The hottest starchitect in the universe, this year's Pritzker Prize winner Jean Nouvel and creator of the jaw droppingly awesome Tower Verre on West 53rd, has another killer project on the rise at 100 Eleventh Avenue in West Chelsea. The first couple of floors of the futuristic Vision Machine (or Mashine for our ruble-spending friends) have been poured and the concrete is beginning to pile up on West 19th Street between the High Line and the Hudson River. The 23-story tower will be the shining beacon at the end of this project-filled block, which promises to be the frontrunner for Block of the Year for 2008. Across the street is a groundbreaker from fellow starchy Frank Gehry, the billowing IAC headquarters. The same block will soon house condo-ites aplenty in the 26-unit big 'n boxy 520 West Chelsea from Selldorf Architects and the now-it's-a-big-hole but one-day-will-be a stack o' metal boxes from Shigeru Ban. Smart kids have already started saving their pennies.
· Starchitect Power! Nouvel's MoMA Tower Wins Over LPC [Curbed]
· On Art and Starchitecture in Far West Chelsea [Curbed]
· Development Du Jour: 520 West Chelsea [Curbed]
About two weeks ago, a new $10MM+ listing for the Metal Shutter Houses—Japanese-born architect Shigeru Ban's luxury collection of stacked bodegas along West 19th Street's Starchitect Row—popped up on the Corcoran website. Oh dear, did the penthouse deal fall through? A quick surf over to MSH's always-impressive website reveals the facts. This massive 5BR, 5BA duplex is actually a combination of the two remaining unsold units, and the new SuperShutter, called East-West House if you want to get all official, takes up the full sixth and seventh floors, 4,644sqft of minimalism in total. Just like that, the number of unsold units has been cut in half. Left unanswered: why the listing fails to mention Metal Shutter Houses. Where's the Metal Shutter Pride?
· Listing: 524 West 19th Street [Corcoran]
· Construction Watch: Metal Shutter Mania Surfacing [Curbed]
· Metal Shutter Mania: Ban's Bamboo and a Sales Office Too! [Curbed]
A couple of weeks ago, the Post's Katherine Dykstra had a chance to chat with hotelier/developer André Balazs about the wave of change overtaking the Meatpacking District, and his neighborhood-defining (once it opens) Standard Hotel. She also got a word in with Balazs about a rumor first reported on Curbed: that Balazs and Jay-Z are enlisting Metal Shutter Houses architect Shigeru Ban to design a new hotel or members-only club on West 14th Street, not too far from the Standard. This was before Jay-Z bailed for his own hotel. Here's what Balazs had to say:
Rumors of a Balazs-owned, Jay-Z-partnered, Shigeru Ban-designed private club, however, are false, says Balazs. He admits to having a members-only club in the works, but not with Jay-Z and not in the area. He also admits to a hotel project he's planning with Ban, but he says it's also out of the immediate vicinity, not to mention "too far off to talk about."
The three things you need to know about this photo of 524 West 19th Street, aka Ban's Bodega Building, aka Metal Shutter Houses:
1) Huzzah! Ground has finally broken! 2) Against our wishes and pleas, the bamboo fence was not followed up by a bamboo bulldozer. 3) This photo was taken from inside Frank Gehry's IAC Building, a detail our tipster was more than happy to point out.
The Metal Shutter Houses (aka the Bodega Building) is Shigeru Ban's entry into the starchichtecture wars of West Chelsea, and if you haven't checked out the building's website recently, oh my. Not only are there renderings and floorplans galore, but there's also an animation of the metal gates rising that's almost pornographic in its delayed gratification (slowly...not yet...almost there...wait for it...oh God, yes!). Plus, there's all sorts of new Shigeru Ban-related details. Like, for example, that the building will include Shigeru Ban-designed die cast aluminum door levers, and the lobby will sport a Shigeru Ban-designed undulating paper tube ceiling. We have no idea what that is, but we want it. Unfortunately, the $10.5 million penthouse is in contract, and we refuse to settle for lesser Metal. Woe is us.
