It’s not just the east side that can feature vaporware the in the $2 million plus category, even though we might not feature such plush Kohler fixtures (but, really, Kohler? Remember when they were ‘The Bold Look of Kohler?’ Please. I’m sure TriBeCa is all about Grohe). Over here, we have the numerically similar 116 Hudson, which is sporting a new banner with an indistinct rendering, but the website is woefully underdeveloped (considering they are well into construction, and 115 Allen hasn’t broken ground yet), and you can blame the folks at Stribling for that (this might be an indication of the relative marketability of the two projects: namely, that one doesn’t need to try real hard around here, net-wise). I had read that DeNiro owns the extant building (it will be a retrofit of an existing building and new construction), though the tax filings don’t reveal this explicitly. (I mentioned it previously, I still haven’t found hard fact). Why this matters is opaque to me, but people get a charge out of celebrity, and I do find it perversely fascinating just how much of this neighborhood he might actually own. Anyway, we’ll sit tight until the Stribling folks get us a site and a decent rendering, and we will launch some $4 million catfight with those poseurs over on the East Side [insert finger snapping here].
Pay me? Pay you!
The Observer has the best dirt on the Libeskind/Silverstein brouhaha. Via Lock. And Felix weighs in as well. We think it’s sort of redundant to make these notes (since it’t highly likely you read them first anyway), but in case you missed it, here you go.
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More on 2 Columbus Circle.
The Washington Post does a nice round up on the redevelopment of 2 Columbus Circle. It adds a little to the conversation from last week, mostly in the form of a some better quotes. And there’s a little bit of its interesting history, though they failed to note that in the late 90s the Dahesh Museum made serious inquires into relocating there, perhaps because they needed to make room for Tom Wolfe to try and reclaim some of his former gadfly glories of the early 80’s. They come down slightly, but definitely, on the side of “it’s broke, and needs to be fixed.” Given it’s somewhat a positive piece, architect Brad Cloepfil gets a bit of slight, being referrred to as an ’emerging talent’ — perhaps implying that he spirited away the commission from the apparently hottest architect on the palent, Zaha Hadid, who is referred to as the ‘Pritzker Prize winner,’ a useless distinction considering that she was not when the competition was held, and that when he was selected, he had completed a minor, but noted, musuem (Hadid’s CAC was still under construction), a major corporate commission and several other arts-related commissions. Cloepfil had demonstrated skill at realizing difficult projects, an approach that corresponded well to the program needs, and the museum’s mission, and was probably considered the best ‘regional’ architect in the country, but he still’s just emerging. That’s what you get for living in Portland, and not having a good press agent.
UPDATE: The Times’s Joyce Purnick takes a more direct jab at the preservationists today. She also adds a potentially interesting nugget: MAD doesn’t yet own the building, which in principle give the opposition some hope, some of whom even suggest leaving the eyesore sit a while longer until a better developer comes along. But it’s also a bit of a red herring. The city is cutting MAD a deal, but one of the conditions is that construction commence withing a particular timeframe of the sale, so the museum is likely putting off executing the agreement until they have made adequate progress in their captial campaign. So if you are a wealthy individual with a desire to stick it to Tom Wolfe and Bob Stern, there’s a naming opportunity built just for you. Rather, about to be built. Just for you.
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NYC market too rich for everyone’s blood.
Crain’s reports in this week’s (print) edition that Amec, a large British construction/ engineering services concern, is selling its New York office as the last step in withdrawing from the U.S. market, due to concerns about “risk and low margins.” Though Crain’s cites a press release from Amec, none was turned up in a cursory review of their site. With high-profile (and presumably lucrative) projects such as the MoMA expansion and the new Times Building, this is notable defection. They were one of the four firms involved with cleanup at the WTC, have an active role in the Iraq rebuilding, and presumably operate in the London market, where development and construction is even more tortured than it is here, which leads me to wonder what ‘risks’ they perceived. And, given that the WTC cleanup was done as a cost-plus contract (meaning they got to bill every hour earned with an agreed upon profit markup), what kind of margins are they demanding?
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Larry, that’s not why I called it the ‘Freedom Tower.’
