Wyndham New Yorker Hotel vs 21 West Street Building

Comparing the Wyndham New Yorker Hotel 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 21 West Street Building rises higher at 374ft (114m), while the Wyndham New Yorker Hotel reaches 0ft (m). However, the Wyndham New Yorker Hotel accommodates more floors with 43 levels above ground, compared to 31 floors in the 21 West Street Building.

This suggests different approaches to interior space design. The 21 West Street Building has an average floor-to-floor height of approximately 3.7m, while the Wyndham New Yorker Hotel has more compact floors averaging around 0m 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 Wyndham New Yorker Hotel 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 Sugarman and Berger 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.

The Wyndham New Yorker Hotel is primarily hotel, while the 21 West Street Building is primarily residential.

Originally, the 21 West Street Building was designed for commercial, but over time it was converted to residential. The Wyndham New Yorker Hotel by contrast has maintained its original role.

The Wyndham New Yorker Hotel incorporates a 4-star hotel with 1083 rooms. More information is available at the official website.

The 21 West Street Building offers 293 residential units.

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