The Tribeca Lofts, 79 Worth Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 79 Worth Street by Carter Horsley

The TriBeCa Lofts consists of three landmarked buildings in TriBeCa in the TriBeCa East Historic District at 79 Worth Street and 78 and 80 Leonard Street with a total of 29 condominium apartments.

At one point, the two on Leonard Street were going to get a 8-unit “rooftop addition” described by Henry Smith-Miller of Smith-Miller + Hawkinson Architects as a “stone cloud” and which had been approved by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2008.

A January 1, 2009 article at ny.curbed.com noted that there was “no financing to get this thing built,” and one commenter at the site suggested that the gray rooftop designed resembled “some crumpled paper accidentally left on the architect’s desk.”

These buildings were the Second Empire style store and loft building at 78 Leonard Street that was built in 1864-5 and the Italianate style store and loft building designed by James H. Giles that was built in 1860-2.  These buildings were subsequently combined.

According to an article by Julie Shapiro in the January 2 - 8, 2009 edition of The Downtown Express, "the two-story mesh metal topper for 78-80 Leonard Street will be impossible to see from the street," and "the multi-faceted condo addition looks like a piece of paper that was folded into an origami pattern and then unfolded again, with creases remaining."

"The 9,350-square-foot addition has no windows but is made of tin, wire glass and corrugated metal," the article continued, adding that "Smith-Miller was inspired by rooftop mechanical equipment and the gritty feeling of darker, less polished materials."

The article quoted Barbara Resnicow of Second Development Services Inc., the developer of the project, as stating that the project has a potential investor but the funding is not definite.

The project was approved by Community Board 1 last month by a vote of 32 to 5 and the article quoted Bruce Ehrmann, the co-chairman of the board's landmarks committee as stating that "we all liked the design very much," adding that the board called the design "arresting and aesthetically breathtaking."

The building at 80 Leonard was derelict until Second Development converted it to apartments in the 1990s and the two buildings now contain 18 vacant units, some of which are duplexes. The rooftop addition was to contain 8 apartments.

The addition, however, did not get built, but the project did get larger with the edition of a third building at 79^th Worth Street.

Bottom Line

A couple of nice, old, low-rise TriBeCa buildings that were once planned to get a “stone cloud” two-story addition, rather literally, have survived by joining a third nearby building to become “The TriBeCa Lofts” project now that “cloud” projects are de rigueur in the world of computing, eh….

Description

79 Worth Street is a 5-story, turn-of-the century building with a limestone façade, stylized Doric columns, restored tin ceilings and federal windows with two lofts per floor.

78 Leonard Street is a Second Empire, cast-iron building erected in 1865 with federal window, Corinthian columns and 11-14-foot-high ceilings.

80 Leonard Street was designed by J. H. Giles in Italianate style with a limestone façade with arched windows on the third and fifth floors above a cast-iron ground floor in 1861.  It has an arcaded façade with two-story columns.

Amenities

The buildings have central air-conditioning, a roof terrace, storage and a laundry.

Apartments

Apartments have rift oak flooring and glass kitchen cabinetry and Bertrazzoi ranges, Bosch and Sub-Zero appliances.

Apartment 3F at 79 Worth Street is a two-bedroom unit with a 40-foot-long living room with an open kitchen.

Apartment 1R at 79 Worth Street is a two-bedroom unit with a 48-fot-long living room with an open kitchen and a 26-foot-long mezzanine.

Apartment 4A at 80 Leonard Street is a two-bedroom unit with a 42-foot-long living room with an open kitchen,

Apartment 2A at 80 Leonard Street is a two-bedroom unit with a 22-foot-long living room with a 12-foot-wide open kitchen.

Apartment 5D at 80 Leonard Street is a one-bedroom unit duplex with a 10-foot-long entry foyer leading to a 9-foot-wide open kitchen with an island and a 29-foot-long living room on the lower level and a 9-foot-long foyer on the upper level with a 19-foot-wide bedroom.

Apartment 5H at 78 Leonard Street is a two-bedroom unit duplex with a 13-foot-long entry foyer and a 17-foot-wideliiving room with an enclosed 7-foot-wide kitchen on the lower floor and a 17-foot-wide foyer and two bedrooms on the upper level.

Apartment 2E at 78 Leonard Street is a two-bedroom unit with a 34-foot-long living room with a 12-foot-wide open kitchen.

Apartment 5G at 78 Leonard Street is a studio unit with a 23-foot-long living room with an open kitchen.