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Sutton House (Manhattan)

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Sutton House is a three-building residential cooperative with a private garden at 415 East 52nd Street on the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The building was designed by John M. Kokkins and Stephen C. Lyras in the modern style and was built by Kolyer Construction Corporation, originally as a luxury rental building managed by Douglas Elliman and owned by seven owners, including Kokkins, Lyras, Greek executive Manuel Kulukundis. The 19-floor building C faces East 53rd Street, and is technically, therefore, part of the Sutton Place neighborhood, while the 12-floor buildings A and B face East 52nd Street. Constructed between 1954 (when the building plot was acquired) and 1956, Sutton House was developed to be a "Symbol of town Living for Perfectionists", per its marketing brochure found at Columbia University New York Real Estate Brochure Collection.

Sutton House
Sutton House in 2024
Map
General information
TypeHousing cooperative
Architectural styleModernist
Address415 East 52nd Street
Town or cityNew York, NY
CountryUS
Coordinates40°45′19″N 73°57′51″W / 40.75534°N 73.96423°W / 40.75534; -73.96423
Construction started1954
Completed1956
InauguratedFebruary 1956
Technical details
Floor count19 (building C) and 12 (A and B)
Lifts/elevators7
Design and construction
Architect(s)John M. Kokkins and Stephen C. Lyras[1]
Architecture firmKokkins & Lyras
Main contractorKolyer Construction Corporation
Awards and prizes1998 "New York's Top Ten Residences" by The Cooperator Magazine.[2]
Other information
Number of units289 (original)
Website
Sutton House, Inc

In 1998, Sutton House was picked as one of "New York's Top Ten Residences" by The Cooperator Magazine, side-by-side with 1185 Park Avenue, 300 East 74th Street, The Ardsley, The Boulevard, Castle Village, The Chateau, Hudson Tower Condomunium, Kensington Lofts, and The Oxford.[2]

The French restaurant Le Périgord, owned by Georges Briget operated at Sutton House from 1964 until 2017.[3]

Site

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George Youle (Spring Valley) Farm and Edmund Seaman Farms split the current Sutton House block in 1815

Sutton House is located at 415 East 52nd Street on the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The 19-floor building C faces East 53rd Street, and is technically, therefore, part of the Sutton Place neighborhood, while the 12-floor buildings A and B face East 52nd Street.

As of 1815, the Sutton House area was farmland.[4] According to The Iconography of Manhattan Island Volume 6, Block 1364, which is where Sutton House Lies, was split diagonally between the Edmund Seaman Farm and the George Youle Farm, also known as Spring Farm.[5]

By 1879 a stoneyard had been developed and a planning mill had been erected where currently build C stands, facing E 53rd street, while townhouses faced 52nd st, in the area still owned by the descendants of Edmund Seaman.[6] The 1891 map shows the planning mill replaced by a building owned by Consumers Ice Co, and the stoneyard still active, at the site of building C.[7]

In 1930, the Sutton House site continued occupied by townhouses facing 52nd St, and by the Knickerbocker Ice Company ice house facing 53rd Street.[8] Given that the Knickerbocker Ice company closed to the public in 1924, the area was not being used when construction started in 1954.

Architecture

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Sutton House was designed by John M. Kokkins and Stephen C. Lyras in the modern style and was built by Kolyer Construction Corporation, originally as a luxury rental building managed by Douglas Elliman. The 19-floor building C faces East 53rd Street while the 12-floor buildings A and B face East 52nd Street. Sutton House was developed to be a "Symbol of town Living for Perfectionists", per its marketing brochure found at Columbia University New York Real Estate Brochure Collection.

 
Sutton House Panorama, 52nd Street Entrance, building A on the left, C on the back, B on the right

Form

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The three buildings are connected by a T-shaped glass-walled lobby,[9] approached through a landscaped entrance, facing 52nd St on the south. Open areas between the buildings are private park-like settings.[10] The complex features a 2-story 160-car garage facing 53rd street, for easy access from FDR Drive, and totals 290 apartments, from suites to 5-bedroom penthouses. Most of the apartments feature balconies, and some include fireplaces. Sutton House is a white brick building designed in the modernist period, a style shared with the contemporaneous Manhattan House, which regained popularity in the 2010s.[11]

Sutton House's lobby and ground floor were described by the New York Times in 1956 as "landscaped", not "decorated".[12] The public space design was done by Virginia Conner Dick, a prominent interior designer and a furniture designer. According to the Times, "The indoor-outdoor effect of the lobby and the glass-enclosed corridors connecting the building's three sections are achieved with large plantings near the large windows facing the private garden".

