Apartments for 155 Chestnut Street. Courtesy: Pebb Capital
The student apartment block proposed for 155 Chestnut Street in the Jewelry District was a bad idea at first, and little–not even lopping the height from twelve stories to nine–has made it any better. It is an inappropriate and over-scaled turkey. Like the Fane Tower, it is the sort of project that epitomizes the city's failure to understand and capitalize upon its history and to respond sensitively to its many existing urban assets.
The 100-foot-tall glass and steel box is not of itself a bad design, with its crisp, low-key Modernism, but it is hardly anything exceptional. The design firm, Gerner Kronick + Valcarcel Architects of New York, has done many commercial buildings, although they perhaps have a greater concern for saleable square feet than architectural excellence. Given that their 155 Chestnut scheme is an assault on an historic neighborhood, it is ironic that GVK has won awards for some historic preservation projects.