If any new condo building deserves a reality TV show, it's the A Building in the East Village. Quietly nestled on 13th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A, the Cetra/Ruddy-designed Curbed obsession seems to be entirely populated by pretty young things who, come summer, will all be partying up a storm on the communal roof deck—with its lounge chairs, swimming pool and Stuyvesant Town views (MTV, are you listening?). We've been inside the building before, but not since people moved in and the roof was completed. Luckily, a special Curbed correspondent recently took a trip inside the building, which is actually two structures (the other one has its butt on 14th Street) joined by an interior courtyard. He writes...
The seven-story loft building at 533 Greenwich Street in Hudson Square is one of the more confusing/screwed up situations in all of Manhattan real estate. This year-old Post story has all the background (not much has changed since), but pretty much what's going on is that the 12 artist tenants living in this building have been on rent strike for 18 years. Various landlords have tried to get them out, but through the work of an excellent lawyer, the Loft Law "squatters" have remained. That Post story mentioned that the latest fed-up owner was trying to unload the building for $8 million, but a current listing on the Massey Knakal site asks $6.25 million for the building.
But that's not all! Apparently, the building will be auctioned off on May 13, with bids starting at $1 million. It's the auction notification that provides the building photos (the basement is seen above), which must have been taken while the very private tenants were all sleeping or lost in a painting trance or something. A source tells us that the tenants would accept a buyout of $500,000 each to leave the building, so factor in another $6 million on top of your bid if you want to make money on this mess.
· Real Estate Auctions [Williams & Williams]
It's a little hard to get a feel for Italian starchitect Renzo Piano's proposed design for a new branch of the Whitney at the southern end of the High Line, because the designs unveiled at last night's community meeting are a little distant and don't really enmesh us in the nitty-gritty of the museum, which will have double the floorspace of the Whitney's Madison Avenue location. One surprise, however, is that Piano decided to do away with his now ubiquitous glass curtain in favor of some sort of stone bunker thingy, when—given the museum's future surroundings at Washington and Gansevoort Streets right along the High Line in the bustling Meatpacking District—it would seem that a wall of glass would be a smart move. But that would take all the attention away from the art, writes the Times' Nicolai Ouroussoff, who already likes what he sees in the "faceted surface" that "seems hewed from a massive block of stone." The archicritic writes: "It makes a powerful statement about the encroaching effects of the global consumer society. Inside, Mr. Piano has created a contemplative sanctuary where art reasserts its primary place in the cultural hierarchy."
The bonanza surrounded architect Ben van Berkel's 20-story Tribecaish condo building continues today with a full reveal on design blog Dezeen. After yesterday's tease, we finally get to see full-on frontal shots, of both the Broadway side of the building (which is actually the rear) and the future 5 Franklin Place entrance, as well as interiors of some of the 55 apartments, made up of "loft residences" on the lower floors, "city residences" above those and three "sky penthouses" on top. The fixtures were designed by Berkel and B&B Italia, as well as the sub-grade spa and gym, connected to the lobby via a curved stairwell. Berkel, under the aegis of his UNStudio firm, clad the building in black metal bands that fatten up and slim down as they curve around the façade. The Franklin Place rendering is very interesting, as it portrays the somewhat dank alley as a semi-hidden Garden of Eden—one that leads to lavishly expensive condos, or course (hence the red Bentley). Five Franklin Place will be a discussion piece for at least decade or two, so what's the gut reaction? Stud or dud?
We've already pointed out two rather pedestrian topics on the Landmarks Preservation Commission's docket today: naming rights at the New York Public Library, and an old abandoned hotel on Governors Island. Where's the controversy? Right here! Listed as Item 21 on the schedule is 57-61 East 90th Street, and the application is to "construct rooftop and rear yard additions and extend a flue." That doesn't sound very dramatic, until you see the model of the proposal (above). A concerned neighbor sent us that photo, and the following explanation:
A 17,000 square-foot McMansion is being proposed in the Carnegie Hill Historic District. The owner of a house on East 90th Street in Manhattan has bought two adjacent houses and plans to turn them into a single-family residence of 17,000 square feet. Such a combination of houses has not taken place in Manhattan’s Upper East Side since 1937.
The three houses are located at 57, 59 and 61 East 90th Street between Madison and Park Avenues. They are Romanesque Revival style rowhouses designed by J. C. Cady and built in 1886-87. They are flanked by the Horace Mann Nursery School on the west and two four-story brownstones on the east.
