19th-century Lower East Side row houses will be razed for condo and art gallery

The seven-story art-condo building will have 20 apartments

A group of Federal row houses on Grand Street on the Lower East Side are set to be demolished to make way for a seven-story condo building with an expansive art gallery at the base. Last week, the city's Department of Buildings gave the demolition go ahead to the developer, a Lower East Side resident and art dealer, Bowery Boogie reported.

The row houses are nearly 200 years old, having been built around the 1820s, according to Bowery Boogie, but the architects behind this new art-condo project, Peterson Rich Office (PRO) deemed them to be beyond renovation due to the changes made by previous tenants in the building, according to an interview the cofounders of the firm gave to The Architect's Newspaper.

The owner of the three properties slated for conversion—282-286 Grand Street, has been identified as Marc Strauss (he's also the developer behind the condo) by the Bowery Boogie. Strauss purchased the buildings in 2015 for a combined total of $9 million, property records reveal.

The art-condo set to go up at the site will comprise of 20 apartments including two penthouse apartments, according to the Architect's Newspaper. Most of the apartments aside from the penthouses will be one bedrooms and average 550 square feet. The art gallery will be at the base, and the developer is already scouting a tenant.

PRO is planning to create "a perforated aluminum rain-screen facade," with a bronze paint—a nod to the neighborhood's past and present. Work on the condo is set to get underway this spring with construction expected to wrap up towards the end of next year.

Here's what the buildings look like right now:

• 200-Year-Old Row of Federal Houses on Grand Street to be Razed for this 8-Story Gallery-Condo Building [Bowery Boogie]
• An expansive bronze-colored rainscreen covers Peterson Rich Office's latest Lower East Side project [AN]