Solarium, 5-43 48th Avenue: Review and Ratings

Review of 5-43 48th Avenue by Carter Horsley

This 8-story, mid-block building at 5-43 48^th Street in Hunters Point, Queens, is known as Solarium and was erected in 2009. 

It has been given a silver rating for energy conservation by the National Association of Home Buildings Research Center for its various energy saving features. Its roof is paved with rubber from used tires and the building has used recycle steel and concrete, thick sheet rock, thermopane windows and the building has no bathtubs. 

It has 35 condominium apartments. 

It was developed by 5-43 Ventures LLC, of which Joseph Escarfullery is a principal. 

Rudolph Shatarah was the consulting engineer and Tony Musso was the architect who advised the project on environmental concerns. 

Bottom Line

A mid-block, mid-rise apartment building with no bathtubs and a 6-foot-wide wind turbine on the roof offers its residents an environmentally friendly home.

Description

The most distinguishing and unusual feature of this building is the narrow and circular wind turbine atop the roof. 

The red-brick building has a setback above the sixth floor where there is also a broad stone bandcourse. 

The front of the building, which has discrete air-conditioners, has two wide balconies, each with two small light scones, on each floor above the first. 

A March 30, 2010 article by Leigh Remizowski in the New York Daily News quoted Reg Adams, president of WindTronics, the company based in Michigan that created the turbine, as stating that it will start turning with 0.4 mile-per-hour winds “and begins producing energy at just under 2 mph,” adding that “the standard turbine starts rotating at 7 to 8 miles per hour."

Amenities

The building has a doorman, a live-in superintendent, a health club, a children’s playroom, a green roof deck with an outdoor movie theater, storage, a garage and ground floor retail.

Apartments

Apartment D on the third through the fifth floors is a two-bedroom unit with a 19-foot-long living room with a wide balcony and an enclosed kitchen. 

Apartment 7A is a four-bedroom unit with 2,287 square feet of space, a home office, a long hall and a pass-through kitchen. 

Apartment 1A is a triplex with a double-height, 29-foot-living/dining room and an open kitchen and a 750-square-foot private backyard, a home office and a bedroom on the lower level, a second bedroom on the middle level and a very large private rooftop on the third level.