Liberty Lofts, 43 West 64th Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 43 West 64th Street by Carter Horsley

This attractive condominium project is a residential expansion of the former Liberty Storage Warehouse that for about a century sported a 37-foot-high, copper statue closely modeled on the Statue of Liberty.

Although the warehouse was in mid-block its statue atop the center of its roofline on the sidestreet was visible from the plaza at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts across Broadway.

The warehouse, which was originally erected in 1891, was eight stories and the Athena Group has added four floors to it and reclad it in 2003 to create 32 loft-style condominium apartments ranging in size from 1,600 to 6,151 square feet and initially priced at about $1,500,000 to $10,200,000.

Loft-style residences are not common on the Upper East and Upper West Sides and the Lincoln Center area is one of the city's most popular with many restaurants and stores and plenty of culture. O'Neal's Restaurant is a retail tenant in this building.

This building is tucked away just to the east of a new apartment tower known as the Grand Tier at 1930 Broadway. Both light-colored buildings complement each other and both were designed by Costas Kondylis.

Among the initial residents of this building were Gretchen Carlson, host of the CBS Early Show on Saturday, her husband, Casey Close, head of the baseball division of the International Management Group, the daughter of Barry Schwartz, former owner of Calvin Klein and chairman of the New York Racing Association, and the daughter of Sol Kerzner, the owner of the Ocean Club in the Bahamas and the Atlantis chain of tropical resorts.

In February, 2002, the Liberty statue was removed by the building arts committee and is now in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

In his book, "New York: A Serendipiter s Journey," (Harper & Brothers, 1961), Gay Talese wrote that the statue had been installed in 1902 by William H. Flattau, an immigrant warehouse owner, and that it had a circular interior stairway but access for the public was closed in 1912. It was cast in Akron, Ohio.

The Athena Group is headed by Louis Dubin and has also converted and expanded the building at 838 Fifth Avenue into luxury condominiums.