551W21

551 West 21st Street
Condo in Chelsea
View the CityRealty Profile of 551W21
May 18, 2015

Developer Scott Resnick Takes Us Inside Norman Foster’s 551W21

How do you follow up managing the building of the city’s newest and most exciting museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art on the Hudson River waterfront in the West Village, that kicks off the city’s most popular architectural extravaganza, the High Line elevated park? You commission Sir Norman Foster, one of the world’s master architects to rise to the starchitect challenge of the High Line, the city’s seemingly overnight sensation that is a phenomenal explosion of really interesting designs in a city too long mired in architectural mediocrity and bogged down mightily by the burden of rampant NIMBYism, the well-intentioned but dreaded Not In My Back Yard syndrome. Scott Resnick, the head of SR Capital, has asked Foster to design a 19-story residential condominium building at 551 West 21st Street, half a block west of the High Line. “We’ve got the Hudson River,” Resnick retorts, casually destroying the real estate myth of “location, location, location.” This, of course, is the back story to the supertall onslaught of the south end of Central Park. How can mere 250-footers at best compete with the 1,000-foot-plus stompin’ boots of oligarchs in and around the city’s platinum core of double-height retailing, grand hoteling and horse-and-buggy bashing? Talk about 76 trombones! Still, in a metropolis of more than eight-million yarns, there is eternal hope for the spunky “little guys,” “da bums.”
Inside Foster's new building in progress this way
July 15, 2014

551W21: Norman Foster’s Champagne-Colored Tower Rising Along Manhattan’s New Gold Coast (New Photos)

Many architects like to recycle their plans, reusing signature design elements from project to project. However, British architect Lord Norman Foster, with his firm Foster+Partners, enjoys keeping it fresh with designs that are unmistakably modern, yet profoundly contextual to their location. The firm's latest New York development is a 44-unit residential tower named 551W21 that rises in the once industrial—now art-gallery—hub of West Chelsea. The 551W21 team over at Foster+Partners recently sent us some new photos of the building under construction, which has surpassed its 19th-floor mark and will be topped off at the end of this month. And if you're still not convinced that buyers are willing to pay a premium for starchitectured spaces, we're told that the building is already over 50% sold.
See more photos and views after the break

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