In January 2015, Lloyd Goldman’s BLDG Management filed plans to erect a 42-floor, 80/20 rental tower on the former site of a parking garage at 222 East 44th Street. Nearly three and a half years later, the building has launched an affordable housing lottery for 109 of its 400+ apartments (h/t Curbed). Households earning 40, 60, and 130 percent of the area median income have until July 2 to apply for studios through two-bedrooms starting at $613/month. According to our listings, Midtown East studios come in at a median of $2,485/month, one-bedrooms at $3,100/month, and two-bedrooms at $4,843/month. Further information and criteria can be found at Housing Connect.
Housing lottery criteria via Housing Connect
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For additional fees, residents of the affordable units will be able to access the building's amenities, which include an indoor swimming pool, fitness center, game room, basketball court, and a high-floor communal space with a bar and catering kitchen. Andres Escobar is handling the interior design whose spaces will include a 30-foot-high lobby to open onto a reflecting pool and a 32-foot-high waterfall. The ground first floor will have a roughly 2,300-square-foot retail space and there is an open, landscaped court along the 44th Street frontage.
Moreover, as shown in newly released images published by Handel Architects, the shapely tower’s unique, pivoting design will allow residents to benefit from views of the Midtown skyline and East River rather than the surrounding offices and apartments. Angled walls of glass will open up the views and visually distinguish the building in the process.
222 East 44th Street (Renderings via Handel Architects)
Unlike some cities where skyscrapers can bask in relative isolation, here in the concrete jungle towers often rub shoulder to shoulder, cheek by jowl with one another. To carve out ample breathing room, Handel’s clever specimen floats from the center of a through-block podium, allowing exposures on all sides. Handel says, “Views of the nearby Chrysler Building led to the tower's orientation at an angle to the city's grid; this misalignment allowed a greater number of apartments to face the landmark.”
While the building permits show the tower is a lofty 556 feet tall (about the height of the U.N. Secretariat Building), the building doesn’t make much of a dent in the east side skyline. However, like other structures de-oriented from the city grid such as Two Park Avenue, the tower stands apart from the crowd, especially due to its reflective glass skin which the east side, fortunately, doesn’t have many of.
(CityRealty)
222 East 44th Street peeking out in the center right (Early March; CityRealty)
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