On Friday, in the wake of the Upper East Side crane collapse and all its accompanying coverage, developer Forest City Ratner and starchitect Frank Gehry officially unveiled the 76-story Beekman Tower, the Financial District luxury rental building made of wavy steel and a six-story brick base. It's purty. However, given the building's massiveosity (the occasion calls for made-up words, we think), a lot of residents of this portion of the upper FiDi, just east of City Hall, stand to get their views and sunlight messed with. Over the weekend, we received these shots from a Curbed tipster in proximity of Gehry's rapidly rising piece of crinkled metal. His take on the building's neighborhood impact: "Love what it's going to do to the retail/restaurant scene, hate what it's doing to my view." Many locals probably share that take. The good news is that the building has room for all of them!
· Gehry & Ratner Officially Reveal the Beekman Tower [Curbed]
· Gehry's Beekman Tower Gets Presented, Goes Street [Curbed]
· Beekman Tower [Forest City Ratner]
Today at noon, Frank Gehry's 76-story rental building—the Beekman Tower—was supposed to be officially unveiled (after previously showing it off to locals) at a press conference down on Spruce Street just east of City Hall. The event was canceled in the wake of the crane collapse uptown. At least, that's what we were told. Apparently, some sort of event went on, because both The Real Deal and The Architect's Newspaper have first-hand accounts of the proceedings. The Architect's Newspaper also has the renderings of the Forest City Ratner-developed FiDi building, seen above. No signs of that graffiti logo (phew), and here are some more details on the 903-unit building:
EAST VILLAGE—It seems like every empty lot in the East Village is sprouting, except for the Milstein's of course (although...). Here's the latest one: "Anyone have info on the development at 315 East 11th Street b/w 1st and 2nd? The parking company moved to the formerly underused garage across the street and recently began demo work on this garage, here's the demo permit. The only info I've been able to dig up is that they're planning to build an 8 story, 36 unit residential building there. The building is gone and it looks like they've started digging the foundation." Well, that's already a lot of information, but according to another permit, the Stephen B. Jacobs Group is involved. [CurbedWire Inbox]
FINANCIAL DISTRICT—Even though in essence it has already been unveiled, Frank Gehry's Beekman Tower, the 76-story rental building that's #1 with all the kidz, will officially be revealed following a Forest City Ratner "construction ceremony" on Friday afternoon on Spruce Street. On hand: color renderings, models, Bruce Ratner and the Gehrmeister himself. [CurbedWire Inbox]
As a follow-up to our report on Forest City Ratner's presentation of the Frank Gehry 76-story luxury rental tower near City Hall, we offer the above series of slides that shows the progression of future construction. It's like a digital flipbook! Fun for the whole family! (People, it's the Friday before Memorial Day weekend. Bear with us here.)
· Gehry's Beekman Tower Gets Presented, Goes Street [Curbed]
The gang from developer Forest City Ratner met last night with folks living near their new Frank Gehry-designed luxury rental tower—the crinkled steel colossus at 8 Spruce Street also known as the Beekman Tower—and they brought along a nifty PowerPoint presentation to share more info about the underway project. Lower Manhattan's wavy wonder has already picked up a major endorsement, so it was nice to get the full scoop. But before getting into the nitty-gritty of the construction and the community benefits and the move-ins and all that fun stuff, can we take a moment to reflect on that Beekman/Gehry logo seen above? It was strange enough when Ian Schrager unveiled his high-brow interpretation of graffiti at the trés chic 40 Bond, but now Bruce Ratner and Frank Gehry want street cred? Guys, at least save it for Brooklyn!
Is the FiDi over before it ever really began? That's the subject tackled in a fascinating story in the new issue of The Real Deal, which looks at the glut (or non-glut, based on whomever is offering the soundbite) of new housing available in the Financial District. There are a slew of high-profile developments in the pipeline, including luxury rentals at 95 Wall Street and 8 Spruce Street, and luxury condos at 30 Park Place and 45 Broad Street. These of course join the numerous conversions and new construction, including District, William Beaver House, the W Hotel & Residences, 75 Wall Street, etc. It's a lot to take on, even for a neighborhood whose population will have doubled over a span of five years. So is the "next great neighborhood" being run into the ground, with Wall Street layoffs a further harbinger of doom? Depends on who you ask. Developers like Kent Swig and Larry Silverstein are of course bullish on the area, but Stribling vice president Lori Huler Glick says small apartments (they are office buildings, after all) commanding top dollar are disappointing potential buyers ("It kind of feels like when you're on vacation, but you're stuck in a timeshare"). Good arguments all around, but the one confusing statement is from CORE's John Gomes, who says the popularity of the William Beaver House amongst foreign buyers shows that "foreign buyers understand the value of that neighborhood more than New Yorkers." That bit of dementia aside, what are the feelings out there right now about the FiDi?
