Green Rental Apartments

New York's smokers lobby is nowhere near as powerful as, say, the over-the-counter derivatives lobby or bluefin tuna fishery-collapsing industry or whatever, and the city's six-year old ban on smoking in bars and restaurants reflects as much. While we non-smokers who go to bars and restaurants (and concerts and anyplace else, honestly) appreciate the ban, it's hard not to feel bad for smokers sometimes, seeing them all huddled and hunted-looking like Walker Evans photos come to wheezing life, bent around their cigarettes on some January sidewalk. Other times, like for instance when you're actually in a bar or restaurant (or concert or anyplace else) it's kind of a relief.

Check out a few construction progress photos we snapped over the holiday weekend of Handel Architects' 200 West 72nd Street, which is slated to bring 196 luxury green rental apartments to the Upper West Side later on this year. The $200 million, 19-story project is seeking LEED Silver certification and will also feature 48,000 square feet of retail space across the tower's lower five floors, (17,000 of which is still available). Back in 2005, local preservationists failed in their efforts to landmark the Henry Kilburn-designed Colonial Club, which dated from 1892 and formerly occupied the site. You can get a pretty good flavor of what 200 West, as developer the Gotham Organization has dubbed the building, will look like from the construction photos below, including the tower's obtuse angular geometry and 22-foot glass storefronts.

• 200 West 72nd Street (gbNYC)