Façade

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The facade is made of white bricks. Sutton House was the first of many buildings designed by Kokkins & Lyras using white bricks in their exterior between 1956 and 1959. The building entrance is at 415 E 52nd St, with the restaurant space at 405 E 52nd St, and two offices also open towards E 52nd St. The building service entrance is at 420 E 53rd Street, with the Sutton House Garage entrance to the east. The building was built with air conditioner outlets on every room, and window space for air conditioners, so they could be at the center of the room. The building is going through a conversion from window air-conditioners to PTACs, as can be seen on the images. Balconies are present at most apartments, and terraces on the top floors of all three buildings. Buildings A and B have 2 elevators each, one reaching the basement, while the larger building C has 3 elevators, one reaching the basement and the lower basement towards the garage.

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    Sutton House Building A
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    Sutton House Building B
  •  
    Sutton House Building C

Apartments (original floor plan)

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Sutton House Original Building Plan

Building A

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Building A has five apartments per floor, A through E, on floors 2 to 9, where apartments B, C and D have balconies. Floors 10 and 11 have four apartments, including a terrace on the 10th floor for apartment D. The twelfth floor, the penthouse floor, has three apartments, all with terraces.

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    Floors 2 to 9
  •  
    Floors 10 and 11
  •  
    12th floor penthouse

Building B

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Building B has six apartments per floor, A through F, on floors 1 to 9. The first-floor apartments are connected to the main lobby through a lounge with windows toward the B–C garden. On floors 2 to 9 apartments C, D and E have balconies. Floors 10 and 11 have five apartments, with balconies in apartments B, C and D. Apartments A and B on the 10th floor have terraces. The twelfth floor, the penthouse floor, has three apartments, all with terraces.

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    1st Floor
  •  
    Floors 2 to 9
  •  
    Floors 10 and 11
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    12th floor penthouse

Building C

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Building C has thirteen apartments per floor, A–G and H–N, on floors 1–9. The first-floor apartments are connected to the main lobby through a corridor with windows on both sides, defining the border of the A–C and B–C gardens. On floors 2–9 apartments G and H have balconies. Floors 10 and 11 have twelve apartments, with balconies on apartments G, and H. Apartments D, E, K and L on the 10th floor have terraces. The penthouse floor on floor twelve has nine apartments. Apartments E and F have balconies. All apartments other than A on this floor have terraces. Building C tower, floors 13 to 19, has three apartments per floor. On the thirteenth floor, all apartments have terraces.

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    1st Floor
  •  
    Floors 2 to 9 (left side)
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    Floors 2 to 9 (right side)
  •  
    Floors 10 and 11
  •  
    12th floor penthouse
  •  
    Floors 13 to 19

Lobby and amenity spaces

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The ground level has a lobby connecting the three buildings, each with a different sub-lobby. The garage was built to support 160 vehicles at 53rd Street. The garage continues to operate.[13] Sutton House Lobby contains windows facing the internal and external gardens, and features floor to ceiling mirrors. Sutton House has a kid's playroom, a modern gym/health center, bicycle storage, and three East River-viewing rooftop decks. Access to the courtyard is prohibited by coop policy.

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    Sutton House entrance garden
  •  
    Sutton House garden between buildings A and C
  •  
    Sutton House garden between buildings B and C

History

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Dec-1955 Sutton House ad
 
Sep-1955 Sutton House ad

Development and rentals

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In 1954 a group of 7 individual investors, including Kukkins, Lyras, and Kulunkudis, bought the parcels necessary to purchase the land to build Sutton House. Construction happened between 1955 and 1956, with the building designed by John M. Kokkins and Stephen C. Lyras and built by Kolyer Construction Corporation.

