Superior Ink Condominiums (New York City, New York)

 condominiums, postmodern (architecture)

190-foot, 17-story Postmodern residential complex replacing a 2-story cracker factory designed in 1919 by A.G. Zimmermann with towering smokestacks for Nabisco (later used by the Superior Printing Ink company). The current structure was designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects as a luxury condominium building, completed in 2009. It incorporates a tower portion facing West Street, and a row of seven 3-story townhomes running along Bethune Street. The factory had been the last remaining one along the Greenwich Village waterfront.

The tower has a 3-story base, which is composed of a rusticated limestone ground floor supporting two floors of orange brick with large, segmental-arched windows. The next two floors are setback, and also feature segmental-arched windows. The main part of the tower is set further back and clad in the same orange brick, with large expanses of grey-green glass and metal pilasters running up the center section. The tower has a large and handsome metal-and-frosted glass canopy and the exterior of the building is illuminated with downcast lighting. The lobby has a large water feature encased in green marble. A ramp to the parking garage is located on West 12th Street, to the left of the main entrance.

The townhouses all have different, but complementary, designs. They are clad in red brick with stone ornament. Some have stoops, including curved stoops in two cases, and two of the houses have projecting bay windows. All of the windows are 12-paned. The roof cornices alternate between simple stone cornices and ones with stone dentils.

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