New York City
Completion Date: June 2008
Owner: Madison Equities
Program: A 12-story, 80,000-square-foot residential tower in Chelsea, with 47 units, a communal garden on the ground level, and a communal roof terrace. Levels 2 through 8 are a mix of one- and two-bedroom apartments, and levels 9 through 12 are entirely three-bedrooms; all include terraces overlooking the garden. At the base of the building, four two-level duplexes extend from the basement to the ground floor. These apartments, which offer private gardens and high-ceilinged, gallery-like spaces, can serve as live-work units.
Design concept and solution: Rather than integrate this infill tower seamlessly into its midblock location, the architects imagined the Chelsea Modern as a sculptural building whose jutting, folding glass facade stitches its surroundings together. Since only one side of the concrete-structure building would face the street, the architects used the facade to create multidimensional zigzags of movement: horizontal bands of blue glass, each several stories high, unfold like pleats across the tower. The shifting planes reflect pieces of neighboring structures and change color throughout the day. A recessed base of translucent glass gives upper floors the appearance of floating above the sidewalk—which itself is made of glass. (The sidewalk doubles as a skylight for the lower floors of the duplexes.) On the upper levels, flexibility is the priority: the units feature open kitchens, floor-to-ceiling glass, operable projecting windows, and large wood-covered sliding wall panels that allow inhabitants to redefine rooms. Crisp, functional interior finishes like sycamore floors and white-painted walls round out the minimalist palette.
Location:
447–453 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011
Total construction cost:
$35 million
