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The stocky and robust, 13-story, rental apartment building at 500 West 23rd Street on the southwest corner of Tenth Avenue opens for occupancy next month, filling in the last gap at this very important intersection in Chelsea.

It is known as "Ten23" and has 111 apartments and overlooks the High Line Park and there is elevator access to the park on the sidewalk in front of this building.

The building is notable for the subtle patterning of its cast-concrete piers, some of which are partially curved to provide depth for some "inset" windows and give the light-gray facades considerably more visual interest.

The building has a landscaped roof deck and an entrance marquee and was designed by Gerner, Kronick & Valcarcell. The developer was Equity Residential Realty, the biggest landlord in the country that bought the site in January 2010 from Shaya Boymelgreen for $11.5 million.

Because two of the corners at this intersection are low-rise buildings and because it is adjacent to the High Line Park, there are many fine vistas from this building.

The building has a 24-hour concierge, a fitness center, a package service, storage facilities, a valet dry cleaning service, an outdoor barbecue grill/picnic area, key-controlled access. There are some balconies and terraces and many corner windows.

This building is across 23rd Street from the very handsome art gallery building with a metal wall around its front yard garden was designed by Smith and Thompson and diagonally across Tenth Avenue from London Terrace, the huge and very handsome full-block apartment complex that is a major landmark in the area. It is also a block north from the very handsome full-block complex of the General Theological Seminary and its new Chelsea Enclave apartment building.

It is also diagonally across the elevated High Line Park on 23rd Street from two of Chelsea's unusual new buildings, Highline 519 and HL23.

The former is a small, mid-block condominium apartment building designed by Lindy Roy that is notable for its balconies with cloud-like scrims that overlap floors.

The steel screens, or scrims, in front of glass French doors on the south facade are described on the building's website as "perforated, embossed stainless steel balustrades [that meander skyward, skimming the all-glass facade: a shimmering overlay distinct from the customary urban rhythms of stacked floor slabs and punched windows."

The building, which was developed by Sleepy Hudson, has 11 full-floor apartments.

Although it is a relatively small project, it was one of the first with flair along the High Line but it has been hemmed in a bit by the new and prominent HL 23 on the northwest corner of 23rd Street and the High Line Park.

HL 23 is a glass-and-stainless-steel condominium apartment building designed by Neil Denari that is cantilevered partially over the High Line and much of its east facade is curving embossed stainless steel panels.

HL23 has startling north and south facades of glass set in some large diagonal braces and angled cantilevers and its top tapers. The building was developed by Alf Naman and designed by Neil M. Denari.

The 14-story building has a two-floor maisonette, a duplex penthouse and nine-full-floor residential condominium units.

There are also two nearby buildings on Tenth Avenue that add to the area's new architecture allure.

The Vesta 24 is a 14-story condominium at 231 Tenth Avenue whose lower half is partially wrapped in off-the-shoulder style in large sheets of nicely dark stained wood. When the building opened in 2004 all of its 22 units were bought in about 36 hours. The developer was the Vesta Group and Garrett Gourlay was the architect.

A more unified and beautiful design can be found nearby at 245 Tenth Avenue, the stunning and slightly bulging stainless steel-clad residential building designed by Della Valle Bernheimer.

One of Chelsea's most famous landmarks is London Terrace, the full-block apartment complex between Ninth and Tenth Avenues.

A famous row on 23rd Street of four-story townhouses with large front gardens known as London Terrace and a similar row of two-story townhouses on 24th Street known as Chelsea Cottages, both designed by Alexander Jackson Davis in 1845, were demolished to make way for this gargantuan, 1,670-unit, full-block apartment project by developer Henry Mandel. It was originally designed by Victor Farrar and Richard Warmough to include a cross-shaped tower about 32 stories tall but it was eliminated, probably because of the Depression, and the new design called for 10 mid-block buildings and four taller corner buildings. The midblock buildings were completed in 1930 and the corner buildings the following year.
Architecture Critic Carter Horsley Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.