252 East 57th Street

The tower's signature is its skin: floor-to-ceiling curved glass that wraps the building in gentle waves, designed by SOM to maximize light and the breadth of the views over the East River and the Midtown skyline. The roughly 95 condominium residences occupy the upper floors, beginning on the 36th — so even the lowest condominium home sits high above the city, with open exposures. Below the condominiums, the tower's base holds rental apartments and the two public schools the project was built to fund; the for-sale residences are a distinct, separately governed condominium at the top.

Daniel Romualdez designed the condominium interiors and the amenity floors. The homes run from larger two-bedrooms up to four- and five-bedroom layouts, including full-floor and duplex penthouse residences, with the high floors and curved walls delivering panoramic exposures. Finishes are turn-key and high-specification — the work of a designer known for collector-grade restraint — and ceiling heights reflect new construction throughout.

The building is run as a full-service, white-glove condominium with a 24-hour doorman and concierge. Its amenity suite, designed by Daniel Romualdez, is unusually deep: a private spa with a 75-foot indoor swimming pool, a hydrotherapy circuit, steam rooms, saunas, and an ice room; a double-height residents' lounge with a gas fireplace; a screening room, billiards room, and library; a formal dining room with a catering kitchen and an adjacent breakfast room; a conference room; a fitness center with yoga and Pilates studios; two furnished guest suites with private kitchens; a children's playroom; a south-facing terrace; and a dog play area with grooming services. A porte-cochère leads to an automated parking garage with EV charging.

Ownership policy: 252 East 57th Street is a condominium. Purchases clear through a condominium right-of-first-refusal rather than a board interview; confirm financing limits and trust, LLC, foreign-buyer, pied-à-terre and investment purchase rules in the current declaration, bylaws and house rules. Leasing by owners is permitted, and dogs are permitted — with a dedicated dog play area and grooming on site. For buyers who want a new Midtown condominium without a co-op board, this is the structural advantage that defines the building.

Recent sales

Recent closings 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.

Market read. Most recent trades (2025) cleared a median $1,712/sf (floor-adjusted) across 2 sales. 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 4.4% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-01330-7502; each condominium apartment is its own tax lot). 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 from recorded condo declarations and offering plans.

Buy here for new construction, a marquee design team, and a quieter, river-leaning Midtown address — in condominium form. Purchases clear a right-of-first-refusal rather than a co-op board and owners may lease; confirm financing, trust or LLC purchase and pied-à-terre rules in the current declaration and bylaws. The Daniel Romualdez amenity program is anchored by the 75-foot pool and full spa.

Prioritize floor height and exposure: the condominiums all sit on the 36th floor and above, and within that range compare high-floor, river- and skyline-facing homes against matched sales rather than assuming superior value retention. Underwrite the common charges and taxes against the service and amenity level you are buying — this is a full-spa, white-glove operation — and weigh the building's standing within East Midtown's new-condominium set. We help buyers target the strongest view lines, read the offering plan and financials, and structure the deal.

The marketing core is concrete: a new SOM-designed condominium with sculpted curved-glass walls, a Daniel Romualdez interior and amenity program, a 75-foot pool and full spa, and high-floor homes that begin on the 36th floor — all with the financing and ownership flexibility only a condominium offers. Lead with floor height, exposure, and the view lines the curved walls create.

Benchmark a resale to East Midtown's newest luxury condominiums and the 57th Street corridor rather than to the area's older co-ops, which carry different costs and restrictions. The condominium structure — a right-of-first-refusal rather than a co-op board — is itself a selling point, and the buyer pool reaches international demand. A well-staged, correctly benchmarked apartment here moves to that audience; we position each listing to the segment most likely to pay the premium.

If you're considering 252 East 57th Street, also evaluate nearby Midtown East and Sutton-area full-service buildings:

• 100 East 53rd Street — Foster + Partners condominium nearby
• One Beacon Court — full-service condominium at 151 East 58th Street
• 845 United Nations Plaza — Trump World Tower condominium to the east
• 860 United Nations Plaza — full-service river-facing cooperative
• Plaza 400 — large full-service building at 400 East 56th Street
• 1 Sutton Place South — 1927 Sutton Place cooperative by Rosario Candela with Cross & Cross