Chatham Towers

Chatham Towers is one of the most interesting middle income developments in urban American from the 1960s. They were built in 1964 as a cooperative near City Hall, next to Chinatown, designed by Kelly & Gruzen. Unusually, they are raw concrete in one of the most purely brutalist complexes in the United States - residential complexes that is. In form they are close to many English social housing schemes, however in detail they far surpass them (being site built for a higher price point helps, of course). Interestingly, they reputedly have Swedish windows - the blinds are between the glass of the double-glazing, which is extremely common in Swedish windows from the 30s until the 80s, as well as being center-pivot windows (also common in Sweden in this era). Apparently, there was some controversy about the use of gypsum board (aka drywall) within the units at the time as well.

Here is a view from an overpass, framed through tree's, showing the assymetrical penthouse. A view of the balconies, showing the detailing, the ribbed concrete and elegant balcony edges and the windows. The slots beneath the windows are for fresh air supply I assume, for the air handlers.

A view looking up at the balconies and facade. The balconies are assymetical in the sense of some floors not having them to create a more interesting silhouette. Another view looking at the buildings obliquely. A shot from the privacy and retaining wall, framed through the garden trees.

A parting glance, looking at the towers in shadow. This shows the balcony silhouette quite well. The concrete is in amazingly good condition, probably due to the less severe New York winters.

I will follow up with plans and further details when I get a chance, however I wanted to get these photos out quickly.

Broadway Penthouse

Here is the second entry in my flurry of New York postings. In this entry, I was fascinated by this penthouse which I saw as I walked up Broadway. While it's not great architecture, it's site lends itself to a dramatic vista as one walks up Broadway and see's it's position change, to looking at it from above to below. The blue sunshades are also quite arresting, especially from a distance.

The superstructure here is also interesting, harkening back to the early moderns of the Bauhaus era or to a steamship (or for that matter, a dock). Coming closer, one can see that the superstructure actually does include a crane, which is a fantasy for many architects to include in their projects (myself included). Getting still closer, it becomes apparent that the sunshades are indeed, actually blue in color!Closer still, they are transparent as well. One can also see the crystalline glass box sheltering under the brise soleil. Despite nestling beneath that, despite the sunshade, I imagine the solar load on the mechanical system is astronomical. However, as these are obviously luxury apartments, I don't that that is really much of a factor.

Here in a final view, one can see the tower above the base or podium of the building, which sports a less glass box and more "technical" or mechanistic curtain wall (or perhaps it's actually a cladding system). I am going to do some research to find out more information about this building. But for those of you that are intrepid, curbed (http://curbed.com/) is where I am going to start first.

Tudor City

Tudor City in the Rain

Well, once again I realize that I have been truly neglectful of this little project, my blog. In fact, I haven't updated since the very end of May, and I have all of June and July to get written and posted. Since I went to the multi-family capital of America this weekend for a visit and took my trusty little camera with me, you, my dear readers, can have some visual treats.

Tudor City

First off we have Tudor City, once owned by Husband to the Diva, Harry Helmsley, who got into quite a bit of trouble trying to redevelop it before selling. I'll update with further information, but briefly, it was built in the 1920s, on the eastern edge of Midtown Manhattan. It is literally directly across the street from the UN (as in United Nations) however, when it was designed, there was no Congress of Nations or other body on that site (well, bodies, not the governmental kind, or even human, but the edible kind) just docks and stockyards, hence the inward facing design.

It was quite a lovely space, with a large garden with tall, mature tree's making the Neo-Gothic (Tudorbethan or Jacobethan) towers all the more surreal when seen through the leafy canopy. At ground level the arboreal splender appears to be a modestly scaled, nicely detailed space, however the penthouse levels above do make a dramatic impression when viewed from below in typical Manhattan fashion (nearly all of my photos were in portrait mode from the verticality of it all - at least Lower Manhattan and Midtown.

Another shot looking upwards. The tops of the buildings are really magnificent against the cloudy sky with rain pouring down. A view of the central courtyard, more of a garden than a park. The undeveloped area was a big bone of contention when H. Helmsley owned Tudor City.

A parting glance. The last shot shows one of the more modest building tops.