An apartment in Zaha Hadid’s sole NYC building is for sale

A unit in the late Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid’s only New York City building is on sale, asking $3.7 million, according to a StreetEasy listing update.

The eye-catching 11-story luxury condo is located at 520 W. 28th St., right along the picturesque High Line.

The building, built by Related Companies, was among Hadid’s final creations. She died of a heart attack at age 65 in March 2016, more than a year before construction was completed. She was the first woman to win that prestigious architectural prize.

Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic and author Paul Goldberger, who penned a tribute to Hadid in Vanity Fair following her 2016 death, described her as an ardent feminist with a commanding personality and uncompromising vision. 

“She really had become far and away the most prominent woman architect in the world, and I think [she] took a lot of pride in that,” Goldberger told The Post of Hadid, who was Iraqi-British. 

Now, a piece of this boundary-breaking architect’s artful legacy can belong to someone new. 

The 1,691-square-foot unit is the only one on its floor, according to its Compass listing. It includes five rooms, with two bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. The home boasts 50 feet of floor-to-ceiling motorized, sculptural windows overlooking 28th Street. 

The West Chelsea apartment’s current owner is a woman named Rabia Kamani, according to city records. She appears to be the sister of Mahmud Abdullah Kamani, the co-founder and executive chairman of BooHoo Group. BooHoo Group owns pretty much every fast fashion brand in the UK, including PrettyLittleThing. 

The well-heeled residents at the 40-unit condominium enjoy a private IMAX theater, a terrace on the High Line, a 75-foot swimming pool, a gym, a spa and more.

In an interview with Alexa given three days before her death, Hadid said she designed the West Chelsea building as an “extension of the pavement.”

“I always thought the building should have a connection to the High Line,” she told Alexa. “It should project out, make some sort of gesture. When you have a neighborhood that is quite fresh and new, it can give you certain freedom to do new things.”

Freedom defined Hadid’s philosophy and designs, which mixed bold lines and fluid curves into futuristic, organic structures. 

“I think the story of the building is a story of trying to somehow combine Zaha Hadid’s interest in unusual shapes — sharp angles and unexpected curves and swoops and things like that — with the practical needs of a New York condominium,” Goldberger added. “I always thought they did actually quite well with that. It’s a very strong building, but it’s also a very normal, livable building.”

The condominium currently has two other units on the market. A similar two-bedroom unit listed more than 200 days ago, according to StreetEasy, for $3.85 million. A larger three-bedroom unit came on the market for $8.8 million in February. 

Related Companies’ big investment initially struggled to sell in its early years. Sales opened up in 2015 and seemed to stall out in 2019 at less than 50% of capacity, Crain’s reported.  

But the building still earned notable residents in these early days. Sting and Trudie Styler were early renters there. American businessman Wes Edens scored a 6,853-square-foot penthouse for $20 million in 2020 — $30 million below the asking price, and Ariana Grande sold her five-bedroom condo there for $12 million in 2021.

Goldberger described the construction of 520 W. 28th St. as a big investment by Related Companies, and a big risk.

“Commercial developers and builders in New York aren’t always very adventurous,” Goldberger said. “And I think [Hadid] was viewed as somewhat difficult and demanding, which she was, even though she was also a brilliant architect.”

Related Companies undertook this project and the construction of nearby Hudson Yards around the same time. 

“I think it was really more of a showpiece, to show that they could do other things as well as build huge skyscrapers and Hudson Yards,” Goldberger said. “I don’t think Related made a lot of money from it, but it’s an admired building, and people like to live in it.” 

Compass reps Michael Rubin and Todd Lewin, who hold the listing, could not be reached for comment before press time.

It is difficult to imagine that this condominium would have been Hadid’s only contribution to the city if she had lived. Her architectural firm grew rapidly alongside her personal fame in the final years of her life.

“She was a remarkable person, and it was a real loss for architecture,” said Goldberger. “It was also a loss for New York, because who knows what else might have happened, had she lived.”