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West 14th Street shutters
By Carter Horsley   |   From Archives Friday, October 27, 2006
Morris Adjmi has designed an 11-story residential condominium building with more than 50 apartments for a site at 345 West 14th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues.

The project is notable for its use of 9-foot-high external window shutters that residents can operate automatically from inside their apartments to allow for reduced exposure to the sun or more privacy. Charles Blaichman is the developer.

The shutters are made of Prodema slats mounted on steel angles and the rail is concealed within the spandrel panels.

The residents' decisions to have their shutters open or closed will result in a regularly changing building facade.

The design, which is shown on the architect's website, www.ma.com, is also quite complimentary to the vertical slit windows of the nearby Porter House condominium on the southwest corner of 15th Street and Ninth Avenue just around the corner from this project which is two doors east of Ninth Avenue.

The new project, which, according to the website, is anticipated to be completed in the Spring of 2008, is a few doors to the west of another new condominium project on the same street, The Prime at 333 West 14th Street, which will be distinguished by brise soleils and different fenestration patterns. The 10-story Prime will have 9 apartments and has been designed by Bice C. Wilson and Francois de Marignac of Meridian Design Associates Architects for Jim Riggs of 333 West 14th Street Partnership.

Both projects are very close to the epicenter of the nearby cluster of restaurants and clubs of the Meatpacking District and Lower Chelsea and the High Line.
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.