170 East 78th Street (The Morgan Studios)
170 East 78th Street, New York, NY 10075
BBL 1014127501 · BIN 1077853
- Year built
- 1927
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 38
- Floors
- 9
- Ownership structure
- Cooperative; the city classifies the tax lot as a condominium (a condop structure)
- The Roebling Team's building profile
- Landmark status
- Requires confirmation
- City records and our profile differ. Confirm with building management.
- Doorman
- Doorman (hours not stated)
Every recorded sale at this building, 2004–2026
Bedroom-by-bedroom medians, the full transfer record, and how units trade against ask.
- 1BR median
- $1M
- Recent range
- $895K – $3M
- Listing discount
- 4.2%
- Recorded transfers
- 57
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at The Morgan Studios would likely sell for today, what it costs to sell, and what you’d walk away with — reviewed personally against condition, exposures, renovation quality, and the competition actually on the market.
The Morgan Studios is one of the most architecturally distinctive small-scale prewar cooperatives on the Upper East Side — a 1927 Art Deco red-brick building originally constructed as artists' studios, with apartments configured for double-height living rooms, oversized north-facing windows, and the spatial-rhythm vocabulary derived from the Studio Building tradition (compare 130 West 56th, 27 West 67th, 131 East 66th, 14 East 75th).
The building's appeal rests first on its artist-studio architectural program: double-height living rooms, original casement windows, and leaded glass deliver prewar interior quality at price points well below the Park-and-Fifth Candela/Carpenter inventory. That program is not an isolated case but a paired-studio-building urban context — 170 East 78th shares its block configuration with a sister building (per architectural records, one story taller and one apartment larger), forming a distinctive small-cluster artist-studio district. Layered onto the architecture is a David Duchovny and Téa Leoni resident overlay, the actors counted among the building's residents in architectural coverage.
Architecture and building operations
The nine-story red-brick Art Deco building sits mid-block on a one-story limestone base, with a one-and-a-half-story limestone and gray marble entrance, a canopy, and a three-step-down vestibule. Many apartments have very high ceilings. Most of the windows retain their original multi-paned fenestration, a meaningful architectural-integrity tell.
The original 1927 program was as artists' studios — apartments configured with double-height living rooms, oversized north-facing windows for natural light, and the spatial-rhythm vocabulary derived from the Studio Building tradition. The 1989 conversion to cooperative ownership retained the original interior architectural program.
Operations: doorman. The building has no garage, no health club, no sidewalk landscaping, and no roof deck (per architectural records). 50% maximum financing per cooperative policy.
Policy framework
- Type: Cooperative — board interview required
- Pets: Verify with managing agent
- Pied-à-terre: Verify with managing agent
- Financing maximum: 50%
- Flip tax: Verify with managing agent
- Subletting: Board approval required
- Trust, LLC, foreign buyers: Case-by-case
- Post-closing liquidity: Standard UES reserves customary
- Board interview: Required
Monthly carrying charges in recent sales
- Maintenance, per room
- $988 per room a monthMedian of 6 recorded sales since October 2023Source: recorded sales, refreshed October 2026
- Maintenance, per square foot
- $3.20 per square foot a monthMedian of 4 recorded sales since October 2023Source: recorded sales, refreshed October 2026
Maintenance as recorded with each sale. A co-op's maintenance already covers the building's real estate taxes and the building's own mortgage, if it has one; add your own loan payment for the monthly outlay. A summary of recorded sales, not a current bill; charges change.
Building staffing and amenities
- Doorman
- Doorman (hours not stated)Source: The Roebling Team's building profile
- Elevator
- YesSource: NYC Department of Buildings elevator records
Staffing and amenities as our building profile and recent listing records describe them. A feature not listed is not confirmed absent.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $6,802/yr
- Per unit / month range
- $0 – $17
- Modeled exposure split equally across 34 units (the residential count on the city's lot record). Not an assessed amount; co-op shareholders are typically charged by share allocation.
- At the 38 residences in our building profile: $0 – $15. The two counts differ; confirm the count with the building.
Source: NYC LL84 benchmarking and PLUTO · The Roebling Research Library. City record last verified September 2026.
See full Local Law 97 analysis — emissions history, scenarios, methodology →Facade safety — Local Law 11
The latest available FISP filing classified the facade as Safe — no repairs were required at that inspection. Facade inspections run on a fixed five-year cycle; future inspection, repair, and any assessment decisions remain building-specific.
How to read this, and where it comes from
QEWI = Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector — the licensed engineer the city requires to sign the report (the independent expert, not the managing agent).
Penalties shown are amounts DOB assessed against filings on record across 2005–10 to 2020–25. The FISP dataset does not record whether they were paid, contested or remain open, so treat the figure as history rather than a current balance and confirm the building’s standing with the managing agent.
Source: NYC DOB facade filings (FISP) · The Roebling Research Library. City record last verified September 2026.
