A noteworthy architect’s renovation can lend a certain cachet to a New York City apartment. If the architect in question called the residence home, so much the better. That’s the case with a duplex condominium in Tribeca of the architect and urban planner Vishaan Chakrabarti, which recently sold for $5.7 million, according to city records filed today.
Chakrabarti — whose latest post is a partnership at SHoP Architects, the firm that designed the Barclays Center at Atlantic Yards, among other high-profile projects — put his architectural chops to use on his own home, combining two units at 200 Chambers Street into a 3,250-square-foot duplex apartment.
The flourishes include a custom wet bar and a curved glass staircase that leads down to a wing of bedrooms, according to the listing, with top broker Richard Orenstein, an executive vice president at Halstead Property.
Orenstein described the four-bedroom, 4.5-bathroom apartment as one of the nicest in the 258-unit building. But he declined to comment further on the transaction, saying, “I don’t sell and tell – that’s why they pay me the big bucks.”
The master bedroom suite, described in the listing as a “pin-drop quiet sanctuary” includes a “sensual” bathroom with a glass-enclosed rain shower and a free-standing bathtub “perfectly positioned to soak in the magnificent city views.”
Chakrabarti signed a contract to buy the first unit, 23F, for almost $1.95 million in 2005 (although since the unit was a sponsor sale, it did not close until 2007), property records show. About three years later, in mid-2008, he snapped up the unit below, No. 22F, for $2.9 million, records show.
Marc Avram, an Upper East Side cosmetic dermatologist and hair transplant specialist, purchased the combination unit. Avram did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Chakrabarti put the property on the market for $6.5 million in January, then cut the price to $6.25 million about two months later, according to Streeteasy.com
Chakrabarti, who also did not immediately return a request for comment, joined SHoP in February. He is the director the Center for Urban Real Estate at Columbia University, the group behind the proposal to build a land bridge between Lower Manhattan and Governor’s Island.
He has also worked as an executive at the Related Companies. From 2002 to 2005, Chakrabarti served in the Department of City Planning as the director of the Manhattan office.