SOM-designed Upper West Side condos launch sales from $1M

It’s not often that an architecture firm has the chance for a do-over on one of its buildings, but that’s exactly what’s happened at the former headquarters of the American Bible Society building on West 61st Street.

The organization’s original HQ was a 12-story Brutalist structure designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, but by 2015, the Bible Society had moved out—and the property’s owner, developer AvalonBay, wanted a more modern building to replace the circa-1966 one. Enter … Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, which the developer selected for its new residential tower.

That development, known as the Park Loggia, launches sales for its 172 condos today, with apartments starting at around $1 million.

The new building is a departure from the old concrete structure, but has some nods to what was there before. The facade is made from glazed terra cotta, but has quasi-Brutalist forms—deep-set windows in a repetitive pattern, which aren’t dissimilar from I.M. Pei’s famed Kips Bay Towers. Other features, such as a porte-cochere and the facade materials, are intended as “a nod to the historic buildings of the Upper West Side,” according to the developer.

Inside, the building’s 172 apartments will range from 495-square-foot studios to much larger penthouses, which will top 2,300 square feet and have outdoor space. (In fact, many of the apartments will have large balconies.) Interiors will be predictably posh, with marble-clad bathrooms, custom cabinetry, and huge windows in every apartment.

The top of the 32-story building is the loggia that gives the building its name, which will be open to residents (it was designed by HMWhite), along with other amenities like a screening room, fitness center, and landscaped garden. Pembrooke & Ives designed the interior amenity spaces, along with the walnut-clad lobby.

The building is quite close to completion, with the first residents expected to move in before the end of the year. Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group is handling sales for the project.