"I wanted to be in a prewar building," she said.

As he climbed to the third floor of the prewar building, Burns heard loud music coming from above.

"I missed the warmth and true feeling of home that you can only get in a classic prewar building," he said.

Then she heard a neighbor in her prewar building talking about bedbugs.

The project combines the restoration of two prewar buildings with a new 14-story glass tower.

"But at least this was a similar prewar building, with rambling offices, and felt like a dusty English department."

The 200,000-square-foot prewar building has floors as large as 12,500 square feet.

"The grander proportions are one of the main reasons people want to live in prewar buildings," he said.

What's more, those big, boxy prewar buildings can be tricky to build on.

"Most of the space in the mid-1990's was in secondary prewar buildings."