Carter's Review

This pleasant, mid-rise, beige-brick, 19-story rental apartment building at 111 Worth Street on the northwest corner of Lafayette Street overlooks Foley Square, home to many of the city's most important courthouses.

Erected in 2003 by Forest City Ratner of Brooklyn, Joel Wiener of Manhattan and Schenkman/Kushner Affiliates of Bridgewater, New Jersey, it contains 330 apartments and was designed by Costas Kondylis.

Bottom Line

An attractive, 19-story apartment building close to City Hall and Foley Square and TriBeCa.

Description

Its lower two floors and the top two floors of its base and of its tower are light-colored.

This building presents a rather rosy composition that is attractive even though it is out of context with the mostly limestone façades of its surroundings.

This building has a wood and onyx lobby with a vaulted ceiling, natural light in all corridors, a concierge, a fitness center, a residents' lounge, and floor-to-ceiling windows.

The building has 18,000 square feet of retail space and a 225-car garage.  It is setback at the 14^th floor.

The building has some corner windows.

Amenities

The building has a concierge, a fitness center, and a residents’ lounge.

The building has three outdoor spaces: a roof deck with an shower for sunbathers; a 14^th floor terrace and a landscaped garden on the second floor with a four-hole putting green and two golf driving cages. Pets are allowed.

Apartments

All apartments are fully sprinklered and have individual climate control in living rooms and bedrooms. Ceilings range up to 11 feet and there are large terraces on the 3rd and 15th floors.

Apartments have floor-to-ceiling windows and open kitchens have granite islands and countertops, white laminate cabinetry and breakfast bars.  Baths have tri-view medicine cabinets.

Apartment 15K is a two-bedroom unit with a 6-foot-long entry foyer that leads pass a pass-through kitchen to a 27-foot-long living/dining room with a 33-foot-long terrace.

Apartment 6T is a two-bedroom unit with a 7-foot-long entry foyer that leads to a 21-foot-long living/dining room with a pass-through kitchen.

Apartment 20H is a one-bedroom unit with a 10-foot-wide entry foyer that leads to a 15-foot-long living/dining room with a pass-through kitchen.

Apartment 11F is a studio unit with an 8-foot-long entry foyer that leads pass a pass-through kitchen to a 14-foot-long living/dining room with a 10-foot-long sleeping alcove.

History

This site once overlooked one of the most controversial public sculptures in the United States, an undulated, tall wall of rust-looking steel by Richard Serra that bisected the ample plaza at the rear of the Federal office building overlooking Foley Square.

Entitled "Tilted Arc," the 120-foot-long curved and hulking steel slab was installed in 1981 and it took eight years of controversy and legal dispute to remove it. Critics charged that it bisected the plaza and interfered with pedestrian traffic and did not leave sufficient space for landscaping and seating areas.

Forest City Ratner is the developer also of 8 Spruce Street, a very tall rental apartment tower designed by Frank O. Gehry one block east of City Hall Park.

The developers reserved 56 units for residents earning incomes no more than 50 percent of the median income for the area, which was about $31,400 for a family of four in 2003 in exchange for $114 million worth of tax-exempt bonds issued by the New York State Housing Finance Agency.  Another 10 apartments were set aside for people with incomes no more than 40 percent of area median income or $25,120 for a family of four in 2003.

Location

The building is convenient to City Hall, the Financial District, Chinatown and SoHo and public transportation and it is not far from Ground Zero.