527 W 29th St, Chelsea
What’s the Zebra Building?
The Zebra Building is a place for art, exhibitions, events, food and drink, and other projects connected to culture, community, and the natural world. Originally completed in 1900 and now undergoing renovation, it opens this fall—beginning a new life more than a century in the making.
Why the Zebra?
The Zebra Building’s striped façade is based on the anatomically accurate pattern of an individual Grévy’s zebra, an endangered species native to East Africa with fewer than 3,000 remaining in the wild. The pattern comes from a specific animal photographed in central Kenya by building owner Conor Myhrvold and his family. Unfolding across the building’s exterior, the façade extends the visual language of the natural world into West Chelsea, complementing the trees, grasses, flowers, and plantings of the High Line above while introducing fauna into a landscape defined largely by flora.
