To reach the apartments, residents pass through a cozy new residential lobby designed by Jeffrey Beers International, with marble herringbone floors and salon-style displays of contemporary art, before emerging into the cavernous landmark lobby, which has ceiling murals depicting the history of communication and original bronze elevator surrounds blossoming with flowers and vines.
“You enter here and begin to see all the craftsmanship. Look at all these creatures,” said Stuart Marton, the executive vice president of Magnum, gesturing toward pewter squirrels adorning ornate elevator doors. “That’s something that can’t be replicated.”
Upstairs, contemporary corridors have carpets and wallcovering with Art Deco-inspired patterns, and lead to apartments with white oak floors, Calacatta Gold marble counters and Sub-Zero, Wolf and Miele appliances.
The building offers a dizzying 40,000-square-foot spread of amenity spaces, split between the full 18th floor, where there are four outdoor terraces, lounges and playrooms designed for residents of various ages, music practice rooms and a wine room, and two lower levels where there are two new pools, a fitness center, spa treatment rooms and yoga and Pilates studios.
“It’s a brand-new building within an amazing existing structure,” Mr. Marton said.
“It’s much, much easier to build a building from scratch,” he continued. With conversion projects, “all the electrical conduit, water pipes, steam pipes, gas lines are brand new, but you have to deal with existing slabs and take out the old systems.”
How much more difficult are these elaborate conversions compared to new construction? “About 10 times more,” said Robert Gladstone, the chief executive of Madison Equities, which is converting the 1912 neo-Gothic commercial building at 212 Fifth Avenue into condos designed by Pembrooke & Ives and Helpern Architects, in partnership with Thor Equities and Building and Land Technology. Mr. Gladstone recounted how parts of the building’s facade had become so unstable that they were lying in pieces on one of the upper floors when the project started.
On a recent morning, he pointed up at the restored facade from the sidewalk across West 26th Street. “Do you see the frieze of faces?” he asked. “Every single one had to be cleaned.”