Chelsea Arms

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140-foot, 13-story modernist residential building completed in 2000, with a 5-story wing completed in 1900. The new construction was designed by complement the older building, which has the main entrance to the complex, on 21st Street. The original building has a long section fronting 21st Street, and a separate section to the west extending back into the lot, separated by a narrow alleyway - although the design is the same. They are clad in red and buff-colored brick in varying sections. The ground floor is entirely clad in red brick with stone entryway up short stoops, framed by Corinthian columns supporting entablatures with carved heads. The new, modern main entrance has been added in between these doorway. It is at street level, with no stoop, and framed in white stone, with a curved metal canopy. The upper floors all have horizontal red brick band courses with dentils and other carvings extending across the buff-colored brick areas. Red brick pilasters extend up the center of the facade, with arches above the 4th floor. The 5th floor windows have round-arched red brick headers. On the narrower 8th Avenue facade, there is a ground-floor storefront, and wide brick arches above the 2nd floor at the south half, and above the 4th floor at the north half. The entire original structure is topped by a prominent white metal bracketed roof cornice with modillions, dentils, and decorated panels. Three black iron fire escapes with basket-style landings run down the facade on the 21st Street side.

The 13-story new construction, adjoining on the north side, was designed by Stephen B. Jacobs. It is clad in orange and red brick, with storefronts along the entire street frontage on 8th Avenue. The pale-orange brick piers between each storefront bay have red brick banding, and there is red brick at the base of the storefront plate-glass windows. There are ten bays across the ground floor, with the northern one having service doors, while two others near the middle have glass double-doors.

The facade has several recessed areas, and small setbacks near the top. The recessed middle bay has three single-windows, and the other two have double-windows. The end bays have tripartite windows, and the bays in between the recessed ones have a tripartite and a double-window. Each window has an orange brick header, and at each corner, short rows of orange brick resemble quoins, lending interest to the design. There are brown metal air-conditioning vents below the windows, except in the middle bay. The end bays set back above the 7th floor, and the other non-recessed bays also then set back to align with the set back area above the 11th floor. At the 10th & 11th floors these bays change from a tripartite and double-window to two double-windows. There are also setbacks at the north and south ends above the 9th floor, with more pale brick banding at the top.

Together, the complex contains 98 apartments, 70 of them in the new building. The ground floor of the original building is occupied by Bloomie Nails at the 8th Avenue end, and the ground floor of the new building is occupied by Gristedes grocery.