I first saw the Richard Meier-designed twin glass condominium towers at 173 and 176 Perry Street one evening in 2002, just after they’d been enclosed. The lots were still filled with construction rubble. Lit gently by the sunset, the small, tall buildings had an elegant presence. It was hard to understand why West Villagers were up in arms about them. The towers became better known as a “celebrity dormitory” than starchitecture. They’ve housed, at various times, Calvin Klein, Natalie Portman, Nicole Kidman, Martha Stewart and Vincent Gallo. (Does the thought of Stewart riding the elevator with Gallo make you smile too?) Because of maintenance and administrative challenges, there’s been considerable tenant turnover. When Meier constructed a third (larger, glassier and pricier) condominium tower in 2010, just one block south at 165 Charles Street, the Perry Street buildings lost what little cachet they had left.
Now that every neighborhood in Manhattan is studded with tawdry, absurdly tall, mirror-glass condo buildings, the ten-story Perry Street towers seem terrifically restrained. And after a decade these two buildings have assumed a quiet authority on the street and in the skyline. From up close one doesn’t see expanses of glass, but a dense, gridded layering of metal and glass panels. The facades have collected a fine layer of grime, which lends them, like wrinkles and grey hair on a handsome man, a certain gravitas. Like all of Meier’s buildings, the towers have been conceived with ideal geometries and slightly stodgy volumes. And that’s what saves them – they’re solid. They sit comfortably on the ground, and feel as if they’d be comfortable to live inside of too. They’re no longer spectacles; they’re apartment buildings.