See how Roman and Williams's Chelsea condo gets its rich terra cotta facade

As Chelsea’s new Art Deco-inspired condo gets closer to the finish line, the developers behind the project are offering us an insight into the building’s unique, green terra-cotta facade. A video released by the JDS Development, which is co-developing the Fitzroy, along with Largo Investments, takes us through the intricate process of creating the building’s facade; after all there are 5,600 terra-cotta blocks in 500 unique types that will ultimately make up the 10-story building’s facade.

The blocks are made at Boston Valley Terra Cotta in Buffalo, New York, and go through a rigorous process of creation and testing before finally ending up at the construction site. The blocks are carved, hand-painted or spray-painted, baked, and glazed on site. Following that, the development team does a dry fit of a portion of the facade at the terra cotta factory to see how the color of the facade reflects in different light.

The facade’s mix of dark and light green colors were picked by the designers on the project, Roman and Williams, and the team at Boston Valley then brought those colors to life.

“We are anticipating that we are on the edge of a movement that’s going to be a backlash to that[curtain wall buildings], to bring back a type of craftsmanship that speaks to the human nature of architecture as opposed to the machine and technology nature of architecture,” says Antonia Devine, the project manager at JDS who’s working on the Fitzroy, in the video.

Via JDS & Largo Investments

The condo topped out in June this year, and sales have been going on since November 2015. The 10-story building features just 14 condos, and several are already in contract. On StreetEasy, one condo—a two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit—is currently available for $6.1 million.

Check out the entirety of the video about the facade below.

• Chelsea condo The Fitzroy tops out, 1 Seaport progresses in the Financial District, and more [Curbed]
• Roman & Williams's Awaited High Line Condo Launches Sales [Curbed]