Carter's Review

This project grafted a new 7-story building in 2006 onto an adjacent 9-story, former commercial building originally constructed in 1912 to create Loft 25, a 78-unit residential condominium development at 420 West 25^th Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues in Chelsea. 

The developer is R.A.L. Companies & Affiliates, LLC, whose other projects include the Franklin Tower and Tower 270, both in TriBeCa, and One Brooklyn Bridge Park on the waterfront in Brooklyn.

Traboscia Roiatti Studio was the architect for the 2005 conversion. 

The building is distinguished by its stainless steel “cosmetics.” 

In addition to its loft apartments, Loft 25 has four garden duplex apartments and three penthouses. 

Creative Design Associates, LLC, was the interior designer for the project.

Bottom Line

What better becomes, or freshens, an older masonry building than some stainless steel stringcourses and quoins and being a parent to a smaller modern building with a lot of shiny angularity? 

Drop into trendy and flashy Chelsea near the High Line.

Description

The new building on the site is only about half the height of the older building, which was formerly an ink-press warehouse, but the architects tied the two buildings together thematically with extended stainless steel stringcourses that project at slight angles from the façades. 

On the new building, they are angled in alternating fashion and also extend a bit over the façade of the older building except for the one at the top of the new building, which extends almost all the way across the façade of the older building, a bravura touch.

The bright, angled accents are also applied to the top half of the older building, which will have one stringcourse near the top that extends almost entirely across the façade and two that serve as quoins and wrap around the side. 

On the shorter building, the alternating angles of the stringcourses are somewhat reminiscent of the alternating angled bay windows of the Switch Building at 109 Norfolk Street, but they are more like "eyebrows" than swiveling hips. 

The existing loft building has a masonry façade with six stringcourses and a nice roofline highlighted by a center curved pediment and six escutcheons. It is also distinguished by its attractive fenestration pattern that has 5 three-window center groups flanked by a bay of two windows.

Amenities

It has a 24-hour doorman, a screening and conference room, a gym, a very handsome landscaped roof deck, a lobby with a recessed double-height lounge, a rear garden with a reflecting pool, residents’ storage and a garage.

Apartments

Some apartments will have terraces and some have home offices. 

Apartments also have high ceilings and Asko washers and dryers and individual heating and conditioning. 

Kitchens have two Liebherr refrigerators and freezers, one with an ice-maker. They also have Bosch gas cooktops, granite countertops, and all-tempered-glass cabinetry by Schiffini. 

Bathrooms have Toto one-piece toilets, teak vanities with Duravit sinks, Nobili Spa rainheads and multiple sprays, and Porcelemosa ceramic tile walls and floors. 

Apartment 6F is a one-bedroom unit with a 20-foot-long living/dining room with a 10-foot-wide pass-through kitchen and a 19-foot-wide balcony.  

Apartment 8H is a one-bedroom unit that has a foyer that leads to a 17-foot-long dining area across from a 11-foot-long, pass-through kitchen and a 20-foot-wide living room. 

Apartment 2G is a two-bedroom unit that has a 30-foot-long living/dining area with a 11-foot-wide, pass-through kitchen and a 10-foot-wide home office. 

Apartment 9B has a 13-foot-long foyer that leads to a 17-foot-long living room that is open to a 12-foot-wide dining area that opens onto a 25-foot-wide terrace.  The apartment also has a 10-foot-wide kitchen and a 10-foot-wide bedroom on the lower level and the unit has a 32-foot-wide roof terrace. 

Penthouse J is a duplex with a 22-foot-long living/dining area with a 10-foot-wide, pass-through kitchen on the lower level and a 15-foot-long bedroom and a 24-foot-wide terrace on the upper level.