2024-12-22T07:23:14-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/4162049/neil-denari-s-hl23-residential-tower-rises-in-chelsea-review-nytimes-com Paul Petrunia 2011-04-25T18:21:37-04:00 >2011-04-27T06:36:23-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/2d/2d273a2fb5efc29ad944008ffdc2e8e9?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>But like other architects of his generation, especially those who formed many of their ideas working in Los Angeles&rsquo;s sprawling suburban maze, Mr. Denari is less interested in perpetuating the myth of the open road than in mining it for new ideas. His work has more to do with exploring adolescent fantasies than with celebrating personal freedom. It suggests a longing for a world &mdash; free, open, upwardly mobile &mdash; that began to break down more than 30 years ago.</p></em><br /><br /><p> Last week was <a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/3869010/la-times-christopher-hawthorne-reviews-denari-s-hl23" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Christopher Hawthorne's turn</a>. This week the NY Times' Nicolai Ouroussoff reviews Neil Denari's HL23.</p> https://archinect.com/news/article/3869010/la-times-christopher-hawthorne-reviews-denari-s-hl23 J. James R. 2011-04-23T04:53:00-04:00 >2011-04-26T03:55:48-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/o6/o6gtg8ez266z2qos.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>For all its dynamism, precision and intelligence, there has always been something a bit antiseptic about Denari's work, as if it were hermetically sealed against emotion as well as imperfection. The New York building, with its fluid, digitally derived profile and facade of glass and panels of embossed stainless steel, won't dramatically change that impression. Its design personality is closer to robotic than balletic.</p></em><br /><br /><p> As previously mentioned on Archinect <a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/71922" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a> in 2008 and <a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/105046/hl23-to-open-on-june-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a> in 2011. The 156 feet-high, 39,200 square-foot building officially opens in June. Perched next to and on top of the High Line, the 12-unit building is rumored to be selling for as much as <a href="http://www.luxuryloft.com/blog/2011/04/highline-condo-selling-price-breaks-all-records/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">$2,600 a square foot</a> according to Curbed. The might-be-LEED-Gold building is located at 517 West 23rd Street, New York, New York.</p> <p> &nbsp;</p> <p> Luckily for us, the Denari-designed building opened its doors to <em>LA Times</em>' reporter Christopher Hawthorne. <em>"... shows how much Denari has learned from those periods of immersion in Japanese culture, particularly when it comes to the ability of Tokyo architects to shoehorn ambitious buildings into small and highly restricted spaces. (Its robotic quality too seems somehow Japanese, a kind of half-imposing, half-childlike "Transformers" spirit channeled into architecture.) Denari, in fact, calls HL23's location a highly "Tokyo-ized" site, squeezed not just by the Manhattan grid but by a long list of other co...</em></p>