Initial starting rental prices (see ads)
Rooms September 1955 December 1955
2 $145.00 $155.00
3 $180.00 $215.00
4.5 $267.00 $275.00
5 $442.00 $385.00

As the table shows, there was higher initial demand for 2, 3 and 4 room apartments than for the 5-room tower penthouses during the Sutton House initial sales release. The building was rented and managed by Douglas Elliman.

Sale to Alex DiLorenzo Jr and Sol Goldman

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In November 1964, Chatham Associates purchased 76% of Sutton House, leaving 26% in the hands of Kulukundis.[14] At that point in time, Kulukundis, once a shipping magnate, was already bankrupt.[15] The purchasing company, Chatham Associates, was only a front for Alex DiLorenzo Jr., Sol Goldman's business partner.[16]

Kulunkudis and Anthony Scotto ownership

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With DiLorenzo's death in 1975, Sol Goldman and Alex DiLorenzo III (who inherited 74% of Sutton House from his late father), decided to split the old business partnership... with a coin flip. That said, there was a serious difference of opinion between the two about the value of Sutton House... which made Sutton House be sold in its entirety to Michael Kulukundis, for more than $7M. And with that, as of June 1979, Sutton House belonged entirely to Michael Kulukundis.[17][18] Later in 1979, as the New York Times reported during the trial of Anthony Scotto, the American New York mobster and labor union racketeer in the Gambino crime family, it become public that Kulukundis had sold 13% of the corporation owning Sutton House for $26, while this portion of the building had been assessed to be worth $6.1M, and to have been sold to Mr Scoto for $7.1M in May 1978.[19] On November 16m 1979, Mr Scotto sold his interest in the Sutton House Corporation.[20]

Becoming a cooperative

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Given the sponsor's financial and legal situation, on January 8, 1980, a cooperative initial offering plan was put together, and in 1981, Sutton House was converted from a rental building into a cooperative. Per the initial offering plan, renters interested in becoming shareholders were to pay $97.50/share. This put a 2-bedroom 2-bathroom 1250sqft apartment at the cost of $90,187.5. At the same point in time, a typical 2-bedroom apartment in Sutton Place would have cost $265,000 to $550,000.[21]

Notable tenants

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In Fiction

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Sutton House is mentioned in the following fictional works:

  • Cahoots: A Comedy in Two Acts[32]
  • Rosa Ponselle: American Diva[33]
  • Duffy's War: Fr. Francis Duffy, Wild Bill Donovan, and the Irish Fighting[34]

Critical reception

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In 1998, Sutton House was picked as one of "New York's Top Ten Residences" by The Cooperator Magazine.[2] Sutton House was hailed for its three rooftop decks with views of the East River, its glass-enclosed lobby designed with marble floors and wood paneling, overlooking the gardens in front of the building and the courtyard in the center of the complex. Its glass-enclosed walkway from the lobby to the center building, behind the courtyard, was also praised, as well as its health club, on-site garage, basement storage, package room and a 24-hour doorman and concierge. The building was also praised for having apartments featuring European kitchens, hardwood floors, washers and dryers, marble bathrooms and lots of closets, also for many units with balconies or terraces with East River views. And all that with a relatively low maintenance cost, especially when compared to similar buildings in Sutton Place and the surrounding neighborhoods.

Sutton House is occasionally featured in articles on The New York Times "The Hunt" column.[35]

