GDS Development Management and Klövern recently celebrated the completion and opening of 28&7, a new office building at at 322-326 Seventh Avenue in Chelsea. The 12-story building is located at the corner of 28th Street and Seventh Avenue and comprises more than 90,000 square feet.

Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), the building’s façade comprises a grid of recessed, full-height windows and black glazed terracotta. The grid spacing widens at the ground floor, which contains the main lobby and a retail sub-component.

To minimize the necessity of interior columns, the architects integrated structural columns into the façade grid and utilized high-strength reinforced concrete in the floor slabs. As a result, the building offers column-free interiors with up to 40-foot floor spans.

“The façade has a timeless elegance to it,” said SOM partner Chris Cooper. “It evokes the gridded prewar buildings that surround it, and also reinterprets these buildings in a contemporary way, creating a new, and also distinct, black silhouette along Seventh Avenue.”

To improve energy performance, the windows are triple-glazed, which helps limit the transfer of heat in and out of the building, reducing the energy required to maintain a comfortable internal climate. At present, the developers are pursuing LEED Gold certification.

“28&7 is beautifully designed and impeccably built and sets a new high standard in the New York boutique office market,” said Michael Kirchmann, the CEO and co-founder of GDSNY. “With its modern take on masonry, it perfectly walks the line between standing out and feeling like it is part of its context.”

Tenant amenities include on-site bike storage, showers, and changing rooms. The 12th floor penthouse offers private outdoor space with partial shading.