255 East 74th Street

Casa 74 rose in 2008 on the corner of Second Avenue and East 74th Street, on a site that had previously held a small carriage house where the poet John Giorno once lived. The 270,000-square-foot tower was developed by World-Wide Holdings Corporation under Victor Elmaleh and designed by Hugh Hardy's firm, H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture, together with SLCE Architects, giving the building its glass and metal panel facade with angular details along the shaft.

The building's defining feature is its direct private connection to a 42,000-square-foot Equinox gym and spa that occupies its lower floors, one of the larger fitness-club integrations in a Manhattan condo of its era. It was also marketed heavily to families: Casa 74 includes a 2,400-square-foot Children's Pavilion with age-segmented play spaces, a toddler climbing room, and a teen arcade, a detail covered by The New York Times in 2008 ('Apartment Hunting with Children in Mind').

Layouts skew large, with three-to-five-bedroom apartments, duplexes on the lower floors, and three top-floor penthouses with private terraces and roof deck access; some corner units have long private terraces, including a reported 69-foot terrace on apartment 7C. Ceilings run 10 feet (10 feet 6 inches on the 21st floor), and finishes include Sub-Zero and Miele appliances, Varenna Italian cabinetry, and Waterworks fixtures.