· Financial District boom slows [TRD]
FINANCIAL DISTRICT—Beekman and Spruce Street will soon give way to Frank Gehry's huge pile of crinkled steel, but right now it looks like any other construction site. Writes a tipster: "Earlier today I was walking in FiDi on Beekman Street and noticed that construction had suddenly made a lot of progress on the Frank Gehry rental building (basements and ground floor). I have attached a picture (Pace university in background)." [CurbedWire Inbox]
DUMBO—In response to a recent J Condo PriceChopper, a slightly disgruntled tipster writes: "It might be a nice change if you gave the full story when you post price chops in asking prices from StreetEasy. For example, you recently posted on a price chop at J Condo but failed to point out that even with the most recent price cut on that unit, asking is still 15% over what the owner paid for the place. Or if you're not going to paint the full picture then maybe post something equally uninformative on the opposite side of the coin. For example the price on unit 29F recently went up 115k." Noted. [CurbedWire Inbox]
New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff sometimes takes heat for being too soft—or downright fawning—toward any namebrand project, and his massive starchitecture piece in Sunday's paper will do nothing to quell that criticism. Sure, Ouroussoff takes some shots at a few buildings—notably 40 Bond and 48 Bond—but for the most part he presents the current crop of high-priced celebrity-designed condo buildings as "gorgeous additions to the skyline, a relief from decades of creative stagnation." He does devote a large chunk of the piece to taking developers to task for uninspired interior spaces, but that's mostly out of the starchitect's hands, of course. Ouroussoff saves some of his kindest words for Frank Gehry's coming downtown rental building, the Beekman Tower, writing: "its crinkled stainless steel is a wonder; as light flickers across the facade, it will seem to dissolve into rivulets of water." Quenching! He also reveals that those wacky wrinkled walls will extend to the building's interior. Despite the rave, Ouroussoff couldn't coax a new rendering of the top secret project out of developer Forest City Ratner for publication, perhaps because of his slam last week that Gehry is now too good for Ratner's Atlantic Yards.
· Nice Tower! Who’s Your Architect? [NYT]
· Gehry Calls in the Crane on Secret Beekman Tower [Curbed]
· Gehry's Secret Building Will Be Rentals; Still Secret [Curbed]
They can say the designs aren't finalized until the cows come home, but one thing's for sure: Frank Gehry's big ol' motherfuckin' Beekman Tower just got a big ol' motherfuckin' crane. So pardon us, Forest City Ratner, for rerunning a sampling from the famed Gehry Downtown Collection. How long can they keep a starchitected 75-story building secret? We hate to do it, but we're going to have to take away one of Bruce Ratner's Hanukkah gifts this year. Bruce, don't make us pull back on the latkes, too.
· Gehry's Secret Building Will Be Rentals; Still Secret [Curbed]
· Beekman Tower Update: Secret Gehry Design Still Secret [Curbed]
We tend to overlook Q&A's with Forest City Ratner executives published in the Wall Street Journal, so shame on us for not noticing Ratner COO Joanne Minieri's interview yesterday, in which she casually let slip that Frank Gehry's 75-story mixed-use Beekman Tower planned near City Hall is going rental for the residential parts. This is a change from the initial condo announcement, and the new plan calls for 900 units sitting on top of the K-8 school at the bottom of the building, known officially as 8 Spruce Street. CityRealty followed up and confirmed the change. Minieri also said there is no final design yet, something we don't believe for a second given the level of work at the site, and the excitement for the building in general. To call this project anticipated, as CityRealty does, is a drastic understatement. The Wired New York thread on the topic is currently at 100 pages, and there's even a poll to guess when the final design will be released. We'll just continue twiddling our thumbs and staring at the design concepts until Lord Frank decides we're ready.
· All apartments at 8 Spruce Street will be rentals [CityRealty]
· Beekman Tower Update: Secret Gehry Design Still Secret [Curbed]
Frank Gehry's Beekman Tower is said to be "drop-dead gorgeous" and like "the ocean," but rumor says developer Bruce Ratner has "financing problems." [Downtown Express]
Above, from the mind of starchitect Frank Gehry, the smattering of design concepts he toyed with for the 75-story tower set to rise soon in downtown Manhattan. Think we'd forgotten about this mysterious project since last year's big reveal of the (since-somewhat-discredited) design for the building? Actually, uh, we sort of had, until this bit of news popped up on LowerManhattan.info:
Pile driving will conclude on May 4th at Beekman Tower, one month earlier than expected. Since it began in February 2007, workers have installed more than 800 piles for the 75-story tower, located at 8 Spruce Street (near Pace University). The tower is being designed by Frank Gehry and will be primarily residential with office space for neighboring New York Downtown Hospital and a 630-seat K-through-8th-grade school. Foundation work continues at the site, with superstructure work beginning in late summer 2007. The tower is planned to open in early 2010.
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Is the FiDi over before it ever really began? That's the subject tackled in a fascinating story in the new issue of 
New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff sometimes takes heat for being too soft—or downright fawning—toward any namebrand project, and his massive 
We tend to overlook Q&A's with Forest City Ratner executives published in the Wall Street Journal, so shame on us for not noticing Ratner COO Joanne Minieri's interview yesterday, in which she casually let slip that Frank Gehry's 75-story mixed-use 
