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About Chelsea Modern, 447 West 18th Street
This stunning, 12-story residential condominium building was erected by Madison Equities, which is headed by Robert Gladstone, in 2009 and designed by Audrey Matlock. The developer subsequently commissioned Ms. Matlock to design another residential condominium project at 57 Irving Place.
This 47-unit structure has a very unusual form with a complex, angled façade on 18th Street with windows that open fully outwards parallel to the façade and when open let air in and out on all four sides of each window.
The mid-block building replaced two warehouses.
The building has 7 one-bedroom apartments of about 800 square feet each, 28 two-bedroom units ranging in size from 1,300 to 1,500 square feet, 8 three-bedroom units ranging in size from 1,700 to 1,830 square feet and 4 duplex artist’s one-bedroom apartments, each with their own street-level entrance, that will have about 2,000 square feet each.
The duplex artist's apartments will have gallery spaces illuminated by translucent skylights that form an extension of the sidewalk, according to Robert Gladstone, the principal of Madison Equities.
Ms. Matlock told CityRealty.com that the translucent skylights will be laminated glass in five-foot-square sections and that they will be adjacent to the indented lobby and duplex apartment entrances that are tucked five feet behind the project’s building line.
The apartments will have enclosed bedrooms but many will have sliding walls to make spaces more flexible.
Ms. Matlock said that the façade is blue glass and is angled horizontally in zig-zag fashion. Each floor has three bands of windows, Ms. Matlock said, and she referred to the openable windows as visual "dashes" on the facade. The angled façade does not protrude behind the building line but has a three-foot depth, according to Ms. Matlock, who added that the angles are irregular.
A caption in an article by Dennis Hevesi in The New York Times about the project described the facade as "vitreous splendor."
Mr. Gladstone said he has known Ms. Matlock for more than a decade and that this project recently was declared by the best “unbuilt” building by the Long Island Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Ms. Matlock, who once worked for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, has an office in Manhattan as well as one in Sag Harbor, Long Island.
Mr. Gladstone has developed some of the city’s more interesting projects such as the Galleria at 115 West 57th Street, the concave office tower on the northwest corner of 57th Street and Lexington Avenue and the handsome residential tower on the southeast corner of Second Avenue and 93rd Street. Madison Equities also erected a 15-story mixed-use building at 410 East 92nd Street that will house a 226-room Courtyard by Marriott Hotel and about 40,000 square feet of commercial space and a 32-story rental apartment tower at 410 East 92nd Street with JBC Fund I, which is managed by the John Buck Company of Chicago.
The building, which is one of the best looking of the new crop of residential projects, is setback at the eighth floor to conform with zoning regulations. The rear of the building, Ms. Matlock said, will contain some balconies and terraces on the upper floors and will be highlighted by horizontal "rainscreens."
The building has elicited some amusing comments. At wirednewyork.com, a poster called Zippy the Chimp remarked July 2, 2008 that he "can’t see living in a place where you can't lean out the window – and yell at someone in the street."
An article by Suzanne Slesin in the April 27, 2008 edition of The New York Times about "Two That Stand Out From the Crowd" – this building and 15 Union Square West – noted that Chelsea Modern has "a wide undulating façade and angled windows that catch the light and animate the city street."
In a September 12, 2008 article by Vivian S. Toy in The New York Times entitled "Unearthing Hidden Space," the writer said that "Bruce Sherman, a painter and sculptor, will soon move into a 'gallery duplex' at the Chelsea Modern, a 12-story condominium nearing completion on West 18th Street, where the last of four such apartments is now listed at $3.1 million. The gallery part of his duplex is the 1,100 square feet of finished but open basement space to be lined with art-gallery-quality track lighting. 'I wasn't looking for something with a basement,' he said. 'But when I saw this, the lower level looked like a great making-things spot.' His top floor will be built out as a one-bedroom loft with a garden and will have a private street entrance. But the lower level, which he plans to use as a studio, is connected to the first floor by an open-tread staircase and will also have a separate entrance just steps from the basement storage units that he bought and from the building’s gym and steam room. Dan Tubb, the sales director at Chelsea Modern, said that people who have looked at the duplex apartments with basements have liked the fact that even without windows the space feels loft-like....even though the basement spaces in the Chelsea modern have no windows, their ceilings do have several rows of glass blocks set into the sidewalk. On a sunny day, they pull in a remarkable amount of natural light."
Ms. Slesin quoted Mr. Tubb as saying that the bulding is "a block from the Chelsea Piers, where people will bike and walk," adding that "we're for people who are drawn to the horizon and the river and who like to get out and do stuff outside." Ms. Slesin wrote that that she thought that "having the garden off the master bedroom rather than the living room could be somewhat appealing, albeit a bit odd."
The building has a 24-hour doorman/concierge, a garden with fountain, cold storage, bicycle room, and a roof deck. Kitchens have Sub-Zero refrigerators and Miele appliances and bathrooms have apartments have a Philippe Starck soaking tub, walnut vanities, marble counters and French limestone floors. Each apartment has its own washer and dryer.
Every window has roll-down blinds.
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