Alf Naman has commissioned della valle + bernheimer design llp to design a 24-unit condominium building at 245 Tenth Avenue that will have unusual facades that are intended to be abstract images of steam clouds from locomotives that used to run on the High Line.

Adjacent to the High Line Park, the building will be wrapped in perforated and punched metal and tinted, fritted and clear glass.

The facade utilizes a "panelized system of semi-reflective stainless steel," according to the architecture's website, which noted that "when viewed from a distance, the punches and indentation add relief and shadow, replicating, to a degree, the graduated shades of gray within clouds themselves.

The basic plan of the mid-rise building is of two rectangles that are perpendicular to one another but share a small part of an edge of each. The fenestration pattern is somewhat like a crossword puzzle and at night it promises to give this very popular section of West Chelsea an icon not too dissimilar from The Porter House on the southeast corner of 15th Street and Ninth Avenue whose vertical strips of light cast a fine urban spell.

The architectural form of 245 Tenth Avenue, however, is further complicated by the fact that the building bulges outward at a light angle near its base.

Andrew Bernheimer got his master's degree in Architecture in 1994 from Washington University from which Jared Della Valle got his master's degree in architecture and construction management 1995. Both have taught at Lehigh University and they founded their firm in 1996.

"Our small, New York-based practice," the architects' website proclaims, "is founded on recognizing these moments of simultaneity and on breeding unexpectedness through the innovative use of the familiar and the available. We have used laser-fabrication and modern steel-rolling technology to create a flexible artist's loft because gray was a desirable color for our artist client and such technology was malleable, inexpensive, highly tolerant, and allowed us to manage out-of-state construction remotely. We have used wood veneer sandwiched between panels of glass because wood is the last thing you would expect to see in Times Square and it glows magically at night, just like everything around it. We have used laser-etched steel in an elementary school library on Staten Island because it will remind kids of subway cars and because, as in the artist's loft, we know that it will end up being fabricated perfectly. We used a massive library of books as a wall in a house because books are familiar, dramatic, enlightening, sometimes funny, and also make an amazing texture out of paper, color, and shadows."

Documents on file with the city indicate that demolition permits were obtained July 11 for the mid-block site from the Department of Buildings and that High Line Partners LLC, of which Alf Naman is a principle, has mortgages from CanPartners Realty Holding Company IV LLC. Mr. Naman plans to have retail in the spaces adjacent to and lower than the High Line's elevated roadway that is being transformed into a park.