Hampton Inn Chelsea

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175-foot, 19-story modernist hotel completed in 2003. Designed by Gene Kaufman, it was the first of dozens of boutique and chain hotels he has designed in Manhattan. The facade is set far back from the building line, with a front garden including a few trees, and a grey metal canopy extending out to the sidewalk. The ground floor is dark grey-painted pre-cast concrete with a group of four tall windows on either side of the entrance, and a small service door at the east end.

Above, the facade is faced in tan pre-cast concrete, with dark-grey/brown bands between each floor, zig-zagging up the end bays of the facade at alternating floors. There are four bays of windows with offset, thin metal mullions and metal sills. Below each window, within the dark-grey/brown bands are metal vents. From the 15th-17th floors, the two middle bays have a projecting glass curtain wall. The eastern elevation has no windows; the dark-grey/brown bands wrap around from the front and back facades about a third of the way from each side. They alternate full floors up to the 14th floor, above which they are solid expanses at the outer thirds of the elevation, up to the 18th floor.