The Capitol Chelsea Apartments (New York City, New York)

 apartment building, postmodern (architecture)

398-foot, 37-story postmodern residential building completed in 2001. Designed by Costas Kondylis & Partners, it replaced the Coogan Building that was erected in the 1870s as a racquet club and served for decades as loft space. Capitol at Chelsea has a very attractive mid-block plaza on the building's east side that includes bamboo plantings.

The building has a 4-story base with rounded northwest and southwest corners, containing 83,000 square feet of retail and office space. The base spans seven bays along the avenue, with four and a half bays along 26th Street, and another two bays on 27th Street, as well as the two rounded bays at the corners. The main entrance to the parking garage is near the east end on 26th Street, with another garage door in the eastern bay on 27th, which sets back above the 3rd floor to align with the neighboring building's roof line.

The base, as well as the setback tower, are clad in burnt-orange brick, with horizontal plum brick and ornamental stone accents, and blue-grey glass. The southwest corner of the tower portion is also rounded. The tower bays have either double- or triple-windows with silver metal framing. Both the west and south facades have two 2-bay projecting sections. The north and east facades have a series of setback corners creating a receding sawtooth appearance. Many of the brick spandrels have metal vents.

The building contains 387 rental apartments managed by the Bozzuto Group, and also has a 140-space underground parking garage. The ground floor is occupied by a Starbucks coffee, Pet Central, Dntl Bar dentist, The Grey Dog restaurant, and Melt Shop sandwich shop.

thecapitolchelsea.com/