Lord Foster's Revenge: How About This, Upper East Side?
When Lord Norman Foster, an architect so important that his driver's license also reads Baron Foster of Thames Bank, tried to pull a Hearst on the Parke-Bernet Gallery at 980 Madison Avenue—inserting a glassy new tower into a drab existing building—the locals threw a hissy fit so fierce that the plan was shelved. The Upper East Side generation gap that caused the disconnect would seem insurmountable, but Foster and developer Aby Rosen are back for round two, and Nicolai Ouroussoff has the reveal of the proposed new 980 Madison Avenue today. Like the previous design, it's a new building stuck into an existing structure, but this one is low and lazy. It's hard to get a feel from the one little rendering, so we go to The Ouroussoff:
Clad in elegant bronze bands, its low blocky form would rest directly on the existing structure, echoing its exact proportions. More important, perhaps, it would be far less visible from the multimillion-dollar penthouse apartments just across the street.
The design is "
more polite and less original," Ouroussoff writes, which means that Foster—like any human being clinging to sanity—probably wanted to avoid World War III with a bunch of rich cranky old folks. Can you blame him?
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Redesigning a Building to Preserve Peace in the Neighborhood [NYT]
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UES Generation Gap Killed Foster's 980 Madison [Curbed]
Tribeca 'Townhouse' Battle at West St. Condo Conversion
[Photos via PropertyShark]
Last November, Elad Properties sold 250 West Street to a group of Russian investors for $250 million, after having purchased the Tribeca building from Citigroup about 18 month before for just $142 million. Those investors would now like to make some money, thankyouverymuch, so the plan is to convert the 11-story building into 80 or 90 condos, with a 5,000-square-foot penthouse built as a rooftop addition. The plan calls for a 2010 move-in date, but this, friends, is the Tribeca North Historic District, and so the plan must make its way through both Community Board 1 and the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The Downtown Express reports that the developers also want to replace the building’s cornice, redo the main entrance and add townhouse entrances around the building.
It's that latter suggestion that already has Community Board 1—yes that Community Board 1—in a tizzy. UK firm David Chipperfield Architects wants to replace the 52 ground-level windows and create 10 townhouse entrances around the building, because "townhouses" tucked into fancy new condo buildings is the latest luxury development trend (and a way to add cachet to ground-floor apartments). The paper reports that at a recent board meeting, CB1 "overwhelmingly disapproved" this idea. We can only imagine what colorful language they used to do so.
· C.B. 1 steps on stoop idea for Tribeca townhouses [Downtown Express]
Community Boards Look Gentrification in the Eye & Don't Blink
What's it like actually going to a community board meeting? Guest blogger Chris Carrara journeyed into the belly of the beast and files this report:
After feeling like the only old souls under the age of 30 in the East Village, we finally rounded up some neighbors to take them to their first one last month. Our building is directly across the street from a hastily-constructed skateboarding park that opened without any warning. It would be a topic of discussion at CB3's Parks and Recreation Committee April meeting. Many of the neighbors--some younger, some older, some having lived in New York for almost a decade--didn't even know there was any other means of addressing a noise problem other than a call to 311, but they'd soon be introduced to the bizarre world known as the Community Board meeting. Speaking in front of board members for the first time, though, is like descending into an alternate reality where everything you know about New York is wrong.
Of course, it's New New York vs. Old New York. >>
Hey Community Board 1, Tell Us How You Really Feel!
Because the parking lot at 74 Hudson Street falls in the Tribeca West Historic District, the owner's plan to build a one-story retail building on the property has to navigate a complicated series of government agencies, starting with Community Board 1, which passes on an advisory vote to the Landmarks Preservation Commission. At last night's CB1 meeting, the board voted on the resolution written up by its Landmarks Committee about the proposal. So what does the subcommittee think about the "glass and steel-beam" design? Check out the portion of the resolution excerpted above, which shows the full extent of the wackiness that grips our localest of government agencies. It was hard to underline one specific passage as our favorite (we're suckers for a good vampire characterization), but other favorite zingers include: "WHEREAS: The design would be more appropriate in a strip mall in Queens—No, that denigrates Queens; perhaps a strip mall in New Jersey," and "WHEREAS: How many ways are there to express the Community Board's dread of this scheme?" It ends with the subcommittee's recommendation: "CB #1 begs, beseeches and urges the Landmarks Preservation Commission to throttle, dispatch and reject this application." The full board passed the resolution word-for-word, by the way.
The full resolution is right here. >>
It Happened One Weekend: NJ Applies Lipstick to Pigs, Community Board Cuts, More!
1) In a story that we're only 60% sure is not an April Fool's gag, the Times reports that many New Jersey garbage dumps are being redeveloped into hotels, mall and residential buildings. For example, the Hilton at right is going up in a Dover landfill. Reminds us of a joke we heard: Hey, what's the biggest dump in New Jersey? New Jersey. Hi-yo! [In the Region/Antoinette Martin]
2) The city's 59 community boards are bracing for budget cuts, which will probably total $9,995 to $15,690 and take effect July 1. Great, now they'll be even more cranky when David Bouley tries to open a restaurant! [The City/Alex Mindlin]
3) So, what are brokers doing to get that commission in these tense times? Painting, buying flowers, and in some cases, sticking addresses on trash cans. ['That 6% Is Getting Harder to Earn'/Hope Reeves]
4) This week's Living In gives the spotlight treatment to Turtle Bay, a topical choice given the complaints of overdevelopment that followed the fatal crane collapse in the neighborhood a couple of weeks ago. Not surprisingly, you have to compete with foreign governments to get your hands on the good stuff. [Living In/C.J. Hughes]
5) An adorable young couple wants to stay close to family but also needs space for their sick cats, so they look to upgrade in Bensonhurst, Sheepshead Bay or Midwood. In the end, it comes down to her ability to negotiate in Russian. Which neighborhood will win?! [The Hunt/Joyce Cohen]
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