Recent sales
Recent transfers at this building, from The Roebling Research Library. Prices are the transfer amounts recorded with the NYC Department of Finance; apartment-level detail is checked against the building’s own file in The Roebling Research Library before publishing.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 24, 2026 | 3C | 1 BR · 1 BA · 1,020 sf | $1,250,000 | $1,225/sf | -16.7% |
| Sep 8, 2025 | 7E | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,450 sf | $1,400,000 | $966/sf | +14.3% |
| Aug 1, 2025 | 8E | 2 BR · 2 BA | $2,350,000 | +4.4% | |
| Jan 7, 2025 | 5EF | 3 BR · 2 BA · 2,450 sf | $3,000,000 | $1,224/sf | -4.8% |
| Aug 29, 2024 | 2 | 2 BR · 2 BA | $2,760,000 | -4.7% | |
| Jun 18, 2024 | 9 | 1 BR · 2 BA · 1,300 sf | $1,150,000 | $885/sf | -4.2% |
| Aug 31, 2023 | 10E | 1 BR · 1 BA | $932,500 | -1.8% | |
| Sep 15, 2022 | 3F | 1 BR · 1 BA · 986 sf | $810,000 | $822/sf | -18.6% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2026 to date) cleared a median $1,207/sf (floor-adjusted) across 1 sale. Floor-adjusted means each sale is restated to a constant mix of floors, so the figure can differ from the plain median of the sales listed above. Median listing discount 4.7% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.
The retrade record
Lines that have traded more than once in the public record — the building’s appreciation arc, apartment by apartment.
Other recent transfers
| Date | Unit | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Feb 1, 2006 | 4D | $449,000 |
Full closing history with price-per-square-foot over time, the complete retrade record, and every line that has traded.
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-01412-7501). Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified in The Roebling Research Library. Not all transactions cross-verify with ACRIS records — sponsor and LLC purchases sometimes record at stipulated values rather than market price; square footage on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.
What would your apartment rent for?
Enter your apartment and I'll send you what it would rent for, from comparable closed leases at The Morgan Studios and nearby.
At the recent median sale of $2.35M (4 transfers since 2024), a buyer putting 25% down would pay about $43,925 to close, or 1.9% of the price.
- Mansion tax: $29,375
- No mortgage recording tax or title insurance on a co-op purchase
- Attorneys, lender, building fees and filings: $14,550
Assumes a resale (the seller pays transfer taxes), a $4,500 attorney fee and a mortgage on the rest.
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Notable residents
- David Duchovny — actor (The X-Files, Californication)
- Téa Leoni — actress (Madam Secretary)
Per architectural coverage.
What to know if you’re buying
The artist-studio architectural program is structurally distinguishing. Double-height living rooms, original casement windows, leaded glass — prewar interior architectural quality at accessible Lenox Hill pricing.
The Art Deco facade with original multi-paned fenestration is real architectural integrity.
The 50% financing maximum is standard for prewar UES cooperatives.
The David Duchovny / Téa Leoni resident overlay supports cultural-history positioning.
The reserved amenity layer — no garage, health club, sidewalk landscaping, or roof deck — should be evaluated against buyer expectations.
The boutique 38-unit scale supports operational intimacy.
For design-oriented buyers seeking prewar interior architectural integrity at sub-trophy pricing, The Morgan Studios is a structural answer.
Comparable buildings
- 14 East 75th Street — Schwartz & Gross 1928-29 double-height living rooms; nearby studio-vocabulary Lenox Hill peer
- 180 East 79th Street — Schwartz & Gross 1929-30; nearby Lenox Hill peer
- 130 East 75th Street — Schwartz & Gross 1928; nearby Lenox Hill peer
- 200 East 83rd Street — nearby UES peer
- 30 East 76th Street — nearby Lenox Hill peer
Sources: The Roebling Research Library (offering plans, house rules, financial statements, board minutes, internal transaction records); NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers; publicly recorded NYC building data.
More Upper East Side buildings
- 167 East 82nd Street (Merritt House) — 1929 condominium by Schwartz & Gross
- 168 East 74th Street — 1926 co-op
- 170 East 77th Street (Diamond House) — 1940 condominium
- 170 East 79th Street — 1927 co-op by J.E.R. Carpenter
- 170 East 88th Street — 1980 co-op
- 170 East 90th Street — 1920 co-op
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, transit, and pricing across Upper East Side — read The Roebling Team Guide to Upper East Side.
The full playbook — what goes in the package, how boards read your financials, the interview, and the timeline — plus sample cover, reference, and personal letters you can adapt.
How to read the facts on this page. Items attributed to an offering plan describe the building as it was offered at that filing — unit mix, square footage, the amenity program as planned. They are not a statement about how the building operates today. Tax and compliance figures are sourced separately to current City records and carry their own dates. House rules, staffing and fee policy can change by board resolution without any public filing: treat every policy line here as a starting point for diligence and confirm it with the managing agent. Where this page compares one building or neighborhood to another, that is our analysis of the recorded record — it names the measure, the period and the sample it rests on, and it is an observation about medians rather than a prediction about any particular apartment.
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646.939.7375 · c.cohen@compass.com