First look at Deborah Berke’s classic Upper East Side condo

Later this month, sales will get underway at the new Deborah Berke Partners-designed condo on the Upper East Side. Ahead of that sales launch, the developer, the Lighstone Group, has unveiled the first set of renderings for the 20-story building on East End Avenue.

Deborah Berke’s firm worked on the building together with Gerner Kronick + Valcarcel Architects. Unlike most of the glassy new towers going up in the city, the condo at 40 East End Avenue has a charcoal and gray brick facade, which is supposed to be a modern interpretation of the architecture in the neighborhood.

Mitchell Hochberg, the president of the Lightstone Group, and Berke, are both residents of the East End Avenue section of the Upper East Side, so the collaboration was certainly convenient, the developer told the New York Times, in a recent interview. But more than that, Hochberg was impressed with Berke’s understated architecture and her ability to blend old and new designs, according to the Times.

The building topped out in February, and work is currently underway on the facade. Some neighbors have already told Berke that they are intrigued by the brickwork on the facade, according to the Times.

This corner building, at East 81st Street and East End Avenue, will have just 29 apartments that will range in price from $3 million to $25 million. Apartments here will come in two to five-bedroom variants, including a triplex penthouse with a full floor roof terrace, and a maisonette with a private garden.

Apartments here will come fitted with large casement windows, juliette balconies (some will have private outdoor terraces), and white oak herringbone-patterned hardwood floors, among other features.

Amenities in the building include a double height residents lounge, a library, a fitness center, a game room, and a gourmet catering kitchen. Gunn Landscape Architecture is the landscape architect on the project, and Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group is handling sales and marketing at the development.

• A New Tower Designed to Blend Into Yorkville [NYT]
• Upper East Side condo designed by Deborah Berke Partners tops out [Curbed]
• Boutique Upper East Side condo building will replace low-rise structure [Curbed]