Carter's Review

To many older New Yorkers, the Bowery conjures "skid row" - images of souls lost in drunken stupor in the city's purgatory. On the other hand, some music lovers have fondness for the Amato Opera Company and CBGB's, two of the street's older music emporiums, and more recently disco fever has surged at the Capital, a cavernous, marble-clad former banking hall.

After decades of stagnation, the Bowery is undergoing significant change and one of the harbingers of that change is 57 Bond Street, a new condominium apartment building on the former site of a gas station on the southwest corner at the Bowery.

This striking 6-story building has a curved façade along Bond Street and quite a complex form considering its relatively small size. It is across Bond Street from the Bouwerie Lane Theater and across the Bowery from the Amato Opera Company and CBGB's.

The first floor of the building has a black stone façade along Bond Street with columns that Marvin H. Meltzer, the architect, has said "was a gesture to tie the building to the one across the street, which has columns."

The second through the fourth floors are covered along Bond Street and part of the façade on the Bowery in a silver-toned Alucobond, a composite panel faced with aluminum. The two top floors are faced with a blue-colored Alucobond that is also used on the second through the fourth floors at the southeast and northwest corners of the building.

The overall appearance of the building is high-tech in sharp contrast with the rest of the neighborhood.

The building has 10 loft-style apartments that range in size from 1,470 to 2,512 square feet and their initial prices in 2004 ranged from $1,340,000 to $1,970,000. The apartments have 11-foot ceilings, large windows and a private balcony or terrace. All apartments have access to a 1,000-square-foot rooftop area and also have 100-square-foot storage areas in the basement.

The $7 million building was designed by Meltzer/Mandl Architects.

According to the developer, Kenneth Horn of Alchemy Properties, the project sold out before completion. Alchemy was founded in 1990 by Mr. Horn, who previously practiced real estate law and successfully converted over 2,000 apartments in the city to cooperatives overseeing the acquisition, financing and renovation. Alchemy has made 15 acquisitions in the New York City metropolitan area since 1996 and has principal has bought over 500 apartments and its loft condominium conversions in recent years have included 42 East 20th Street, which is known as the Bullmoose Condominium, and the Keystone Condominium at 38-44 Warren Street, 20 Greene Street, 136 East 19th Street, 36-40 West 13th Street and 129 West 20th Street.

The master bathrooms have steam showers and the penthouses have wood-burning fireplaces, four-person hot tubs and outdoor showers.

The building will not be an isolated modern stand-out for too long as several other new construction projects are advancing nearby.

The building is five blocks south of Cooper Union and McSorley s, the legendary tavern, one block from Lafayette Street and two blocks from Broadway. It is very close to the famous Condit Building at 65 Bleecker Street that was designed by Louis Sullivan. This area is not far from New York University and is very close to the Noho Historic District.