up enough to *go* to the local movie theater), so a local boycott by us little folk isn’t likely even to get her attention.
But maybe if those among us looking to sell more normal size apartments (so that the Bankers can combine them?) choose other brokers, maybe she and the others will get the idea?
I don’t know. It’s probably a lost cause.
I think the only real way to preserve the architectural integrigy of the UWS is to try for landmark status. Probably never happen, but maybe someone a lot smarter than I would know how to go about it.
No, it’s still a selfish eyesore.
The terrace is marginal at best
May the developer get screwed in the sale as he has screwed the block.
Holy cow! Just looked at the pictures. Couldn’t be more pedestrian. It’s uninspired, uninteresting, and mediocre. What a mess! It has been “remuddled,” not remodeled.
Gross, uninspired, arrogant and greedy. The architect is talentless and the owner is…. . The City needs to stop allowing this kind of insipid display of bad taste.
No one builds something that ugly to live in it. I hope anyone with enough money to buy it recognizes how bad it is and walks away. This deserves to sit on the market forever.
It is a nice view for now. But I wonder how nice the view will be after PS 199 is replaced with a towering condo development that looms over this rooftop deck and blocks out all of the sun. It will feel like a living in a dark fishbowl.
I hope the owner gets every penny he asked for. And on a semi-related note, I also hope the people who run Landmarks gets a raging case of shingles.
They act like they are for the public good but more often than not get in the way of routine maintenance and emergency repairs.
Unfortunately, money doesn’t buy a taste and taste can not be bought.
Am I the only one who likes this?
Maybe because I am blind and was told in details what it looks like.
Maybe because I am a part owner of another townhouse close by.
Maybe because…………
Well……….you know