"The Heart of Tribeca"
One of Manhattan’s most spectacular Romanesque Revival buildings is 140 Franklin Street. Located in the center of Tribeca, the 70,000 square-foot, six-story yellow brick structure was originally designed in 1889 by architect Albert Wagner.
Under the design direction of Aldo Andreoli, an Italian-born architect and president of Sanba Inc., the building has been transformed into 14 condominiums, with units ranging from 3000 to 6000 square feet.
Previously, Andreoli has worked on architectural projects on five continents, including the Banco Italo-Venezuelano offices in Caracas, Venezuela; a major renovation of a seventeenth-century villa on the Italian coast; and a collaboration with Italian architect, Ettore Sottsass, on the design of Casa Maui in Maui, Hawaii.
He arrived in New York from Torino in 1986 and fell in love with what he termed a city that is “every architect’s dream.” Wanting to take advantage of a deflated real estate market and a strong Lira, Andreoli suggested to a group of Italian investors that the time was ripe to invest in New York real estate.
The idea was to introduce a condominium with a “design edge” and resell it as luxury lofts with Italian-style details. In this he was something of a trailblazer in introducing New Yorkers to novel ways of mixing “old and new,” which is a forte of Italian architects and designers whose daily challenge in their own country is to make the old habitable.
His first project was at 56 Thomas Street, a six-story building in which he restored the façade in terra-cotta and cast iron, and he reconfigured each floor of the building into a boutique two-bedroom apartment. The project sold out in record time.
The lobby, with a mural designed by artist Sol Lewitt, is definitely a landmark, recognizable from half a block away.
The fresh interior features top-of-the-line everything, lots of open space, high ceilings, oversized wood-frame thermopane windows and, of course, Sanba’s unmistakable mark of clean, functional, distinctly Italian design.
The Varenna Icaro kitchens are completed with Subzero and Miele appliances. The bathrooms feature Bisazza mosaic tiles, Dorn-Bracht plumbing fixtures and six-feet whirlpool tubs. Other amenities include Poliform Senza fine closet systems and a Runtal low-profile radian heat system. Most units even have wood-burning fireplaces.
After Andreoli completed the renovation of 140 Franklin Street in 2002, this address has become one of, if not the, hottest location in Tribeca. ⊕
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