Carter's Review

This handsome, asymmetrical, dark-gray, 12-story building at 30 Warren Street at Church Street in TriBeCa is scheduled for completion in 2017 and is being developed by Cape Advisors, which is headed by Craig Wood and Curtis Bashaw.

It has been designed by Post Office Architectes of which David Fagart and Francois Leininger are the principles with Line Fontana as the interior designer.  HTO Architects is the executive architect of record.

It has 23 condominium apartments, 9,700 square feet of retail space and occupies the east blockfront on Church Street between Warren and Chambers Street.

Cape Advisors other New York Projects include One Kenmare Square, 19-23 St. Mark’s Place, and 100 Eleventh Avenue, which was designed by Jean Nouvel, for whom the principles of Post Office Architectes once worked.

Bottom Line

One block from City Hall Park and the Woolworth Building, this mid-rise building is one of the city’s more interesting “boutique” residential projects.

Description

On the building’s website, architect David Fagart notes that “no two levels are identical, and the built part of the site is very thin.”

“The urban landscape here is awesome,” he said, adding that “we came up with the idea of an ‘inverted belvedere’” and “developed a principle of framing large views facing the grand moments of the city.”

Francois Leininger commented on the website that “this project is the opposite of aquarium architecture and of a certain generic vision of daily life,” adding that “the balconies we placed on the façade function like promontories, or perches, where one can take the pulse of the urban environment and then the step back inside.  The terraces protect from the sun, noise, and from buildings opposite.”

The façade incorporates large modules of “Ductal,” a highly resistant fiber-reinforced concrete that according to Mr. Leininger “expresses a mineral quality as well as a certain ambivalence: the subtlety of a thickness,” adding that “this material lends itself to being molded and textured” and “creates nuance, which we think is important in today’s world.”

The building has several setbacks and the largest has a large tree in front of a slightly reflective wall with diagonal accents up against the wall of an adjoining tenement building.  This wall combining with the glass façade of the north side of the tower creates a light and airy environment at the north end of the project in contrast with its dark grey façades.

Amenities

The building has an attended lobby, a fitness center, a children’s playroom and private storage.

Apartments

Apartments have 10-foot-high ceilings.

Kitchens have Italian white lacquer cabinetry with ribbed glass doors and white glass backsplashes, Miele appliances, Tundra Grey marble slab countertops.

Some of the apartments have Marvel wine refrigerators.

Bathrooms have Tundra Grey marble slab feature walls and Italian white lacquer vanities with marble countertops.

Penthouse 3 is a three-bedroom unit with a 13-foot-square entrance gallery that leads past an open kitchen with an island adjacent to a library and a 30-foot-long living/dining room that opens onto a 46-foot-long terrace.  The corner master bedroom has a 20-foot-long wrap-around terrace.

Apartment 6C is a three-bedroom unit with an 18-foot-long entrance gallery that leads to a 31-foot-wide living/dining room with an open kitchen with an island.

Apartment 6A is a two-bedroom unit with an entry foyer that leads past an open, eat-in kitchen to a 15-foot-long gallery that leads to a 22-foot-wide living/dining room.

Apartment 8B is a two-bedroom unit with a 6-foot-square entry foyer that leads past an open kitchen with an island to a 37-foot-long living/dining room that opens onto a 58-foot-long terrace overlooking Church Street.