· Metal Shutter Houses [Official Site]
· Metal Shutter Houses at 524 West 19th Street [StreetEasy]
· Ban's Heavy Metal Now for Sale [Curbed]
WILLIAMSBURG—The Developers Group might want to be a bit more careful about their e-mail practices. A reader writes: "I’ve recently been receiving a lot of emails from the Developers Group. Today, I got the following message, from a Sr. VP. It appears that it should have gone to brokers, of which august group I am not a member. So they’re willing to split the broker fee, and pony up a $5,000 gift card. Hmmmmm, just in time for Christmas!" Wow, the Ikon is 50% sold? Interesting. [CurbedWire Inbox]
CHELSEAISH—The sites don't quite match up, but could this piece of intel be related to the Andre Balazs/Shigeru Ban project? "Numbers 320-324 West 14th Street are being bought up; tenants forced out--assumption was it was more luxury glass skyboxes on the way. Now a friend on CB2 says it's to be a boutique hotel. Any truth?" Who's got some scoop? [CurbedWire Inbox]
FLATIRON—In response to the new 22-story building suddenly being stapled to One Madison Park courtesy of Rem Koolhaas' OMA firm, a tipster writes: "The 2nd building was always on the drawing board." We would hope so! [CurbedWire Inbox]
It's no secret that starchitect Shigeru Ban is currently planning his second New York City building, following the glowing media reception of his Metal Shutter Houses in West Chelsea. So where will this top secret sequel be? We've been monitoring the chatter, and while reports are conflicting, all signs seem to point to a collaboration with hotelier Andre Balazs. Ban said he loves Chelsea, so it would make sense that he's not straying far. One rumor is that Shigerusan will design a second West Side Balazs hotel—to go with AB's Standard—on a skinny plot of land on Ninth Avenue near 14th Street. Another whisper we're hearing is that Ban will draw up the details for Balazs' private club on 14th Street, a top secret project the Real Deal reported on in January. Who knows, these could turn out to be the same thing (our Magic 8-Ball keeps coming up "reply hazy"), but we're especially excited by a related side rumor: that Jay-Z has partnered with Andre Balazs on this future venture. It's not as crazy as it sounds: Mr. Carter did tour Libation on the Lower East Side while briefly considering opening a members-only club. Maybe he decided to just stack his chips with Balazs', which would undoubtedly be a safe bet.
· Shigeru Ban Planning Metal Shutter Sequel [Curbed]
Let's slip into the second-person for a moment: You're a starchitect. You've recently unveiled your first foray into Manhattan, on a block filled with other starchitects. Your creation has just hit the market. Do you pause to reflect on your achievement? Hell to the no! You plan Phase 2 of your Big Apple takeover, and that's exactly what Shigeru Ban is doing. He tells the Post:
"If I had to choose between doing something on the Upper East Side or in Chelsea, I'd choose Chelsea because of the interesting context," says Ban, who admits to having another project in the works in New York but is reticent to reveal its whereabouts. We can assume it's not on the Upper East Side.
Our friends at StreetEasy have alerted us that architect Shigeru Ban's Metal Shutter Houses, the new 11-story West Chelsea neighbor to Frank Gehry's IAC building that we were briefly infatuated with last month (see this, this and this), have hit the market. And it appears that one Metal Shutter House, a $4.5 million four-bedroom unit, is already in contract. Crushingly, Corcoran Sunshine provides no new renderings of the building, nor any floorplans for the units. Bo-ring. Well, we can always head down to West 19th Street and stare at the bamboo construction fence to get pumped up again.
