When you renovate, it would be cool if you got the toilet actually perpendicular to the wall, and the piping to run straight into it. You will presumably be replacing the valve as well, or at least the piping, so getting everything lined up nicely shouldn't be a huge issue.
Don't be too quick to abandon the idea of a flushometer toilet. (The flushometer is the valve.) Your older NYC building (I presume) has the water pressure and pipe size sufficient to make that kind of toilet work, and they do a good job of flushing stuff. There are some nifty auto-flush flushometer valves that you could install, and there is a higher degree of design in these kinds of toilets now as well. It may be you want to go to a toilet with a tank that refills and smaller pipes, because among other things that's a quieter setup, but there is something satisfying about not having to wait for the tank to refill to flush again. That's why this kind of toilet was/is used in commercial settings where there is a good bit of traffic.
If you want something different, and are going to be pulling down walls and ripping up floors anyway, have a look at the Toto line. Everything from the entry-level Entrada to the top of the line Neorest flushes amazingly-well and looks good. You don't get that kind of consistently-excellent performance across-the-brand when buying other brands. The last thing you want to do is end up with some shwanky European toilet that you have to plunge every time you flush it. And don't pay retail for it. If you look online (including at Terry's prices above) you will see what a fair price for these things is, and it's a substantial discount off of what your designer is going to tell you it costs while he pockets the difference.
Depending upon where your place is and how big a reno is involved, I have a contractor that is used to working in Manhattan co-ops, and which the meticulous super in my buddy's UES co-op building now recommends because the work is done timely and properly and doesn't cause the super any brain damage, which is a big deal here in the city. I learned about him because he was the third guy my buddy hired after firing the previous two guys on a bathroom job when they left him with a partially-completed mess for weeks. Message me if you want the name.