Buffalo’s historic terra cotta masterpieces are typically white, cream, or clay in color. In New York City, a development team is creating a terra cotta-clad building in a distinctive forest green with over-sized copper-clad oak windows. The residential building, the Fitzroy, is being built at 514 West 24th Street, near the High Line and an area of New York City sprouting distinctive new buildings by some of today’s best-known “starchitects.” Time will tell if the Art-Deco inspired building is considered a masterpiece but it sure is distinctive and the terra cotta work is stunning.
The ten-story, 14-unit Fitzroy is being developed by JDS Development Group and Largo Investments. Curbed New York gives Boston Valley Terra Cotta props:
Roman and Williams-designed building’s facade features green terra-cotta panels and oak windows with copper framing. There was an intricate process in place to get the building’s facade to look the way it does and it involved 5,600 terra-cotta blocks in 500 unique types that were made at Boston Valley Terra Cotta in Buffalo, New York, and went through a rigorous process of creation and testing before finally ending up at the construction site. The blocks were then carved, hand- or spray-painted, baked, and glazed on site. You can read up on the full process here.
The New York Times profiled the building in 2015 when work was just getting underway:
The 10-story Fitzroy will have 14 units, ranging from two- to five-bedrooms. Prices start at $5.2 million for a two-bedroom with a home office. The penthouse, one of the four full-floor apartments, has four bedrooms, a library, a breakfast room and a media room, along with more than 1,600 square feet of outdoor space that includes a summer kitchen. It is listed for about $20 million. Units have chevron floors throughout and some have fireplaces. Building amenities include a La Palestra-designed fitness center with a yoga studio and a dry sauna, a wine cellar, a children’s art studio and a rooftop lounge.
The Fitzroy was intended to be a counterpoint to the highly stylized modern buildings that have been reinventing the neighborhood surrounding the High Line. “The High Line district has become the Disneyland of architectural experiments,” said Michael Stern, the managing partner of the JDS Development Group, which is developing the Fitzroy with Largo Investments. “We wanted something tried and true.”