CONTEMPORARY NY
PICT0073.jpg (81155 bytes) New York Architecture Images- Midtown

The Osborne

architect

James E. Ware

location

205 W57, at Seventh Ave.

date

1899

style

Chicago School

construction

steel frame, Brownstone facade

type

Apartment Building

 

images

 

notes

Midtown West
205 West 57th Street
Two-bedroom, two-bath, 1,500-square-foot co-op. Asking: $1.39 million. Selling: $1.15 million. Maintenance: $1,990. Time on market: four weeks.

"We were ambitious in our pricing," admits Terry Herbert, a broker for the Corcoran Group. They must have been, given the fact that this place took a month to sell at the height of the market. An understated 1885 Chicago School building with extravagant ornamentation inside, the Osborne is a kind of Dakota across the street from Carnegie Hall and hence within walking distance of midtown offices. But once the buyers, a magazine publisher and a businessman, saw the three working fireplaces and the spectacular lobby, they decided the high price was worth it. (The Osborne has attracted residents such as Bobby Short, though it's a slightly longer commute to the Café Carlyle, and Leonard Bernstein lived there for a while.) "Everything clicked," says Herbert, especially when the couple passed the Osborne's persnickety co-op board. The seller, who uses a wheelchair, is moving to a newer building that's more accommodating.
CHRISTOPHER BONANOS

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