· Metal Shutter Houses [StreetEasy]
· Ban Me! Pricing for Shigeru's Shutters Set [Curbed]
· Metal Shutter Houses [Official Site]
Exactly one week ago, we wondered what Japanese starchitect Shigeru Ban was up to in West Chesea. Today, the only mystery that remains is how much green it's going to take to buy your own hunk of metal. No longer is that a mystery. A Curbed insider passes on the details:
James Lansill from Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group is leading the sales and marketing team. Sales begin in mid October.
Prices for the units will start at $2,100/sf and go up to about $3,100/sf, with the 7 available units range from $3.6M to $5.8M. The Penthouse (3,300 sf) will be $10.5M.
Common charges and real estate tax are approx $1 per sf per month. There will be a 421A tax abatement.
Ask and ye shall receive ... a link to CityRealty, where renderings of Japanese architecture icon Shigeru Ban's Metal Shutter Houses in West Chelsea have gone live. This perspective is almost identical, albeit a little zoomed out, to the view of the construction site we tacked on at the end of our investigation into the project. To the left is Annabelle Selldorf's 520 West Chelsea, and to the right is Frank Gehry's IAC headquarters. And smack in the middle is West 19th Street's latest mindfuck. Our tipster was right about the roll-down metal walls for the exposures, which look halfway past bodega and halfway to—gulp—the Brownstone East Village. While we ponder the repercussions of that, here are some details: 11-stories and nine duplexes ranging from 1,950sqft to a 3,180sqft penthouse with three terraces. Occupancy is expected in late 2008. Pricing? If you have to ask...
· Shigeru Ban joins Gehry and Nouvel on West 19th Street [CityRealty]
· What is Shigeru Ban Up To in West Chelsea? [Curbed]
· Metal Shutter Houses [Official Site]
LOWER EAST SIDE—A tipster updates us on the demolition of the 95-year-old Young Israel Synagogue: "the Young Israel Synagogue, at 225 East Broadway in the lower Lower East Side, is being rubbled from within. I guess I can't believe it's really happening..." [CurbedWire Inbox]
WEST CHELSEA—A Curbed insider provides a few more details on Japanese architect Shigeru Ban's mysterious Metal Shutter Houses on 19th Street. Apparently it will be a small building with 12 loft apartments, give or take. The units will have metal roll-down doors over the windows, and will not look like Ban's previous shutter house work. Sounds like a bodega to us. So, is someone going to send over some renderings, or what? [CurbedWire Inbox]
EAST VILLAGE—Vanishing New York followed up on the rumors of East 10th Street's demise: "I went by and asked some shop employees what they knew about it. I was assured that they checked and double-checked, and buildings number 90, 86, and 84 are safe from demolition. That is excellent news. However, they also told me that the corner Green East bodega and the building that houses the former St. Marx Music (formerly formerly the Atlas Barber School) are slated to be razed to make way for a high-rise luxe hotel." Why hello there. [J'sVNY]
LONG ISLAND CITY—This sounds a wee bit shillish, but hey, we love that QueensWest: "I've just completed an application for East Coast 7 - Rock Rose's second phase in LIC - it's filling up fast ! I have to say, given the amenities (Indoor Pool, Gym, Screening Room, Steam Rooms, Saunas, Billiard Room), this place is looking to be quite the steal. 6th Floor 1 Bed with Balcony 2600 per month. Currently a very good view of Manhattan over to the 59th street Bridge. Amish Markets coming in February." [CurbedWire Inbox]
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WILLIAMSBURG—The Developers Group might want to be a bit more careful about their e-mail practices. A reader writes: "I’ve recently been receiving a lot of emails from the Developers Group. Today, I got the following message, from a Sr. VP. It appears that it should have gone to brokers, of which august group I am not a member. So they’re willing to split the broker fee, and pony up a $5,000 gift card. Hmmmmm, just in time for Christmas!" Wow, the 
It's no secret that starchitect Shigeru Ban is 
Let's slip into the second-person for a moment: You're a starchitect. You've recently unveiled your 
EAST VILLAGE—Vanishing New York followed up on the 
