No. 251 stands out on East 71st Street.
Photo: Gabriel Sebastian/Five7media

The bulging, bug-eyed windows of the townhouse at 251 East 71st Street made it a neighborhood landmark. But the Bubble House was never actually landmarked, and most of the serious buyers who came through after it listed last year weren’t there for the façade. They were looking for a blank canvas to gut renovate in a quiet part of town, says Richard Pretsfelder, the listing broker. On Friday, he closed a $4.99 million sale to a family that wasn’t hunting for an architectural oddity. They will “very likely” take out the windows, he says. After all, “the majority who came in were planning on restoring it to a more traditional façade.”

Stunned, I asked him to confirm. The buyers didn’t want to be public but answered a text minutes later, writing, “We don’t know yet.”

The “bubble” windows up close.
Photo: Gabriel Sebastian/Five7media

It was an unnerving little ellipsis. “People are obsessed with the house, no question about it,” Pretsfelder says. He got more press requests than he’d gotten for any listing in his 20-year career, even doing a radio spot for 1010 WINS. But he faced a different set of questions from serious buyers. The house sold in 1974, and the family had moved out years ago, he says, using it as an address for their foundation. By any measure, “it needs a gut renovation,” he adds. “There’s a lot of formica in there.” Then there were the windows, which spin open from a central point, making them impossible to screen from bugs, among other concerns.

Still, Pretsfelder got a few serious inquiries from buyers who loved the distinctive windows, including a call from the NBA’s Jaylen Brown. “The windows reminded him of his logo,” Pretsfelder says, turning my attention to Brown’s 741 Performance sneakers with tiny oval bubbles of fabric that pop through the leather. But, like many of the others who wanted to see inside the place, “he didn’t follow through.”

The house is nearly 5,000 square feet, a blank canvas in a quiet slice of the Upper East Side that’s slightly cheaper than the homes just off the park a few blocks away.
Photo: Gabriel Sebastian/Five7media

The garden level is a separate unit, which was used as an office for the owners’ art gallery and then for the family foundation. It leads to a private yard, where the owners reportedly had an oversize hot tub.
Photo: Gabriel Sebastian/Five7media

Appraiser Jonathan Miller suggested the $5.75 million asking price included a premium for architectural significance. But those buyers didn’t show up. It closed at $4.99 million.
Photo: Gabriel Sebastian/Five7media

The owners raised their kids here and reportedly had an oversize hot tub in the backyard.
Photo: Gabriel Sebastian/Five7media

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