Just to make certain that poor old 287 Broadway doesn't come tumbling down, big steel beams have been pushed up against the tilt of her leaning brick wall. Where before there was a cross-hatch of simplicity holding her up, now there's a jumbled mix of metal and wood, their textures and colors giving us a contrast of old and new, pliable and strong. It's all an effort to make certain that the cast iron beauty doesn't collapse into the lot next door, which has been cleared by a rambunctious gang from Chicago in preparation for yet another glass-covered condo.
We've shown both the front and back of the tired old buildings down at 369-371 Broadway which are to be deconstructed by Dutch architectural wizard Ben van Berkel and transformed into Five Franklin Place. We've even shown clouds of dust billowing from the site. So, today, we present one of the cleanest demo sites we've ever seen. The van Berkel crew has scoured every bit of building from the back of both 369 and 371, leaving only the facades. Behind the scenes are some big beams and girders, braced this away and that to keep all the old stuff from falling down. And of course there's a big yellow machine back there, resting quietly now after all the dirty work of digging out that nasty old stuff. Which raises the question: What will rise in the midst of all this absence?
Pity the poor residents of 51 East Houston Street. A bit of digging around reveals that the owner there goes by the mysterious name of Sultan's DaVinci Ltd. When we posted the news about the tumorous growth rising over that little walk-up some readers couldn't believe their eyes. But one guest commenter had no doubts and kindly directed us to the Arpad Baksa Architect website for a look at what's to come. And then the mystery deepened.
All the talk of East Houston Street's big new tumor drew our attention back to SHoP Architects' wavy tower rising just to the west at 290 Mulberry. We've been talking for months about SHoP's metal mesh facade and how cool and sexy it's gonna be. Well, sometimes we're wrong. The metal mesh is not to be. This being New York City, "contextual zoning regulations" mandate a more humble and utilitarian facade. In this case, it must be brick.
East Houston between Mott and Mulberry in Nolita is growing a tumor, right in the shadow of the undulous new SHoP tower rising to the west and just around the corner from a little bit of fun going up at 277 Mott. The new growth is from architect Arpad Baksa and will rise at 49 E. Houston, formerly a one-story bike shop that is currently undergoing demolition. The new plan calls for a "Residential Apt House" with 14-stories and -- hold on to your seats -- 41 units! But that's not the half of it.
The UK's Firmdale Hotels very first USA boutique hotel from architect Paul Taylor is now out of the ground, rising on the edge of SoHo and going for the gold - LEED certification that is. The aptly named Crosby Street Hotel, set to rise 11 stories and with steel currently climbing skyward, will soon be stretching east to Lafayette Street. That expansion is made possible by the recent acquisition of a little bit of old brickage sitting at 246 Lafayette Street. That 3-story walkup, notable for the word "MARY" set in pressed tin across the cornice, has been on that site since back in the day when locals called Lafayette by its previous name of Elm Street. Alas, Mary's days are numbered.
Give it up to the Federal government for finding yet another way to spend our hard earned tax money. Case in point is the new Federal Security Pavilion that is nearing completion downtown at the Javits Federal Building along Broadway. This one is not to be confused with the other Pavilion we told you about a few months back, which is still under construction across the block at the International Court of Trade on Foley Square. That one is just a little glass box. This one is big and expansive. Not to mention expensive.
These days street-savvy New Yorkers are wise to keep their eyes on the sky, particularly when in the vicinity of Cooper Union where one big mother of a crane looms overhead. But those skyward glances could mean that folks are missing the real show taking place down at eye level. The gang from Morphosis is giving NYers something amazing to look at where Cooper Union's new Academic Building is rising on the Bowery. As one construction worker said as we snapped a gazillion photos, "This building is one of a kind." And damn it if he ain't telling the truth!
The last time we looked at 41-43 Bond, there was a hold on demolition because of the Landmarks Preservation Commission wasn't giving clearance because the site of self-storage kingpin's Adam Gordon's luxury condo was within the boundaries of the proposed extension of the Noho Historic District. As it turns out, the demolition permits were finally issued and there was no uproar in the neighborhood. It seems that folks want the Noho Landmark District expanded, but didn't care what happened to these two particular buildings. The future of this "Second Wave" of luxury development Bond St. site belongs to a seven-unit condo designed by Steven Harris.
· Burgeoning Bond Street Mogul Not Allowed to Demolish, Yet [Curbed]
· The Schrager Effect: Noho Readies the Cranes [Curbed]
Bloomberg architecture critic James Russel sizes up Neil Denari's HL23, the crazy/sexy/cool 13-story condo building coming to the High Line: "Denari compares his design to a plant reaching for a shaft of sunlight from out of a crack in the sidewalk. The 13-story building rises out of a skinny, seemingly unbuildable 25-foot- wide slot of land. It unfurls in faceted planes of glass and metal, held in place by diagonal braces that look like sinews. The diminutive tower seems to wave gently, bending just a bit east over the old elevated railroad, while the south-facing side tilts back at the top." [Bloomberg; previously]
