It was an "instant landmark" as soon as renderings were released in the spring of 2007.

The project claims to "feature the most highly-engineered and technologically advanced curtain wall ever constructed in New York City – a gently curving, glittering mosaic of nearly 1,700 different-sized panes of colorless glass, each set at a unique angle and torque, sheathing one of the most meticulously customized, high performance residential addresses in the nation."

"The main south curtain wall is comprised of approximately 1,647 completely different colorless windowpanes organized within enormous steel-framed ’megapanels’ that range from 11 to 16 feet tall and as wide as 37 feet across. Each windowpane inside these megapanels is titled at a different angle and in a different direction – up, down, in, out – bearing a slightly different degree of transparency," according to a press release for the project that maintained that the design "is inspired in part by the renowned stained-glass window cycles of the 13th Century Gothic cathedral of Saint-Chapelle in Paris."

The press release also stated that "The building’s dazzling Mondrian-like window pattern will frame splendid views from within the tower while producing an exterior texture that serves as a poetic analog for the vibrancy, density and changeability of New York."

The building has a seven-story street wall "of mullioned glass 15 feet from the building’s façade to reflect fleeting images of life beyond the building while creating a semi-enclosed atrium unprecedented in New York City" and "within the atrium, suspended gardens of ornamental vegetation and trees will appear to float in mid-air; private indoor and outdoor terraces will extend from residences; and an open-air dining patio for the lobby restaurant."

The north and east facades of the building are clad in black brick that are meant to harken "West Chelsea’s industrial architecture" and have windows of different sizes. The north façade expresses "motion within: Elevator shafts will contain random LED lighting and full-scale punched windows, so that passengers in glass-walled cabs can see city vistas."

The developers are West Chelsea Development Partners LLC, a venture of Alf Naman Real Estate Advisors and Cape Advisors, of which Craig D. Wood is a principal.

Nouvel is the architect of 40 Mercer Street in Soho and is notable for its large sliding windows, and of the Arab World Institute and the new Quai Branly Museum, both in Paris. He is also the architect of a very tall, asymmetrical, mixed-use tower that received various special permits and public approvals in 2009 for a site just to the west of the Museum of Modern Art on East 53rd Street but no timetable for its construction has been announced.

The Eleventh Avenue building, which is just to the south of a juvenile detention center, has 72 apartments that range in size from 890 to 4,675 square feet and prices initially ranged from $1,600,000 to $22,000,000.

All apartments have south and west views and mechanized shade systems.

The building will has a 24-hour doorman, a daytime concierge and 24-hour off-site concierge service, a lobby restaurant, a garden, an ATM, a private screening room, storage rooms, a 70-foot-long swimming pool and a gym. Ceiling heights range from 10 feet 1 inch to 11 feet 1.5 inches and the penthouse ceilings range from 12 to 16 feet.

In his March 15, 2010 review of the building in The New York Times, architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff noted that "its mix of grit and glamour - embodied in a glittering facade that seems to have been wrapped around the curved front of a black brick tower like a light-fitting sequined dress - is apt to temper whatever you may feel about the Wall Streeters and art-world insiders who are likely to move into its apartments." "It conjures a downtown New York we once loved and can now barely remember, where rundown manufacturing buildings buzzed with cultural vitality. The building’s rough-edged sex appeal may actually overshadow what’s best about the project, the remarkable skill with which Mr. Nouvel embeds it into its surroundings....Its shifting appearance is a sly commentary on the conflict between public and private realms that is an inevitable byproduct of gentrification....Seen from across the West Side Highway, the tower’s twinkling facade, with its hundreds of irregularly shaped windows titled at odd angles to reflect fragments of sky or the surrounding city, offers a striking counterpoint to the soft, sail-like curves of Mr. Gehry’s creation....Some will argue that all of this simply provides a veneer of civility to a culture that is sliding deeper and deeper into narcissim. For me, though, the building is a lesson on how to navigate an enligthened path in an era of extremes. It’s not utopia, but it demonstrates what a major talent can accomplish when he focuses his mind on a small corner of the city."

Cape Advisors is replacing the elegant polished granite lobby at 100 Eleventh Avenue designed by Jean Nouvel with carpeting and three "boulders," according to an article in the October 27, 2010 edition of The New York Times by Fred A. Bernstein.

"Real estate agents attribute slow sales in part to the lobby designed by Mr. Nouvel, a stark black space. So the developers have begun to alter the lobby, not with the help of Mr. Nouvel, but of Jennifer Post, an Upper East Side interior designer," the article said, adding that Mr. Novel was "sad about the changes" and declared that "they have gone off course" and "want to complete the building as inexpensively as possible and they want to take the money." His project architect, Francois Leininger, told The Times that "None of what they’re doing is related to our design," adding "we are out of the loop."

Mr. Nouvel, a Prizker Prize architect, has had difficult times in New York. Earlier in 2010, the City Planning Commission "decapitated" 200 feet off his planned skyscraper for Hines Interests and the Museum of Modern Art and former projects proposed for the High Line and Brooklyn riverfront were not built.

The article said that 16 condominium apartments in the crescent-shaped 54-unit building, which is distinguished by a dazzling, curved facade with more than a 1,000 irregularly sized and angled windows, remain unsold.

Holly Parker, a broker with Prudential Douglas Elliman and the building s sales director, told The Times that said the goal was to "take it to the next step of making the lobby more residential, and comfortable, when you walk in." "She said that she had heard, over and over, from both potential buyers and current residents, that they wanted the lobby warmed up, which she communicated to the developers," adding that "the furniture Ms. Post chose for the lobby would create a ’more residential’ feel."

Ms. Post told The Times she was bringing in "three huge black boulders, rock sculptures, designed by me - they’re as big as grizzlies. And I’m adding furniture from my collection - two seating areas, in cashmere."

The existing lobby, Ms. Post said in the article, is 60 feet long and "it’s nothing but a cold black hallway. We’re not taking anything away from Nouvel. He’s a hard-surface minimalist - I’m adding my soft surfaces. I’m complementing his aesthetic."

The article maintained that "some owners are skeptical" of the developer’s lobby change: "I don’t want it warmed up," said Todd Eberle, a photographer who with his partner, Richard Pandiscio, owns a one-bedroom condo in the building....Their neighbor Barbara Dente, a communications executive, agrees. Ms. Dente, whose weekend house was designed by the modernist Marcel Breuer, said she wanted her Nouvel as Mr. Nouvel intended it."

Last year, Pembrook Capital Management lent $47.1 million to Cape Advisors to keep the project afloat and the article said that Stuart J. Boesky, the chief executive of Pembrook, said he supported the lobby update, adding that he was not telling Cape Advisors what to do, but that "they consulted with us, and we thought it was a good idea."

In an article entitled "Massacring Jean Nouvel’s Nightmarish Lobby" in today’s edition of observer.com, Matt Chaban wrote that" the renowned French architect created a stark hallway of matte and mirrored black surfaces with irregularly pattern punched windows that echo the facade. It is not exactly inviting, yet it is distinctively, explicitly Nouvel."