I could not get "East Side, West Side, all around the town" - lyrics from the classic "Sidewalks of New York" - out of my mind after visiting two buildings on opposite sides of Central Park. The Laurel is a 31-story condominium going up on East 67th Street, at First Avenue. And 610 West 110th Street is a 15-floor prewar building being renovated at that address, between Broadway and Riverside Drive.

The differences in mind-set of the East and West Sides of Manhattan are well known, to the point of becoming banal, but in the context of luxury condos, they're fun to think about.

The prices, layouts and amenities of the two buildings were worlds apart, but I was surprised by what they had in common, in terms of the aesthetics that the developers thought would please prospective buyers: mostly white kitchens and bathrooms, brand-name appliances, and little niceties like unusual tile designs and lots of closet space.

As a longtime East Sider, I began at the Laurel, designed by the New York architecture firm of Costas Kondylis & Partners, which will be made of glass and Indiana limestone.

"Very meticulous" is the way Jeannie Woodbrey, senior director of sales for the Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, and the building's director of sales for the Sunshine Group, described the developers, the Alexico Group, based in New York.

"Very expensive to do" is what Ms. Woodbrey said about the amenities of the building, which has received a basic Leadership in Energy and Environment Design certification. Other features include "plenty of garage space," she said, along with a 12,000-square-foot triathlon training center (for running, swimming and biking), a fitness center with "rubber floors and really state-of-the-art equipment," and a 50-foot-long lap pool. (All great! But I'm not sure I would ever disrobe if there were lots of gorgeous bodies around.)

On the third and fourth floors, there will be the Laurel Club, with a lounge, dining rooms, a catering kitchen and a 35-seat screening room. There will be a video arcade and a "toddler crafts center just for the residents - all very high-end," Ms. Woodbrey said, as I followed her around the mock-ups on display in the building's sales office a few blocks from the site.

I did like the very luxurious bathrooms with their extra-deep Zuma soaking tubs, the cute little TV screens embedded in the bathroom mirrors, the radiant-heated floors and the eco-friendly Duravit toilets.

All nice indeed! Apartments range in size from studios to six bedrooms. Studios begin at $820,000, large one-bedrooms at $1.725 million and two-bedrooms at $1.875 million. There is also a $13 million penthouse with four bedrooms, 3,000 square feet of terrace, a double-sided fireplace, 12-foot ceilings and every exposure you can imagine.

If I lived there, I might not have to leave the apartment too often and brave running into any of my superchic, supertoned neighbors. As I imagine them, they would be fabulous looking, and judging by the kitchens, they would also be great cooks and wine connoisseurs.

"Uptown people prefer kitchens to be closed off," Ms. Woodbrey said. "Downtown, they love them open."

Image credit: Jonathan Fickies/The New York Times

Some of the master bathrooms at 610 West 110th Street will have large showers, not tubs.

I could go either way. So did the developer of 610 West 110th Street. Cayuga Holdings L.L.C., based in West New York, N.J., and Kinlin Rutherfurd Architects, a Manhattan firm, are in the process of renovating half of the apartments in the 60-unit building.  

Currently, three two-bedroom apartments are available at prices ranging from $1.275 million for 963 square feet to $1.705 million for 1,477 square feet. Eventually, the building will include four-bedroom apartments as well.

In some apartments, the kitchens (Sub-Zero refrigerators disguised as cabinets, Bosch dishwashers, built-in microwaves, and cabinets that reach the ceilings) are behind closed doors adjacent to a "formal dining room," if one can use that name for a space that is an extension of the foyer.

In other apartments, a bit more unconventionally, the kitchen is open to the living room, giving the traditional layouts a dash of modernity.

"I'm usually the person who picks everything," said Iva Spitzer, an executive vice president of the Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, as she pointed out the big closets, the Baldwin hardware and her pride and joy, the extra inch of crown and base moldings that "give a grand feeling to rooms that are generous but not gigantic."

Also noteworthy are the windows in the bathrooms and, in some apartments, the master bath with a large shower. Those who love baths can use the tub in the second bathroom. The finishes, especially the tile choices in imaginative versions of gray and white, are handsome without being boring.

"People like simple things they can put their own stamp on," Ms. Spitzer said. "I don't do blue bathrooms because someone might not like blue. Here, they can embellish as they want."

A sensible attitude, I thought. I was warming up to the West Side.

Copyright c 2008 The New York Times Company. Reprinted with Permission. Image credit: Jonathan Fickies/The New York Times