The Cortland was designed by Robert A. M. Stern Architects with interiors by Olson Kundig. It is 26 storeys near the Hudson in West Chelsea, with 144 residences.
The exterior is brick, more than a million of them, handmade and laid by hand in a blend of five colours over a rusticated LaSalle limestone base, with moulded brickwork and metal rivet detailing drawn from the industrial buildings of the district. It is a masonry building in a neighbourhood that has lately been built in glass.
Masonry is why the windows sit where they do. Openings are punched into a load bearing scale of wall rather than hung in a curtain, so each has a real jamb and a real reveal, and the wall between openings is solid and continuous. That is the opposite condition to a glass perimeter: there is usable wall in every room, storage and millwork can sit against the outside wall, and the acoustic and thermal load does not fall entirely on soft materials. Corner apartments take light from two directions through separate openings rather than a continuous wrap of glass.
Within walking distance
Building facts
Built
2019
Floors
26
Residences
144
New York City Primary Land Use Tax Lot Output, version 26v1. Tax lot 1006947502.