100 Eleventh Avenue is a 23-story residential tower at the intersection of 19th Street and Eleventh Avenue (the

West Side Highway The Joe DiMaggio Highway, commonly called the West Side Highway and formerly the Miller Highway, is a mostly surface section of New York State Route 9A (NY 9A), running from West 72nd Street along the Hudson River to the southern t ...

) in the borough of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. The building is described as "a vision machine"100 11th Avenue
arcspace.com, April 02, 2007. Retrieved November 19, 2013. by the architect

Jean Nouvel Jean Nouvel (; born 12 August 1945) is a French architect. Nouvel studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and was a founding member of ''Mars 1976'' and ''Syndicat de l'Architecture'', France’s first labor union for architects. He has ob ...

. It has one of the most technologically advanced curtain wall systems in New York City, but also refers to West Chelsea masonry industrial architectural traditions.

Design and construction

The developers of 100 11th Avenue were Craig Wood and Curtis Bashaw, who commissioned French architect Jean Nouvel"Lavish New York City Condo Project Contends With Lenders' New Demands"
, ''Wall Street Journal'', August 20, 2008. Retrieved November 19, 2013. (Ateliers Jean Nouvel), in conjunction with

Beyer Blinder Belle Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners LLP (BBB) is an international architecture firm. It is based in New York City and has an additional office in Washington, DC. The firm's name is derived from the three founding partners: John H. Beyer, Ri ...

Architects as executive architects. It is described as a conceptual descendant of Nouvel's

Arab World Institute The ''Institut du Monde Arabe'', French for Arab World Institute, abbreviated ''IMA'', is an organization founded in Paris in 1980 by France with 18 Arab countries to research and disseminate information about the Arab world and its cultural an ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. Nouvel's complex design was site-specific, with Nouvel saying "I can't imagine transporting it somewhere else, even to another location in the center of Manhattan.""A French Architect Goes Global"
, ''Wall Street Journal'', November 7, 2007. Retrieved November 19, 2013. By 2008, the project was behind schedule and $50 million over budget. Ground conditions delayed the project by ten months and added $6 million to the

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

budget. Despite these problems, the interest from financial investors remained buoyant, offsetting the increased costs. The building was completed in 2010.

DeSimone Consulting Engineers DeSimone Consulting Engineers is a structural engineering firm founded by Vincent J. DeSimone in 1969 in New York City. The firm provides structural engineering services to architects, owners and developers, and performs structural analysis and ...

was the

structural engineering Structural engineering is a sub-discipline of civil engineering in which structural engineers are trained to design the 'bones and muscles' that create the form and shape of man-made structures. Structural engineers also must understand and cal ...

firm for the project. The facade system consists of unitized modules, the largest of which measures . The

stainless steel Stainless steel is an alloy of iron that is resistant to rusting and corrosion. It contains at least 11% chromium and may contain elements such as carbon, other nonmetals and metals to obtain other desired properties. Stainless steel's corros ...

frames contain 32 different window sizes, with each window angled between 2 degrees and 5 degrees up, down, left, or right.

Description and context

The building is located on the far west side of Manhattan at the intersection of 19th Street and

. Across the street is

Frank Gehry Frank Owen Gehry, , FAIA (; ; born ) is a Canadian-born American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become world-renowned attractions. His works are considered ...

IAC Building The IAC Building, InterActiveCorp's headquarters located at 555 West 18th Street on the northeast corner of Eleventh Avenue in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, is a Frank Gehry-designed building that was completed in 2007. ...

, made of billowing glass. Abutting it is Bayview Correctional Facility, made of brick. The site is centered in the wealthy and culturally diverse neighborhood of

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

. Many shops, restaurants, and galleries surround it, including Chelsea Market, the Meatpacking District, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Hudson Yards, and Google. The building is adjacent to Chelsea Piers, Little Island, and the Hudson River Park. Apartments facing west have views of the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

, and those facing east have views of the

High Line The High Line is a elevated park, elevated linear park, greenway (landscape), greenway and rail trail created on a former New York Central Railroad spur on the West Side (Manhattan), west side of Manhattan in New York City. The High Line's ...

and the New York City skyline.Schwan, Andrea "Construction Begins On Architect Jean Nouvel's Vision Machine Along Manhattan's West Side" nouvelchelsea.com The condominium tower is 23 stories and . It contains 72 units made up of one, two, and three-bedroom apartments. There are five penthouses, and a single-floor unit on the top floor. On the lower levels are a spa, gym, 70-foot indoor/outdoor heated pool, bike room, and garden. The ground floor also has a restaurant with a dining patio. The building's form is designed to take full advantage of the site. The tower mass is formed along a curve that runs the entire site. The curved form allows all apartments to have street frontage and views. It also gives each apartment light and views southwest. On the lower seven stories, Nouvel connects to the street, a freestanding curtain wall 15 feet away from the south

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a Loanword, loan word from the French language, French (), which means 'frontage' or 'face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often t ...

and follows along the sidewalk. Behind the freestanding structure is a semi-enclosed atrium called "The Loggia". Within the atrium are fully-grown trees that seem to float in mid air.,Freedlander, David. "Jean Nouvel's 'Vision' Rising in Chelsea" The New York Sun (April 5, 2007

(accessed February 8, 2012) There are two different types of façade. On the south and west side, Nouvel designed a Pixilation, pixilated curtain wall that was inspired by the compound eye of an insect. This harnesses the site's light and reflects it back to the city. The curtain wall has 1,647 different windowpanes that are connected to "". The megapanels are tilted at different angles, resulting in different levels of transparency throughout the curtain wall. The north and east facades are clad with black brick. It has punch windows of many different sizes and set at different angles that frame views of the skyline. 100 11th Avenue is a

LEED certified Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating systems for the design, constructio ...

building, with features such as low-emission, recycled materials, and natural ventilation.

References

Sources

# Fishbein, Jennifer
“Jean Nouvel’s Moment in the Sun”
Businessweek.com, (April 17, 2008), (accessed February 8, 2012) # Freedlander, David
“Jean Nouvel’s ‘Vision’ Rising in Chelsea”
''The New York Sun'' (April 5, 2007) (accessed February 8, 2012) # # # Russell S, James
“Nouvel’s $150 Million Window Waterfall Shakes Up Condo Design”
Bloomberg.com (April 16, 2007), (accessed February 8, 2012) # Schwan, Andrea "Construction Begins On Architect Jean Nouvel's Vision Machine Along Manhattan's West Side" nouvelchelsea.com # Wolffe, Danielle. "European starchitects reach for the skyline" ''Real Estate Weekly'' Vol. 53, (April 4, 2007) {{coord, 40, 44, 46, N, 74, 0, 28, W, display=title, type:landmark_region:US-NY Jean Nouvel buildings Apartment buildings in New York City Residential buildings completed in 2010 Chelsea, Manhattan Eleventh Avenue (Manhattan) Residential buildings in Manhattan West Side Highway