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Fresh Start Fridays: Four clean-air sanctuaries

  • (1) Three-bedroom, three-bath new luxury condo in the Lucida on East 85th Street, a LEED-certified building featuring an air filtration system that delivers outdoor air to all apartments and public spaces.  $4.06 million, $1,777/mo cc, $645/mo taxes. [Corcoran]
  • The Toren
    (2) Two-bedroom, two-bath condo in downtown Brooklyn's The Toren not only boasts an air filtration system, but as part of LEED certification the developer has undertaken "Environmental Tobacco Smoke, Odor and Contaminant Control" measures including weather stripping doors and "super-sealed" construction to prevent "leakage" between units. $775,000, $971/mo cc, $33/mo taxes. [Halstead]
  • (3) One-bedroom, one-bath 819-square foot condo in a Battery Park City LEED-certified luxury building that features a high-efficiency air filtration system. Twice-filtered air is cooled and dehumidified in the summer and humidified in the winter. $900,000, $412/mo cc, $586/mo taxes. [The Visionaire]
  • 180 East 93rd Street
    (4) Four-bedroom, 4-bath condo in a new boutique Carnegie Hill doorman building.  Built to LEED standards, each of the building's seven units occupy their own floor and have their own HVAC systems, minimizing the spread of cross-unit odors.   A geothermal climate control system ensures that allergy-sufferers can comfortably and hermetically seal themselves in the apartment away from pollen and other outdoor irritants.  $6.3 million, $4,214/mo cc  [Warburg]

It ain't easy breathing green.

Early this week, naievely optimistic, we set out to find four apartments currently on the market that would appeal to allergy-sufferers or anyone determined to avoid secondhand smoke.  Visions of sophisticated HVAC systems and progressive co-op boards danced in our heads.

What we found (barely!) surprised us:  Only four buildings--all new construction built to LEED standards--offered apartments for sale that fit our criteria, and in two cases we had to stretch far beyond our self-imposed $2 million per-apartment budget.

Note: Images are of renderings or models, not the actual apartment listed.