The Anthem is an elevator building. The Department of Finance classifies 222 East 34th Street as a D8 elevator apartment building, and the Department of Buildings lists 480 dwelling units. A walk-up is a different daily life. The difference is not a slogan about luxury. It is stairs, groceries, and what happens when the elevator is the thing you are waiting on.
What you stop doing
In a walk-up, every bag, suitcase, and piece of furniture is a flight of stairs. A fifth-floor walk-up is a real constraint on how you shop and on who can visit. An elevator building removes that. It adds a wait in the lobby when several residents leave at 8:30am, which is the trade. At 480 units, that wait is part of the building. It is still not four flights with a hand truck.
Packages work differently too. A staffed elevator building can hold deliveries at the desk. A walk-up usually cannot. This building has a package room and a 24-hour front desk. That is a separate article's subject. The point here is that the elevator and the desk are the same decision: you are not carrying the city up the stairs yourself.
What you should still check
Elevator buildings are not all the same. Ask how many passenger elevators serve the residential floors, whether moves use a separate freight elevator, and what happens when one car is out. Those are operational facts. They are not in the tax classification, and they are not something to invent from the unit count.
Also ask about the walk from the sidewalk to the elevator. A grand lobby is a longer walk with luggage than a small vestibule. That is a tour question, answered in two minutes on site.
How not to compare the rent
A walk-up can be cheaper because it is a walk-up, or because it is a worse apartment. An elevator building can cost more because of the elevator, or because of the location, the doorman, and the floor. Do not pay an "elevator premium" you calculated from two listings that differ in six other ways. Compare the line, the light, and the stairs you would actually climb on a Tuesday with groceries.
See the building from the sidewalk in: amenities, residences, or a tour. The desk is (212) 684-3222.
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