An unsuspecting pedestrian might well believe, as he walked down 18th
Street between 9th and 10th avenues, that 459 and 447 West 18th Street
is comprised of one building. To the west this composite reads as a
sturdy affair of masonry and metal cladding and to the east, a stunning
glass curtain wall in various shades of blue. On closer
inspection, however, it becomes clear that these are two entirely
different developments. Surely the recently completed buildings are
jarringly divergent from a stylistic perspective, but that very
incongruity is so much a part of contemporary taste that it looks, in
the present instance, like a daring post-modern conceit. more
459 West 18th Street (left) and Chelsea Modern
