Downtown Athletic Club vs 20 Exchange Place Building

Comparing the Downtown Athletic Club and the 20 Exchange Place Building is interesting because they both stand in New York, NY, and were completed just one year apart, but they were designed by different architects.

This offers a unique glimpse at how rival designers approached projects in the same city during the same era.

The 20 Exchange Place Building is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 774ft (236m) with 57 floors above ground, while the Downtown Athletic Club reaches 518ft (158m) with 35 floors above ground.

Of course, each project may have faced different briefs or regulatory constraints, which we don't really know about and could also explain the outcome.

Both the Downtown Athletic Club and the 20 Exchange Place Building were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Art Deco style.

At the time, this style was at the height of its popularity. So both Starrett & van Vleck and Cross & Cross followed what was in many ways expected of them, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms, rather than breaking with convention.

Both the Downtown Athletic Club and the 20 Exchange Place Building are primarily residential towers, serving similar roles in the urban fabric.

However, both of them have shifted purpose since their completion. The Downtown Athletic Club evolved from sports to residential, while the 20 Exchange Place Building moved from commercial to residential.

In terms of capacity, the Downtown Athletic Club offers 283 apartments, while the 20 Exchange Place Building provides 762 units.

These two towers illustrate the many possible ways to combine structure and enclosure in skyscraper design.