50 West Street skyline dbox

Renderings: DBOX

Time Equities’ 50 West Street in Lower Manhattan is a glass and steel salute to the New York skyline.

The curved 780-foot-tall condo tower released its full website in June, with copious renderings and floorplans. We took the next step and visited the sales center for the 64-story, 191-unit development with a 734-foot-high observatory in the sky.

First, some background: Helmut Jahn designed the rounded steel tower, while Thomas Juul-Hansen crafted the warm, neutral-palette interiors. Residences range from one- to five-bedroom layouts. The units are spacious; there are no more than four condos per floor, and the largest one-bedroom measures 1,258 square feet. Every apartment features floor-to-ceiling windows, marble-floored master bathrooms with custom walnut cabinetry and kitchen appliances by Miele and Sub-Zero.

DBOX spearheaded all the technology at the sales gallery, located at 40 Rector Street. A curved projection wall showcases 180-degree images, originally taken by drones, of different elevations from the building. The projected images are controlled by a touch-screen computer that lets visitors take in the neighborhood, views and interior renderings with a swipe. When a particular unit is selected, the scale building model will light up that unit’s location in the tower.

50 West panoramic

The building’s tip will also light up at night.

50 West scale model

But what if you want to witness the vista from your specific dream unit? One-inch scaled diorama models of the apartments display simulated views from 80-inch flat screens in the background. The glass curtain wall is included in these projections, for a neat cutaway effect.

50 West diorama view 2

50 West diorama with view

The dioramas, closer up:

50 West diorama living room 2

50 West diorama living room

The three-bedroom units are all blessed with double-height living rooms.

50 West double height living room

Next on the tour, we proceeded to a built-out model of a living room, with high-performance casement windows. The kitchen, typical of a 3BR/4BR unit, features granite waterfall island (with garbage disposal!), seamlessly integrated appliances and a pull-out pantry. Side note: the building has an emergency generator on the fourth floor, so in case of a blackout, the refrigerators will still work.

50 West model living room

50 West model kitchen 2

50 West model kitchen

Powder room and secondary bathroom shown below. The master bathrooms have wall-to-wall mirror above a floating, backlit marble vanity, marble radiant heated floors, custom walnut cabinetry and a fluted glass bath wall. The master bathroom we saw had dual vanities (no photos, sorry!).

50 West powder room

50 West secondary bathroom

Four floors of the building are devoted to amenities, not even including the Water Club, which boasts a 60-foot swimming pool, 8′ by 8′ hot tub, marble-wrapped steam room and cedar-lined sauna, with a lifeguard presiding over classes. The third floor has 15 commercial condos for really, really convenient work commutes, while the fourth-floor gym has floor-to-ceiling windows, a golf simulator and spa treatment rooms. The fifth-floor entertainment spread will have a theater with stadium seating, library, lounge, game room, demo kitchen with private outdoor space and a children’s playroom with outdoor space. The crowning amenity, quite literally, is a landscaped observatory 734 feet high, with binocular tower viewers, two barbecues, outdoor kitchen and private dining areas. We’ve posted this rendering by DBOX before, but we can’t resist:

50 West observatory

Occupancy is scheduled for Fall 2016, with the first closings slated for October that year.

Photos by Tim Mullowney

Communities featured in this article

More articles like this