NYU Coral Towers Residence Hall (New York City, New York)

 store / shop, dormitory, 2000_construction

157-foot, 15-story modernist student residential building completed in 2000 on the former site of the Sahara Hotel, a notorious drug and prostitution den. Designed by Van J. Brody Architects, it is leased by NYU for undergraduate apartments, housing about 400 students. The facades are clad in buff-colored brick above a ground floor with banded piers of pre-cast stone and plate-glass storefront windows in metal framing.

The west facade on the avenue is six bays wide, with the main entrance in the north bay, with double-doors. The upper floors have five southern bays of triple-windows, followed by a double-window bay, and a recessed north end bay with double-windows. Beginning at the 3rd floor the north two triple-windows are replaced by inset bays with shallow balconies, fronted by brick with metal railings. Except for the end bays, each bay has a through-wall air-conditioning unit, while the balcony bays also have units incorporated into them. The bays with balconies, as well as the south end bay, set back above the 14th floor. Each of the brick piers extends up above the roof line, with metal railings between them. At the ground floor the south bay is chamfered, angling below the upper floors.

The south facade on 14th Street spans eight bays. The east end bay has is set back, and has two metal service doors at the ground floor, with triple-windows on the upper floors. All of the other bays on this facade also have triple-windows, again with air-conditioning units. The same balconies are seen at the middle bay, and the east end bay also has balconies. The ground floor is occupied by a Duane Reade drugstore.