Occupying a full-block frontage site at 23rd Street and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, the design of Chelsea Canvas embraces the neighborhood's rich legacy of mid-rise residential architecture while addressing the more commercial nature of its immediate context. The project is detailed and elegant with a warm, tactile, yet contemporary expression. Ample glazing and a brick exterior create a harmonious tension between old and new. Bronze-colored metal highlights add a note of movement and asymmetry. A townhouse-sized entry pavilion on 24th Street responds to that street's lower scale and is an essay-in-miniature of the overall building's motifs.
Extra tall ground and second floors create a loft-like scale for retail, lobby, and residential amenity spaces. Of the building's 190 residences, which include studio to three-bedroom layouts, 25% are affordable housing, most of which are set aside for seniors. Setbacks in the building's massing create multiple corners and terraces, offering wide open views up and down Eighth Avenue and toward the greenery of the Penn Houses and the High Line. A second-floor amenity suite includes a fitness center, party room, and coworking space, all surrounding a landscaped courtyard.
