really awful floorplans

from the SE building description:

Look beyond the subtle color nuances, complementary textures and ambient lighting and you’ll discover that every space is also designed to work intelligently. Form, after all is nothing without function.

AR did you notice that they the main room is referred to as the "dining area". IE there is no living/family space. Fine for two twentysomethings dividing a studio but my guess is someone willing to make a $1MM+ commitment might want somewhere to put a couch, chairs and a TV.
Also if the scale is correct, the master bath is bigger, or at least the same size as the 2nd bedroom. I've seen that alot in new construction. Granted the bath in my "immediate post war" apartment is teeny and I wish it was larger but not at the expense of a decent room for my kid or even my office/guests.

You can put your living room furniture on the terrace.

Man, that is so awful. Am I reading this plan right? It looks like there are 3 small windows on a 8' wide lightwell? How claustrophobic. This apartment is 450 square feet at most. I understand the outside the wall measurements, but this is nuts. And the price! This is a winner.

"AR did you notice that they the main room is referred to as the "dining area". IE there is no living/family space."

LOL -- for a million bucks I at least want a LIVING ROOM! This place has a giant "country-style" eat-in kitchen and two bedrooms, but no living room!

you should have seen what the units looked like when it was a Thurcon rental.........

lizyank - the reason the bathrooms are so big in new construction is that they must comply with ADA requirements - wheelchair turnaround, etc. And the space has to come from somwehere, so it usually means smaller bedroosm/living rooms.

That was my DREAM apartment for me and my best friend when I was 10! Watch TV in your rooms, your own bathroom, play area next to the kitchen.....

west34, you nailed it. the perfect apartment for 2 10 year olds who've been taught how to exist via microwave.

30yrs, they weren't over a mil for 897 sf with close to $2000 in ccs and taxes.

ph41, apologist for the developer much? if you need big bathrooms, change the way you format the apartments if you want this kind of cash.

i think it's something over $7000k with 25% down, and those common charges will most certainly increase. $7000 and no living room, bedrooms so narrow two people couldn't walk at once, and what looks like little ambient light. otherwise, GRAND!!!!

"30yrs, they weren't over a mil for 897 sf with close to $2000 in ccs and taxes."

Of course, but I just wonder if people know about the horror of Thurcon buildings, and specifically what they had to work with when they started with this building. I pity the architect (actually I don't. I hate architects in general and think most of what's been built in NY in the last 20 years is total crap. And Costas Kondylis .... if I had a time machine I'd go back and convince his mom to use better contraception).

costas is the absolutelyfng pits.

this building should have been developed (as in started) in 2010ish. then we might have seen something worthwhile. or probably not. but THIS?

The architect is a genius. He managed to fit 897 square feet in 400 square feet. This is a mathematical breakthrough. Imagine all that can be accomplished now.

maly, i sit corrected. forget that brain drain from math and science to finance, at least a few migrated elsewhere.

Architecture, science's last frontier.
Who'd ha' thunk it?

Maybe he had a minor in nuclear physics and disproved the Pauli Principle

Learn something new everyday...never realized about ADA requirements in apartments. Especially since developers/realtors spend so much time describing "spa-like oases" or "true relaxing luxury" as the rationale for the oversize bath. That and the ability to keep up with your friends who have mini-spas in their 6000 sq ft suburban McMansions.

I support the ADA and see where its made quality of life better for both disabled and non-disabled people (how much easier is a stroller now that there are curb cuts?). But why couldn't they build apartment buildings the way the build hotesl with x% of the apartments built as accessible and the rest not? Make sure there is sufficient housing choice for the disabled at every price point but don't subject others to sub-optimal apartment design.

Just one woman's opinion.

Great! Instead of moving, I am going to ask this guy to build a 3,000 square foot dream loft into my backyard shed.

liz, i believe conversions are different than ground up construction. open mind.

Q. Does the ADA cover private apartments and private homes?

A. The ADA does not cover strictly residential private apartments and homes. If, however, a place of public accommodation, such as a doctor's office or day care center, is located in a private residence, those portions of the residence used for that purpose are subject to the ADA's requirements.

http://www.ada.gov/q%26aeng02.htm

For NYC, see http://www.nyc.gov/html/mopd/downloads/pdf/local_law58.pdf.

For renovations, one trigger for compliance seems to be how much is being spent relative to value. There're other headache-making conditions and caveats buried in there.

