At the 20th century’s close, if a city had cutting-edge architecture, it could reliably be found at museums, concert halls or on campuses, with the occasional high-concept courthouse or office tower.
In the last five years in New York, though, that situation appears to have flip-flopped; here, apartment buildings are increasingly leading the artistic charge, offering à la mode styles from the world’s top design talents.
To be sure, many blocks are still sprouting generic boxes. But developers seem increasingly willing to shell out for a skyline-arresting structure, realizing that in a market where tastes are more sophisticated, artfulness can translate into wider margins.
“Developers have come to understand that it’s good for business to do good design,” said George Ranalli, dean of the architecture school at City College of New York and a practicing architect. “By using a name architect, you can add at least 20 percent to the price.”
For instance, at 100 Eleventh Avenue, a condo that’s the creation of French prizewinner Jean Nouvel, 72 units, which range from 400-square-foot studios to 2,700-square-foot three-bedrooms, are priced at about $2,500 a square foot. As a result, the studios alone are $1 million.
At 40 Bond Street, a new condo project in Noho designed by the Swiss superstar firm Herzog & de Meuron, many units, even the smaller ones, sold for more than $3,000 per square foot.
That’s a steep premium over other ground-up condos in top New York neighborhoods, where the median cost per square foot hovers between $1,300 and $1,500. The rate at 100 Eleventh is perhaps even more surprising considering the building is located near parking lots and warehouses, and is next to the Bayview Correctional Facility, a women’s prison.
The building, which opened for sale in April but won’t close until spring 2009, is three-quarters sold, said David Comfort, a senior project manager for Cape Advisors, its New York-based developer. He ascribed that brisk sales pace chiefly to the
condo’s design.
Still, using an architect with the wattage of Nouvel, who nabbed his country’s Grand Prix d’Architecture, is not a cheap undertaking. The Eleventh Avenue project is costing around $600 a buildable foot, while a typical condo with a lesser-name talent might cost $450 a buildable foot. Comfort added, however, that the price premium is more for executing a quirky concept than for simply paying an architect’s salary.
“You wouldn’t want to take an artist’s painting and delete certain brushstrokes,” he said.
Until recently, renowned architects usually focused on institutional structures because they provided greater artistic license, said Michele Conte, former sales director for the Metropolitan Condominium at 181 East 90th Street near Lexington Avenue, designed by Philip Johnson and completed in 2005.
“With museums, they can concentrate on the magnificent façade only, because the tenant usually builds the inside,” said Conte, now a sales director for Stillman Development International. “In the past, they didn’t want to deal with Mrs. Jones’ closet space.”
While the developers got Johnson to switch gears, Conte downplayed
any lift he alone might have given prices, which averaged $1,200 a square foot for the 94 units at the Metropolitan, well above the $700 area average at the time.
“The truth is, buyers are too intelligent to buy something just because it’s from a certain architect,” she said.
Now, the Metropolitan’s builder, Stillman Development International, is at work on the Centurion. That condo, rising at 33 West 56th Street off of Fifth
Avenue, is being designed by I.M. Pei and his son, Sandi.
With 48 units across 17 stories, to open in January 2009, it’s the first high-end residential project for the elder Pei, who’s best known for his galleries, libraries and his pyramidal addition to the Louvre museum in Paris. When starting out, he did design Kips Bay Plaza, a modernist complex on the East Side with more than 1,000 apartments.
Robbie Antonio, president of Antonio Development, the Centurion’s co-developer, said that using any star designer typically adds $100 to $115 per square foot to a New York project. But that extra cost could be justified, as the 14 units sold since July have fetched $3,000 a square foot, notably high even in a superheated market.
“We hope we can have higher margins” because of the Peis, said Antonio. “But they are just one variable of many,” he noted, highlighting the building’s 31 different floor plans, unusual limestone façade and deep terraces.
Having a brand-name firm on the marketing packet isn’t enough to insure a
successful project, however. Gwathmey Siegel’s curvaceous Sculpture for Living at Astor Place, roundly panned by critics, had trouble selling sponsor units, and its resale values have been somewhat flat,
according to brokers.
Other times, a project seems to be weighed on its merits despite a marquee star’s presence. An example is the Time Warner Center—designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill—where condos are appreciating by at least 10 percent every time they change hands, said Robby Browne, a senior vice president at the Corcoran Group.
And yet, “is it marketed as a David Childs building? No,” Browne said. “What impresses me is an architect who does a good job.”