There's an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal on how the luxury condo market is currently focusing on prewar details and eschewing glass:
LINK. Some recent new developments which have used the classic aesthetic have sold out quickly in a slow market and glass towers are apparently now seen as less of a novelty these days. A former faculty building of Mount Sinai Hospital at 1212 Fifth Avenue (foreground of top photo) at 102nd Street will market 57 units as luxury condos facing Central Park in the coming weeks and the developer has spent $47 million in the restoration. The renovated sixteen-story building will help subsidize the new adjacent Mount Sinai hospital wing being built which also has a glass residential tower rising on top of it. Interestingly enough, the more glass side of the complex on the next avenue over does not have any prewar elements going for it since the hospital block on Madison is mixture of postwar styles which also includes a few public housing buildings (lower photo).
I think it depends on where the condominium is being built. The buildings that appear to have prospered in Harlem are those that at least make an effort to blend in with the surrounding neighborhood. For me, I am not really a huge fan of the glass towers, but saying that, it is pretty amazing to see the sun's reflection against a huge wall of glass as it sets. 5th on the Park has that sort of effect.
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