The owner’s request to restore the street façades of the three houses to their original appearance has been approved by Community Board 8. His request to add a fifth floor and a 12-foot elevator bulkhead to the roof and a 15 ½ foot rear yard extension, however, were denied. This proposal is going before the Landmarks Preservation Commission Tuesday, April 22.
The city's developers are on an all-out blitz to lure well-heeed buyers to their projects, and the first front in this high-stakes war is the sales office—the base of operations for the building's sales and marketing. Nowadays, sales offices are just as luxurious as the condo units they're meant to sell. Show Us Your Sales Office will be your guided tour of the most over-the-top of the bunch. Got a sales office you want to show off? Drop us a line at tips@curbed.com and tell us why!
Beyond this door at 90 West Street, a luxury rental building just south of Ground Zero, lies a world of sex, money, intrigue ... and spaceships. It's the "sales experience" of the W New York Downtown Hotel & Residences—a 58-story Gwathmey Siegel-designed tower currently under construction around the corner at 123 Washington Street—and it certainly is an experience. The base of operations for the W's first New York condo-hotel is unmistakably Shvo, including the price tag on the space's build-out: over $1 million (they wouldn't tell us exactly how much). Why so fancy? The condo units, which come furnished or unfurnished and begin at the 33rd Floor, are priced around $2,000/sqft, way higher than its FiDi neighbors. To sell people on a non-traditional neighborhood at those prices, the Moinian Group and Michael Shvo knew they had to go all the way. Hence, a sales office that could have been a set in Minority Report, with plasma screens as far as the eye can see.
German design firm Graft (Brad Pitt's favorite!) handled all the ultra-modern interiors, and they also got to run wild on the sales office. The ribbon-like walls are the same that will be worked into the building and its 223 bachelor-pad residences. The space has a fully stocked bar, complete with W Hotel cocktail menu and full-time bartender. But the most over-the-top detail is no longer in service. The sales center and showroom are actually separate spaces on the ground floor of 90 West Street, about 60-70 feet from door to door. There used to be a W-branded chauffeured golf cart to shuttle buyers back and forth (Mikey's idea), but it was ruined in the Great Flood. Curse ye, gods! Click through the gallery to bare witness to this one-of-a-kind sales office.
· Construction Watch: FiDi's W Has Good Wood [Curbed]
· Revealed: W Hotel Will Sex Up the FiDi [Curbed]
· W New York Downtown Hotel & Residences [Official Site]
The city's developers are on an all-out blitz to lure well-heeed buyers to their projects, and the first front in this high-stakes war is the sales office—the base of operations for the building's sales and marketing. Nowadays, sales offices are just as luxurious as the condo units they're meant to sell. Show Us Your Sales Office will be your guided tour of the most over-the-top of the bunch. Got a sales office you want to show off? Drop us a line at tips@curbed.com and tell us why!
Greenwich Village isn't used to buildings like One Jackson Square, with its façade of undulating glass panels and randomly placed mullions. The 11-story, 35-unit former Development Du Jour still has a long way to go before it rises out of an old parking lot on an oddly shaped lot on tiny Jackson Square Park (the foundation is being poured), so developers Aby Rosen and Hines knew they had to go the extra mile to show potential buyers what sort of product they are offering.
One massively complicated build-out of a former Mexican restaurant later, the One Jackson Square sales office opened at 93 Greenwich Avenue, next to neighborhood brunch favorite Good. The goal was to create an office that wouldn't be an obtrusive presence on the block, and indeed, the One Jax office looks like a friendly storefront, with daffodils and curtains and plenty of charm. But how many stores have an $85,000 model, a working high-end kitchen and an original Warhol hanging on the wall? Umm...none? Click through the gallery for the whole story.
· West Village Officially Getting Its Curves [Curbed]
· One Jackson Square Shows Off Its Curves [Curbed]
· One Jackson Square [Official Site]
Curbed Inside visits the interior of a structure with an eye towards revealing the design and architecture. Got a place for us to check out? Drop a line.
From the outside, One York—the boutique luxury condo building just south of Canal Street from Mexican starchitect Enrique Norten (of TEN Arquitectos)—has the tendency to look like a glass dagger crudely inserted into a pair of Tribeca oldtimers, a physical manifestation of the oft-debated struggle between preservation and development in the city. It's not until you climb inside the 32-unit building that you understand Norten's vision—to improve upon something classic, not just overpower it. In simple terms: One York turned out cool as hell (Enrique must think so, anyway: he bought in the building).