Looking at the blueprints for a very pricey gut renovation/combo in my building, there's a sheet detailing compliance with LL58. All the new doorways are at least 2'10" wide, and a 60"-diameter wheelchair-turning space is marked in the kitchen and two of the baths. Apparently the big issue is making essential things like kitchen and bath either accessible or capable of being easily made accessible.

The law aside, when nicely integrated all that stuff won't make the place feel like a nursing home, and would let you stay in your apartment if/when you end up in a wheelchair.

that makes sense and I certainly support the right of the disabled to suitable housing. Unfortunately in NYC, the landmarks people override the ADA. When the entrace to my mother's house was redone I was delighted because I assumed the renovation would include a ramp which would allow her to use a very much needed walker. However, I was told that because it was a landmark buidling (why I'll never know, we are not talking about neither "George Washington slept here" or architectural significance) we were not allowed to alter the exterior by installing a ramp for ADA compliance. After that the Landmarks Commission has had a permanent home on my shit list.

This may be urban legend, but I've been told you have to have an ADA compliant bathroom even if the apartment is a 5th floor walk-up.

In that case, why are walk-up apartment buildings even allowed to exist?

NWT - I don't think the renovation dollars trigger ADA compliance. It is usually moving walls/enlarging bathrooms. And sometimes, it becomes ridiculous in a city like New York with lots of older construction. Case in point, my own renovation. Moved a door in a closet in the master bedroom, so had to put in the wider, ADA compliant door. Great, except the door INTO the bedroom remained the existing 30" wide. SO, I can't get into the bedroom in a wheelchair, but I can get into the closet. Ridiculous.

"But why couldn't they build apartment buildings the way the build hotesl with x% of the apartments built as accessible and the rest not?"

Because lobbyists for the handicapped are insane fascists! And mind you, I agree that access is important and the additional money worthwhile. But they want 100% and would rather have 0% than compromise. Case in point is public toilet kiosks. For years (decades?), they fought proposals for pairs of accessible and much smaller non-accessible kiosks on NY's crowded sidewalks ... so nothing got built at all.

I'm surprised Landmarks trumped them for your Mom's building, Liz. I suspect if she had demanded a ramp they would have at least had to put a temporary one in for her.

Actually, ADA is not required for houses (private homes, not apartments)

Here's the sad truth...during the height of the buying free money frenzy this layout would have drawn a bidding war. See the listing....Love the BIG CITY but dream of PRIVACY we got just the place

Vampires Welcome!

Alan, unfortunately my mother didn't put up a fight at all--SHE didn't think she needed to use a walker and the steps out front were an awesome excuse. I was on the co-op board at the time and took a decidely different point of view but the architects on the board (great guys who knew my Mom's situation and were sympathetic) told me there was no way to install a ramp and get Landmark approval. We
have a temporary ramp to place over stairs for deliveries and wheelchairs/walkers in my current home but there is a doorman to adminsiter it, my mother's building was non-doorman so noone would be there to but up/take down the temporary ramp.

Ew. What an awful floorplan. Here's my contribution:
http://img.streeteasy.com/nyc/image/28/8073228.gif

From this listing:
http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/465752-condo-529-clinton-street-carroll-gardens-brooklyn

The pictures make the bathrooms look HUGE, so there may just be some incredibly weird proportions in this space, but I'm thinking it's actually a 1-bedroom with a wonky layout that's been converted into a 2-bedroom with an even weirder layout. Hard to tell from same-building comps, but between the sucky location and the fact that it's all stairs, the price has to be a joke.

A little clarity on the ADA issue:

ADA compliance is never required for single-family homes. Although I agree that making buildings accessible to the handicapped is a Good Thing, it comes at a cost both to developers and consumers. The fact that ADA is not required for single family homes is just another instance of government intervention indirectly subsidizing the suburbs (single family homes) at the expense of the cities (multi-family dwellings).

ADA compliance is always required for multi-family apartment buildings. 30 Years is actually incorrect (!) that walk-up apartment buildings need to be ADA compliant - however, all 1st floor units in walk-up multi-family buildings must be ADA compliant, which is why you never see a proper old-timey stoop in new buildings.

Even if you build an apartment with 11 bathrooms, every single one must be ADA compliant - so it's illegal to build a tiny, convenient powder room in some underused corner. All bathrooms have to be enormous.

Renovating a bathroom in an old building (pre-ADA) can trigger compliance, but only if you change the footprint.