Columbus Square Apartments (New York City, New York)

 apartment building, postmodern (architecture)

326-foot, 29-story postmodern residential building completed in 2009. Designed by Costas Kondylis & Partners with interiors by Andres Escobar for the Chetrit Group/Stellar Management, it consists of a slab tower situated in the middle of a 1-story retail base that spans the full blockfront on Columbus Avenue.

The base is clad in green-tinted glass with dark-grey metal mullions and spandrels, organized into bays by banded piers of beige pre-cast concrete. There are seven retail bays along the south end, and eight to the north. Glass parapet walls enclose rooftop gardens on the base.

The tower at the center is clad in beige pre-cast concrete and blue glass with grey metal spandrels. The main, east-facing facade has three center bays of glass, each with a band of six 2-over-1 window panes separated by a narrower pane at the center of each bay. To either side of this center pane is a black metal vent at the lower adjoining panes. The three middle glass bays are separated from each other by two slighty-recessed concrete bays with pairs of double-windows and vents between each floor. At each end of the facade is another slightly-recessed concrete bay with a double-window, and then glass end bays with five 2-over-1 panes (with vents in the inner, lower pane of each bay). The end bays set back above the 25th floor, and narrows above the 26th. The top floor is also set-back slightly at the middle three glass bays to align with the concrete bays.

At the ground floor, between the retail bays extending to the north and south, the tower is clad in pre-cast concrete, set far back between the retail bays. A pair of open-air breezeways flank the central main entrance, which has a glass curtain wall with glass double-doors below a glass-and-metal canopy.

The west-facing facade has a central concrete bay with two double-windows and a pair of single-windows. To either side is a 3-pane glass bay, a double-window concrete bay, and a then wide bays of glass curtain wall with nine 2-over-1 panes. On the narrow north and south elevations, the glass end bays wrap around the corners, and there is a projecting, narrow concrete bay with a triple-window and double-window that sets back above the 24 and 26th floors, with the triple-window portion reverting to glass curtain wall above the 24th floors. The north and south ends of the 1-story base span three bays.

The tower is topped by a trio of tall, glass-enclosed mechanical housings. The building contains 359 rental apartment units. The 300,000-square-foot retail base is occupied by T.J. Maxx, Bank of America, Columbus Avenue KinderCare, Burlington, Sephora cosmetics, and is anchored by a Whole Foods Market occupying the entire south wing.

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