The product of a three-year gut renovation, Apartment 3E at covetable 285 Lafayette Street — complete with glam furnishings — is our home of the day.
The Soho/Nolita area has no shortage of residential ‘wow,’ but few buildings pack quite the punch of 285 Lafayette. David Bowie and Iman lived here for a time, if that gives a sense of this ten-story landmark’s glam factor. Built in 1886, the edifice was the original home of the Hawley & Hoops candy factory, which for decades rolled out one-cent chocolate cigars and cigarettes. Today, it’s 21 exceptional condominium residences with a rooftop garden overhead and one of the New York Public Library’s most celebrated branches below. All-in-all, 285 Lafayette is smart. And smart.
Perhaps needless to say, opportunities to live here are rare. It’s something that makes our home of the day, gorgeous Apartment 3E, all the more irresistible. This lofty three-bedroom residence is the product of a three-year gut renovation. It retains its 19th-Century ambience, including tree-trunk-thick posts and beams and exposed black-iron pipes, but brings to it a literal wealth of exceptional modernities, notably a sprawling chef’s kitchen with poured concrete countertops, a professional grade Sub-Zero refrigerator, a Miele dishwasher, and (oh là là!) a pale-blue six-burner Lacanche stove from France.
Spanning 3,175 square feet, 3E features three bright bedrooms and three-and-a-half limestone-clad bathrooms. The master bath is legitimately masterful, with a view of the red-brick Puck building and a handmade cast-iron freestanding bathtub from Cheviot.
Apartment 3E is furnished, too — and oh, how it’s furnished. The 38-by-26-foot living room — blessed with eight giant windows and views of St. Michael’s Chapel and Mulberry Street — features a pair of Robsjohn Gibbings lounge chairs and a dramatically outsized tufted sofa wrapped in azure-colored Poltrona Frau leather. The discrete dining area features a BDDW chandelier, a custom table from Milanese design house Dimore, and a sofa from acclaimed furnishings designer Edward van Vliet.
Overhead through out the apartment there is sophisticated lighting by Roll and Hill, and underfoot, an incomparably fine selection of Nepalese and Turkish rugs. And a curated art collection adorns the walls. Technology needs are well met, too, with Wi-Fi and cable, twi Sony smart TVs in custom cabinets, and four-zone central air conditioning.
Available for $25,000 per month, Apartment 3E is represented by Corcoran agent Dorothy Zeidman.
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