Chinese Embassy Residence Tower (New York City, New York)

 government, high-rise, apartment building, 2002_construction

230-foot, 22-story postmodern residential building completed in 2002. Designed by Lin + Associates for the Consulate General of China, it is clad in beige and tan brick, tan and white stuccoed concrete, grey stone, stainless steel, and green glass. The facade, nine bays wide, is set back from the building line, but is shielded at the 2nd-4th floors by a screen of frameless green glass supported on metal beams that hold it out in front of the facade. At the 2nd floor, the middle section of the glass screen is interrupted by a curving swatch of grey granite with six small, square windows. At the ground floor, granite piers divide the facade into five bays, supporting the glass screen and curving granite section above. The main entrance is in the middle bay.

Back behind the glass screen, the actual facade is symmetrical, with a banded center bay of tan brick with double-windows. On either side is a projecting, stuccoed bay with angled sides and green glass windows. The other bays to the outside are beige brick, with double-windows toward the middle and triple-windows further out. The end bays are recessed and have glass French doors opening up to metal railings, but no actual balconies. All of the window bays have black metal air-conditioning vents below them. The recessed part of the end bays stops at the 18th floor, with the next three floors having triple-windows. The center three bays end at the 18th floor, where a curved facade of stainless-steel and glass continues to the roof line. The 20th and 21st floors, reserved for the ambassador, have stainless steel and light-grey granite exteriors; both are recessed on the sides of the curving central section. A terrace takes the place of the top floor on the west end.

The west elevation is faced in beige brick, with two bays of small windows (three larger windows at the stone-clad 21st-floor). The east elevation is the same, with three large windows on both the 21st & 22nd floors (with angled tops on the 22nd floor). The rear, south-facing facade matches the design of the north facade, but without the glass screen at the base, and without the curving glass section at the center of the top floors.

The building contains 206 apartment units, all for employees of the Chinese government.