Developer Stan Perelman was nice enough to give us a top-to-bottom tour of One York, which is still very much under construction. It's all presented above, from the $25 million penthouse to telecom mogul Michael Hirtenstein's collection of apartments in the building, which is now hovering at six units and a combined $35 million in acquisitions and build-out (that's his hot tub above). What isn't shown above is the first finished space, the model residence on the fifth floor. That will be coming up tomorrow.
· Floorplan Porn: One York's See-Through Penthouse [Curbed]
· One York Update: Getting Sneaky with Glass [Curbed]
· One York [oneyorkny.com]
Martin Zweig's $70 million penthouse in the Pierre? Peanuts! Manhattan's most expensive listing is now the 45-foot-wide townhouse at 22 East 71st Street (at Madison Avenue), which hit the market through Sotheby's on Saturday for $75 million. Josh Barbanel spilled the details in yesterday's Times, and the 22,000-sqaure-foot 1920s house is currently home to the Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, which is giving up its lease on the property due to a dash of bankruptcy and a pinch of fraud. The building's owner is Aby Rosen, who paid only $15.65 million for it on 2004. The current record price paid for a Manhattan mansion is the $53 million dished out for the Harkness Mansion by J. Christopher Flower. It will be fun to see how much 22 East 71st Street goes for (our guess: $62 million), but the final price won't tell the complete story. The upper floors have been used for years as offices, so the building "needs a bit of work." But what's another one or two million once the checkbook is out?
· Listing: Spectacular Limestone Mansion [Sotheby's]
· A Gain for the Luxury Market [NYT]
The listing for Tribeca's 2 N Moore Street, the former "our suburb" and now most unique downtown property on the market, has been updated with the first renderings we've ever seen of the completed structure—a six-floor building connected to the two-story former NoMoore Bar. For just $35 million, you and your family can sunbathe on the roof of a classic old neighborhood watering hole. If that's not a lesson in post-millennial New York City, then we don't know what is. Also, thanks to a Curbed commenter's investigative URL experimenting, we've rounded up all the floorplans for the massive single-family townhouse in one easy-to-drool-over location.
· Listing: 2 N Moore Street [Corcoran]
· Tribeca's 'Our Suburb' Can Now Be Your Suburb [Curbed]
[Hope you had fun. The photos have been removed at the request of the photographer.]
We've been monitoring the outside of the new Yankee Stadium, and we've seen the gorgeous renderings of the luxury experience to come, but finally, we have an extensive look at how construction is progressing on the inside. These photos come to us from Lucas Roberts, a lucky devil who got into the work-in-progress, snapped away, and posted the set on his Flickr page. He's kindly allowed us to throw them into a gallery and present them up above these words. Sure, it'll be sad (to some) to see the House that Ruth Built go the way of the wrecking ball, but these pictures should get any Bombers fan sufficiently amped to shell out those season-ticket deposits.
· Yankee Stadium [Lucas Roberts/Flickr]
· Glam Slam! Yankees Show Off New Stadium's Bling [Curbed]
· Yankees Deflect Negative Attention With Shiny Gold Letters [Curbed]
· City Giving Bronx Land Near Stadium to Developers? [Curbed]
Julian Schnabel's Palazzo Chupi, for all its resplendent beauty, is having trouble finding those who are willing to love it for all eternity. The best kept secret in the West Village's "Pompeii-red" Venetian tower is now out of the bag: Richard Gere has been quietly marketing his massive 4BR, 4BA spread in the Chupster for about a month now, through Sotheby's broker Debbie Korb. Finally, the listing is out in the open. Gere's purchase created a huge press stir for his friend Schnabel's pet project, which may have been the point all along. He never moved in, but his apartment was customized to his tastes, a little less show-offish than Chupi's other units. For example, Gere opted for a more traditional white kitchen instead of the funky green of Chupi's other units. It's clear that the actor is looking for quite the celebrity mark-up on his investment. According to StreetEasy, he bought the apartment in September for $12 million. The new asking price is $17,995,000. With the duplex and triplex still on the market, this means that—for all the buzz—Palazzo Chupi is not garnering much interest from those with the means to actually attain it. And for this, we are sad.
· Listing: Full Floor in Palazzo Chupi [Sotheby's]
· Curbed PriceUpper: Palazzo Chupi Evens Off [Curbed]
· Palazzo Chupi No Longer For-Sale-By-Owner [Curbed]
