Chatham Green Apartments (New York City, New York)

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207-foot, 21-story modernist co-operative apartment building completed in 1961. Designed by Kelly & Gruzen, it has a double-curving S shape. Chatham Green is constructed as a single, long curving building, with a low 1-story commercial wing at the south end, fronting Madison Street. This unique design allows each apartment to cover the building's entire width permitting windows on both sides of most apartments to provide for multiple exposures and cross ventilation while also maximizing light. Chatham Green was the first apartment structure in New York to exploit the freeform design made possible by modern reinforced-concrete construction. The building, together with its adjacent stores and shops, occupies barely 25% of the site with the remainder set aside for landscaped areas, a playground and open parking spaces.

On the south side, the tower's facade is clad in bands of tan brick, with continuous ribbons of casement windows. Above the 6th floor the facades are lined with columns of rectangular projecting concrete balconies with metal mesh railings, whose hard angles contrast with the curves of the facade. The north side has wider areas of recessed balconies beginning at the 2nd floor, between areas of brick with punched square windows. Three tall, brick-clad elevator towers divide the facade and rises above the roof line. The commercial wing is occupied by a Rite-Aid pharmacy, Miss Friggin's Kitchen, and Met Restaurant.

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