Archicritics

One Chelsea block has become the ne plus ultra of architecture critical mass; now welcome to the club the finally-completed luxury condo building by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban. Though critic Mark Lamster is admittedly "not the world's number one fan of Japanese minimalist chic," he posits that Ban's Metal Shutter Houses are actually better than the drooled-over HL23 down the street. Referring to the area's prominent starchitecture, Lamster writes how nice it would be if more ground-up buildings "reflected so much creativity in the construction of spaces and in their reckoning with their urban heritage." [Design Observer]