The Corinthian (Manhattan)

Site

The building is located on a 81173 sqft land lot that occupies a full city block between First Avenue and Tunnel Entrance Street and between East 37th and 38th Streets, adjacent to the Manhattan entrance to the Queens–Midtown Tunnel. The block is the former site of the East Side Airline Terminal, a passenger terminal for buses to LaGuardia and JFK airports via the adjacent tunnel. The terminal closed in 1984 and was auctioned off by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority the following year. Initially expected to sell for $50 million, a bidding war drove up the price of the real estate to $90.6 million; the site was attractive to developers as it was already zoned to permit high-density use and there would be no occupants to relocate after the terminal's remaining leases expired in 1986. The winning bidder was a joint venture consisting of Bernard Spitzer, Peter L. Malkin, and two privately held corporations—International Energy Corporation and Kriti Exploration Inc.

Architecture

The development team had originally planned to tear down the entire East Side Airline Terminal, but after discovering that it was very well constructed they decided to save a significant portion of the terminal and incorporate it as offices in the base of the structure, adding columns to support the new residential tower above. The remaining 35 percent of the terminal along First Avenue was demolished to create a landscaped plaza, fountain, and porte-cochère. The residential tower was constructed on solid earth, avoiding a tube from the Queens–Midtown Tunnel that runs underneath the eastern portion of the site.

Exterior

The Corinthian was designed by Der Scutt, design architect, and Michael Schimenti. Its fluted towers with bay windows are unusual compared to the traditional boxy shape of buildings in the city, and it bears a resemblance to Marina City and Lake Point Tower in Chicago. According to Bernard Spitzer, the building was named the Corinthian because "we think we have the contemporary version of the Corinthian column, the most lavish of the Greek columns." The semicircular windows provide a 180-degree view from every apartment. Many of the apartments include private balconies, which are located between the fluted towers.

A 26,920 sqft privately owned public space with trees and benches is located on east side of the site adjacent to First Avenue. The landscaped plaza was designed by Thomas Balsley Associates, the same firm that designed other nearby public spaces including the plaza for Manhattan Place, the East River Esplanade Park from East 36th to 38th streets, and renovations to St. Vartan Park. Facing the residential entrance to the building in the plaza is a cascading, semicircular waterfall fountain and a 10 ft high Aristides Demetrios bronze sculpture, "Peirene" named after the Fountain of Peirene in Corinth.

Interior

At 1100000 sqft it is the largest project of Bernard Spitzer. It has 863 apartments, 125000 sqft of commercial space on the first through third floors and a 48000 sqft garage. The fourth floor of The Corinthian—the former roof of the East Side Airline Terminal—serves as the building's amenity level and includes a health club and a setback roof terrace with a 50 ft glass-enclosed swimming pool, sun deck, and 1/4 mi outdoor jogging track. Residential units are located on the fifth floor and above.

The residential lobby facing First Avenue is 90 ft long and 28 ft high and includes a 7 ft high bronze sculpture by Bill Barrett, "Step for Two" and a 15 ft high wood relief by John A. Kapel called "Totem." The commercial space has a separate entrance on East 37th Street and includes a lobby with a two-story high glass wall.

History

The Spitzer family sold off the building's parking garage in 2009 for $10.3 million and the office condominiums in 2011 for $31 million. The office units were later renovated to attract more high-end medical practices given its proximity to NYU Langone Medical Center.

In 2013, Gaia Real Estate purchased the 50th floor of the building for $14.6 million from Pfizer, which had bought the floor before the building opened and used the 16000 sqft layout consisting of 21 bedrooms and 25 bathrooms as a corporate executive suite for its nearby headquarters at the Pfizer Building. The 50th floor was subsequently renovated and divided into separate apartments. A year later, Gaia bought 144 more units in The Corinthian for $147 million, which were originally owned by the Spitzer family and had been rented out. These apartments were remarketed as The Corinthian Collection and sold in their original layout or as renovated units designed by Andres Escobar.

A $3 million renovation to the building's amenity level on the fourth floor was completed in August 2014, which included the addition of a golf simulator, a dance studio, and an expansion of the fitness center.

In 2018, Turtle Bay Music School moved into an office condominium with its own street-level entrance at the corner of East 38th Street and Tunnel Entrance Street; the school spent $15 million to purchase two office condominiums and renovate a former medical office into a school containing 5 classrooms, 13 practice rooms/studios and a 161-seat recital hall. The music school closed in 2020 due to financial difficulties and was later converted into a Pre-K center operated by the New York City Department of Education.

Critical reception

The Corinthian has received mixed reviews from architecture critics. In its description of the newly completed apartment building, the 1988 AIA Guide to New York City noted, "Here Scutt has excelled—his best building by far." Architectural critic Carter Horsley wrote that the building "bursts with energy and has a palatial lobby." In the 1996 book Der Scutt Retrospective, author Robert Metzger wrote that the semi-circular bay windows create "an unusual sculptural mass which heightens the visual drama of the building" and "The Corinthian is an enormous structure, and this sculptural effect diminishes the bulk visually." While The Corinthian was still under construction in 1987, Robert Campbell of the Boston Globe described the building's architectural design as "OK if unremarkable." Architectural critic Philip Nobel said the building "looks like a bundle of sticks" and other writers have characterized The Corinthian as "a stick of brick-covered dimes."

References

References

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