building at 50 East 10th Street

Great, prime building. Gracious layouts. Prices have more or less held up over the past few years. I have a friend who lives here.

The common areas a bit, um, dated, and the older residents of the building are reluctant to increase maintenance for capital improvements. There's an NYU dormitory across the street which may be annoying to some people or a plus if you are creepy.

I assume you mean 6J - good condition, and fairly sparse so you can add your own touches. 8J sold in '08 for $1.1, but was in dire need of a reno.

Strange. I was interested in this apartment as well. Saw it at the first open house on December 12. That's three weeks ago. And now it's already in contract? Doesn't make any sense. But I think this building may be relatively underpriced, and this seems to bear it out. Apartments trade for far more money at 40 Fifth, 59 W. 12th, and at the other bland Bing & Bings, 299 West 12th, and 302 West 12th. The layouts in this building are more interesting and the amenities more substantial, i.e. roof garden, rear garden, gym, kid's room, etc.

To say something trades at less than 40 Fifth Ave is not saying much. It is possibly the most expensive apartment building in Greenwich Village.

I don't think 40-50 East 10th is particularly under-priced. 40 Fifth aside, all of the buildings streetsmart mentioned (59, 299 and 302) are condos. This really helps prop up prices there, absurdly so in the case of the two latter. 299 & 302 are mainly 850sf 1-bedrooms and some studios that trade at a 30-60% premium to the comparable pre-war section of 2 Horatio co-op. I would much rather live at 40-50 East 10th over 299, 302, and 2 Horatio - the layouts are vastly superior, imho. I know Kylewest dislikes the wasted space of many of the foyers, but I find them to be lovely and welcoming (and yes, otherwise useless).

Buster, folks who dislike the charm and openness of pre-war foyers are generally those who embrace the postwar aprtment layout, in which you enter directly into the living room. As the French say, "Chacun a son gout."

PS: the Co-op condo debate over added value never made much sense to me. If I invest in a multi-million dollar apartment and have my evening disrupted by loud neighbors or other quality of life issues, I definitely embrace the power of a Co-op board to enforce the by-law rules, something that doesn't happen in a condo. I also like that you can't arbitrarily sublet at will. But that's just me.

buster, it isn't just the wasted space in a one-bedroom where space is at a premium for things like dining tables and desks. I really dislike how the bedroom is accessed directly through a doorway in the living room with no little hall or turn around a corner. It is just so out of sync with the graciousness you expect when you enter the gallery of the 40-50 E 10th apartments. Suddenly you emerge into the apartment proper, and you realize that despite the nice gallery, there is no dining area/room, no foyers to the bedroom and guests have to either poop in your kitchen or go into your bedroom to enter the full bathroom. All of these were turnoffs for me. I think they are serious flaws in the layouts.

Kylewest, I can understand why they are turnoffs for many - it just all depends on your perspective, and I guess I just see it differently. It's a 1-bedroom, so I personally wouldn't need the bedroom to have its own hallway (to me that would be wasted space) - a friend of mine actually had French doors installed on his bedroom to allow even more light to pass into the living space through those great casement windows. The living room has plenty of space for a nice seating and dining area, and the gallery is quite gracious. Many pre-war 1-bedrooms only have one bathroom, and it's often through the bedroom, so the powder room off the kitchen is a plus to me (and seriously, how often do guests poop in your bathroom anyway? If it bothers you that much, turn it into a pantry or a desk nook).

Streetsmart, I agree that a co-op provides more value for you (and me) than a condo, but many feel otherwise, and the data speaks for itself. Also, I don't want to speak for Kylewest, but he's made it clear in the past that he's lived in pre-war spaces, and there's much to admire, however, many come with too many eccentricities or compromises for him while post-wars have been designed more sensibly for how many live today. I think it's less of a taste issue than practicality.

I also am not a fan of the "wasted space' of a foyer, particularly when considering the premium on space in manhattan.

But the biggest crime Ive seen is this new element (new developments the last 3/5 years) that has been introduced called "the great room." On the surface (and in an empty new apartment) seems like a great idea, a great wide open space for you to mold to your taste, unfortunately when you crunch the math, or the ruler, you find your giving up either 1)a proper kitchen, 2) a proper living room, 3)a proper dining room. And more often than not, at least with new developments Ive seen in the last year, your giving up 2 of the 3.

Buster, I think you and I have opinions that would converge when speaking about pre-wars larger than 1 bdrm. Once you go up to a classic-6, the premium on maximizing use of all space diminishes for me since its just two of us living together and there is more sq/footage to play with. I would love nothing more than to gut reno a classic-6 one day with an eye toward restoring its glory and sensitively updating it for the 21st century. And I'd pick a prewar classic six over a post-war 2 bedroom in a heart beat. It's just the pre-war one bedrooms that I have found are too much of a compromise of form over function. For now that classic-6 is a distant dream and I will happily content myself with our present jr-four digs. Wonder what that classic-6 will go for in about 15 years when we're ready to retire into one.

The only answer I can think of to bridge the two aesthetic and practical sides here is maybe the Butterfield House? More dignified and forward thinking than a postwar, and more a contemporary design of interior space than a prewar. Problem may be that the maintenances there seem awfully high.