Carter's Review

This handsome, light-orange brick, 9-story building at 124 Hudson Street in TriBeCa was designed by Dewitt Tishman, whose plans were subsequently sold to another developer who commissioned BKSK Architects to finish the project. 

Dewitt Tishman began designing the building on a former parking lot site in 1998 and the following year the plans got approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission. 

The building, which is also known as 36-42 Ericsson Place, has 27 condominium apartments.

Bottom Line

A very handsome building in the very desirable TriBeCa West Historic District near the Holland Tunnel and the Hudson River that is nicely proportioned with attractive detailing such as suspended marquees and tie-backs.

Description

The building’s façade is reminiscent of Romanesque Revival buildings in the neighborhood. It is distinguished by its industrial-style fenestration at one end of the building, its large suspended marquees at its corner and its attractive setbacks. 

The building has retail space on its ground floor.

Amenities

The building has a concierge, a doorman and a live-in superintendent. It also has a courtyard with a fountain and a pergola and is pet friendly.

Apartments

There are four units per floor on levels two through six, three units on the seventh floor, two units on level eight and a penthouse unit on level nine. 

Features include 10 1/3-foot-high ceilings, wood-burning fireplaces, tongue-and-groove hardwood strip flooring and stone slab bathrooms and kitchens, and independently controlled central air. 

Apartment 7B is a three-bedroom unit with a 14-foot-long entry foyer that leads past a 12-foot-long enclosed kitchen to a 28-foot-long living room with a wood-burning fireplace and a long terrace and a 13-foot-wide dining area. 

Apartment 4A is a three-bedroom unit with a 12-foot-wide entry foyer that leads to a 16-foot-long dining area next to a 12-foot-wide open kitchen with an island and a 2-foot-long living room with a wood-burning fireplace. 

Apartment 5C is a four-bedroom unit with a 16-foot-long foyer that leads past an enclosed 12-foot-long kitchen to a 30-foot-long living room with a wood-burning fireplace and a 17-foot-long dining alcove. 

Apartment 5A is a three-bedroom apartment with a 12-foot-wide entry foyer with a balcony that leads to a 33-foot-long living/dining room with an open kitchen with an island. 

Apartment 4D is a two-bedroom unit with a 42-foot-long entry gallery that leads to a 28-foot-wide living dining room with an open kitchen and a wood-burning fireplace.  One of the bedrooms has a 9-foot-wide balcony.

History

BKSK kept most of the building’s massing, its iron-spot brickwork and its suspended marquees, but changed the façade detailing a bit to “accentuate certain ideas of verticality, and distinguished between the building’s prominent north and less prominent west façades,” according to Todd Poisson of BKSK. BKSK’s work also included painted mahogany weight-and-chain windows and articulated brick chimneys and it changed the bricks from red- and orange-colored to range from light buff to deep ochre. 

The design was also inspired by the historic S. A. Bendheim Building located to the south and “an historic brick building across the street designed by Francis Kimball informed BKSK’s design of he detailing and metalwork on the façade, which included fanciful lintels and corner guards, the base ironwork and the steel tie-back plates.” 

The Landmarks commission mandated that no mechanical equipment could be visible from the street or from the courtyard in the rear so the solution was to design rooftop equipment that was acoustically separated from the apartments through special ceiling assemblies.