Two Chelsea buildings, in various stages of erection, are presaging what looks to be the area's latest architectural caprice: queer fa ades. As opposed to the straight fa ades of THOR or even the gentle ugly undulating curves of the Sculpture For Living, the fronts of Jean Nouvel's newest building 100 Eleventh Avenue (left) and Audrey Matlock's ballyhooed Chelsea Modern (right) bend and switch with astonishing muscularity. But for pure sensual gratification, we need a stronger hand. It's better left to professionals like Nicolai Ouroussoff, who surfed the Nouvel vague in the Times this Sunday.

...Mr. Nouvel's building on the West Side Highway has an unvarnished, raucous quality. Scheduled for completion in late 2008, it will rise on 19th Street across from Frank Gehry's sparkling new IAC building, which might well have inspired Mr. Nouvel to pump up the glitz factor.

As with the SoHo Building, Mr. Nouvel makes a starkly classical distinction between the back and the formal public facade. The north and east exterior walls, which don't face the street, will be fashioned out of crude black concrete blocks punctured by irregularly sized windows. The full beauty of the building doesn't reveal itself until you circle around to the front, a gleaming glass-and-steel mask that wraps around its southwest corner.

Which is really just a nice way of saying that it's all in the reach around.

Seductive Machines For City Living [NYT]
100 Eleventh Avenue
Chelsea Modern