References

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  1. ^ "Sutton House, 415 E. 52 Street". The New York real estate brochure collection. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c Esposito, Angelina (January 1998). "New York's Top Ten Residences". The Cooperator. 17 (December/January 1998). Retrieved July 23, 2024.
  3. ^ Roberts, Sam (August 4, 2022). "Georges Briguet, Who Presided Over Le Périgord, Dies at 85". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  4. ^ Digital Collections, The New York Public Library. "(cartographic) Bounded by Fifth Avenue, 52nd Street, First Avenue and 31st Street (Turtle Bay, Murray Hill and Kips Bay), (1868)". The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations. Retrieved July 22, 2024.
  5. ^ Phelps Stokes, Isaac Newton (1928). The Iconography of Manhattan Island (PDF). Robert H. Dodd. ISBN 1-886363-30-7. Retrieved July 22, 2024.
  6. ^ Digital Collections, The New York Public Library. "(cartographic) Plate 19:, (1879)". The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations. Retrieved July 22, 2024.
  7. ^ Digital Collections, The New York Public Library. "(cartographic) Map bounded by Lexington Ave., E. 57th St., East River, E. 40th St., (1891)". The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations. Retrieved July 22, 2024.
  8. ^ Digital Collections, The New York Public Library. "(cartographic) Plate 79, Part of Section 5, (1930)". The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
  9. ^ Foley, Maurice (April 17, 1955). "Housing Rising in Sutton Place Area". New York Times. Retrieved July 22, 2024.
  10. ^ Bradley, John A. (December 4, 1955). "Sutton House Buildings Joined By an Unusual Garden Entrance". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
  11. ^ Kaufman, Joanne (May 14, 2010). "Seeing White Brick Buildings in a New Light". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  12. ^ "'Landscaped' Interior Garden Planned For Unusual Lobby of East Side Suites". New York Times. January 15, 1956. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
  13. ^ "Sutton House Garage". Parkopedia. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
  14. ^ "EAST SIDE PARCEL IN COMPLEX DEAL; Kulukundis Interest Involved in Sale of Sutton House". The New York Times. November 20, 1964. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  15. ^ "Manuel Kulukundis, Shipowner, Dies at 89". The New York Times. August 12, 1988. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  16. ^ Horsley, Carter B. (September 6, 1975). "Alex DiLorenzo Jr. Dies; Leader in Real Estate, 58". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  17. ^ "Deed of sale to Bradford Properties". ACRIS. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  18. ^ Horsley, Carter B. (June 3, 1979). "The Goldman-DiLorenzo Empire And the Toss of a Coin". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  19. ^ Raab, Selwyn (November 2, 1979). "13% Part in Building On E. 52d Street Cost Scotto $26 to Acquire". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  20. ^ "Scotto's Dealings With Politicians Are Subject of New Investigations New Investigations Examining Scotto's Dealings With Politicians Providing Funds and Workers Advice on Port Position A Hand in Other Appointments Carey 'Encouraged'Departure Scotto on State Board 'Not a Cup of Coffee'Response to Rackets Allegations Relationship to Governor Role in Newspaper Strike Settlement Before Election Day Investigation of Fabber Leases With the City 'Higher Standards' in Effect Favorable Financial Terms". The New York Times. December 17, 1979. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  21. ^ Horsley, Carter B. (August 30, 1981). "STUDY SHOWS CO-OP PRICES NEARLY QUINTUPLED". New York Times. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
  22. ^ "Aline Liebman Obituary". New York Times. August 24, 1966. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
  23. ^ "Aline Meyer Liebman". The Jewish Museum. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
  24. ^ "MORTGAGE". ACRIS. New York City. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
  25. ^ Oficial Proceedings of the ... National Republican Convention. 1960. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
  26. ^ "EDWARD EAGER,53, AUTHOR, LYRICIST; Adapter of 'Rugantino,' With Alfred Drake, Is Dead". The New York Times. October 24, 1964. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 22, 2024.
  27. ^ "Gerald J Sheindlin". Nuwber. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  28. ^ "Membership Directory" (PDF). Empire State Journal. XXIV: 24. April 1964. Retrieved July 22, 2024.
  29. ^ "Ralph G. Gulley, 87, Architect and Ex-Dean". The New York Times. March 20, 1990. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 22, 2024.
  30. ^ "Detailed Document Information". ACRIS. New York City. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  31. ^ "Detailed Document Information". ACRIS. New York City. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  32. ^ Johnston, Rick (1990). Cahoots: A Comedy in Two Acts. Dramatists Play Service. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-8222-0173-1. Retrieved August 29, 2024.
  33. ^ Phillips-Matz, Mary Jane (1997). Rosa Ponselle: American Diva. p. XX. ISBN 978-1-55553-317-5. Retrieved August 29, 2024.
  34. ^ Harris, Stephen L. (2006). Duffy's War: Fr. Francis Duffy, Wild Bill Donovan, and the Irish Fighting. POtomac Books. ISBN 978-1-59797-338-0. Retrieved August 29, 2024.
  35. ^ Cohen, Joyce (July 11, 2024). "Searching the East Side of Manhattan for a Two-Bedroom Co-op. What Could They Get for Around $1 Million?". New York Times. Retrieved August 29, 2024.
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