Master Apartments Building vs 20 Exchange Place Building

Comparing the Master Apartments Building and the 20 Exchange Place Building is interesting because they both stand in New York, NY, and were completed within 2 years of each other, 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 Master Apartments Building reaches 443ft (135m) with 29 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 Master Apartments Building 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 Helmle, Corbett & Harrison 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 Master Apartments Building 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 Master Apartments Building evolved from hotel, cultural to residential, while the 20 Exchange Place Building moved from commercial to residential.

In terms of capacity, the Master Apartments Building offers 323 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.