459 West 18th Street

The building is located on a L-shaped lot Most of the buildings in the area are of late 19th or 20th-century construction, such as the two adjoining 459 to its west, and the commercial building across the street. There are, however, some other 21st-century buildings by notable architects in the neighborhood. On the immediate east is the 2009 Chelsea Modern by Audrey Matlock. Frank Gehry's 2007 IAC Building is located a block to the west at the 11th Avenue intersection, with Jean Nouvel's 100 Eleventh Avenue just to its north on the corner with 19th Street. Between it and 459 the High Line elevated linear park crosses 18th Street. The building itself is a steel frame high-rise with concrete plank floors. Inside, the ground-floor space is currently occupied by an art gallery. with wide wood plank flooring and marble slabs. All have custom-designed Italian kitchens and bathrooms, along with the large windows. ==History==

Jared Della Valle, one of the principals of Della Valle + Bernheimer, a small architectural firm based in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Dumbo, bought the property in 2006 along with one of his firm's clients, Katherine McConvey, for $5 million. Two years later, they were able to secure $19 million in financing from United Commercial Bank (UCB). The two planned to develop it from the start, and formed a company, Alloy Development LLC, in order to do so. ==Aesthetic==

"On an experiential level," Della Valle + Bernheimer writes on its website, "the design intention was to construct a solid building that would give occupants a panoramic connection to the city." They wanted to avoid building another one of the many colorless and featureless "glass boxes" that had sprung up around New York in the early 21st century. In their first studies, they considered the idea of architecture from opposites, which ultimately led to using black and white laid in the shape of the "idealized zoning diagram" for the property, expressing the building's presence between Chelsea and the Meatpacking District. "While many new buildings express visual connectivity to the city through ubiquitous expanses of transparent surfaces," the architects continue, pointing to the neighboring Chelsea Modern as an example, "our design posits that a solid, totemic object can be equally revealing." To that end the surfaces and windows are as minimalist as possible, with most outer hardware hidden and the large windows surrounded by only a small metallic sill and lintel. Jerry Della Valle told The New York Times that this allowed them to offer buyers a hundred feet (30 m) of windows in each unit, far more than they might get in a comparably priced TriBeCa apartment. His firm's website elaborates on this idea, stating that "the window becomes a minimal yet severe vitrine that is mostly invisible but forces spatial containment." The building overall "is thus articulated as a pair of linked or nested dualities: solid and void, black and white." ==Reception==

The architectural community took note of the building. Even as it was being built, New York magazine included it in a guide to the emerging West Chelsea skyline. Four years later it was included in the Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture. Despite the considerable difference in aesthetic between it and the neighboring Chelsea Modern, it notes, "their shouts for attention link them as much as the property line they share." Architect, the magazine of the American Institute of Architects, gave the building one of its 2009 Annual Design Review Awards for Multi-Family Housing. According to the magazine, its jury referred to the two-tone design on the facade as "jacket and pants." It felt the building worked well both as an individual building and as a component of the neighborhood. “In that area, you have old, low buildings and new, high buildings, so it really reflects that contrast,” it quoted one juror as saying. ==See also==