Master Apartments Building vs 21 West Street Building

Comparing the Master Apartments Building and the 21 West Street 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.

These two towers present an interesting contrast in their proportions. The Master Apartments Building rises higher at 443ft (135m), while the 21 West Street Building reaches 374ft (114m). However, the 21 West Street Building accommodates more floors with 31 levels above ground, compared to 29 floors in the Master Apartments Building.

This suggests different approaches to interior space design. The Master Apartments Building has an average floor-to-floor height of approximately 4.7m, while the 21 West Street Building has more compact floors averaging around 3.7m each. The taller building's more generous floor heights might indicate grander interior spaces, higher ceilings, or different programmatic requirements.

These different proportions likely reflect the specific needs each building was designed to serve, whether driven by zoning regulations, client requirements, or the intended use of the spaces within. The contrast shows how architects can achieve different spatial experiences even when working with similar overall building scales.

Both the Master Apartments Building and the 21 West Street 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 Starrett & van Vleck 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 21 West Street 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 21 West Street Building moved from commercial to residential.

In terms of capacity, the Master Apartments Building offers 323 apartments, while the 21 West Street Building provides 293 units.

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