By Carter B. Horsley
Element, located at 555 West 59th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and West End Avenue, is a 33-story, all-glass residential condominium building with 198 units. It was completed in 2008.
It is in the midst of cluster of new residential towers most of which were erected at about the same time. The others include such projects as 10 West End Avenue, the Hudson, 245 West 60th Street and the Adagio and more are likely to come as Fordham University has embarked on a very ambitious building program that will add several new residential towers to its small campus just to the south of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and as Extell Development advances with its plans to add several major buildings designed by Christian de Portzamparc at the south of its phalanx of towers designed by Costas Kondylis on Riverside Boulevard where Mr. Kondylis designed several residential towers to the north for Donald Trump.
Element was developed by Brack Capital, which is headed by Moshe Dan Azogui, Continental Venture Realty of which Jane Gol is a principal, and COALCO International. About half of the units are one-bedrooms, 30 percent are two-bedrooms and 20 percent are three bedrooms.
Apartments have 9-foot-6-inch-high ceilings and open kitchens with Sub Zero and Bosch appliances. Bathrooms have limestone tiling and Zuma soaking tubs. All apartments have washers and dryers.
The building has 24-hour Abigail Michaels concierge service, a garage, cold storage, a residents' lounge, a fitness center, basketball and squash courts, a 60-foot lap pool, a sundeck, a garden, and an indoor and outdoor children's playroom.
About 60 percent of the units in the pet-friendly building have balconies.
This "new" neighborhood is called by some observers "Columbus Circle West" or "Lincoln Square" and it is about a 10-minute walk from the Time-Warner Center at Columbus Circle.
SLCE is the architect.
The building's balcony pattern gives it a pronounced "abs" look as they protrude quite muscularly and give the tower quite a sculpted appearance.