Any hint that the creation of the Freedom Tower is (and maybe not even was) a collaboration was effectively erased by a holiday weekend report that Daniel Libeskind’s office had submitted a bill to Larry Silverstein for $800,000 for continuing design work after the his site plan ($2.25 million in fees) was completed. Silverstein countered with an offer of $125,000. Though the Libeskinds are unwilling to submit to arbitration (in the Post, the world ‘sue’ is bandied about pretty liberally), they do seem to be willing to use the Times as a non-binding agent, hinting they would be happy with $600,000. Silverstein is balking at the lack of adequate documentation, namely any timesheets whatsover, to which Libeskind’s office is responding by saying the value of his meeting time is hard to quantify (read: ‘I was busy buying my dowtown loft’). The Post cuts to the chase and calls it a ‘genuis fee,’ which is a more explicit derivative of how the branding people justify a cost of a logo as ‘value priced.’ Though this might be seen as chink in the formidable armor of Nina Libeskind, it really is an impressive bit of spinning straw into gold: released on probably the slowest New York news weekend of the year, and admitting there is pretty much no extant evidence, and asking for $800K. But willing to settle for $600K? That’s cheek.
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Can you spare something?
As I was leaving the subway this week, I saw a man going to work. I knew he was because I know where, and when, he works. He is a neighborhood fixture, and perhaps you have seen him: tall, gaunt, somewhat wan, he hands out flyers for women’s fashions, typically on Seventh Avenue in the 30’s. I assume they are for women’s fashions, as he has never profferred me any. Or perhaps he is particularly skilled at his job, targeting only those he deems likely prospects. He is mostly easily noted because of his height (a good six inches above the crowd) and his rather solemn visage.
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And I’ve always been afraid of what a Christopher Alexander house would look like.
In a victory for white, ‘middle-class’ people (that is, Manhattanites who can only afford to own their country home, but cower in fear of the losing their rent stablized apartment), the West Village Houses will become an ‘affordable co-op.’ The West Village Houses, located in the Morton/Bank Street area (west of Washington Street), were apparently developed thanks, in part, to an effort by Jane Jacobs to bring low-density housing that is as ugly as your average suburban apartment campus or HUD project to one of the most beautiful urban landscapes in the country. Even as I am a vociferous proponent of rent control, because: A. I need it, and B. I think it is best market control mechanism possible that balances design and development interests (how does that work? Well, take a look at SoHo, where a large number of units are still rent controlled, and many more made the transition to market rate, bringing extraordinary returns to the property owners with almost no capital risk, all while retaining almost all its existing building stock, scale and character), which is what I have to say now that saying ‘I’m a socialist’ is unfashionable, I think that place should be razed, on the most elitist of aesthetic grounds. Even it is means that Vincent Gallo gets to sprawl in an even larger, leakier, Richard Meier apartment. Go see for yourself (or better yet, don’t), it is a black hole of design quality.
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Your Tripping on Your Own Feet Starts Here.
Apparently a foot squirmed out from underneath the boulder of self-sufficiency Congress had placed on the failing figure of Amtrak (well, the parts that hadn’t been already covered by the slow, expensive, and very oddly-marketed Acela fiasco), and instread of waiting for some highway happy representative from the Sun Belt to do the honors, Amtrak took that self-sufficiency mandate seriously and decided to shoot it right off.
Today, The New York Times reports Amtrak is threatening to not move into the station that Daniel Moynihan spent years trying to get rebuilt.
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The Oylmpic Village falls plainly from the Mayne.
(alternative title: Do you think ROTOndi is pissed yet?) NYC2012 went all patriotic, but not local, picking Morphosis as the architect for the Olympic Village, dissing locals Henry Smith-Miller and Laurie Hawinkson (you’d be inclinded to say, ‘Hey, kids, brighten up the renderings!’ but that doesn’t seem to be a lesson Thom Mayne has ever learned). Unfortunately, they haven’t updated the site to showcase the winner. ‘The Olympic X’ flash movie shows some generic Pelli-ish space planning diagram for Olympic Village (though there is a slide show here — via Archinect). Maybe the whole high-design thing is a dog and pony show (and don’t discount the suspicion; Atlanta made a lot of noise about art and design and look what that produced). We will wait patiently for the brooding, zooty renderings with copper highlights (and the signed contract) from the Bard of LA, before we offer our huzzahs to visionary design.
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In light of current events.
The city is currently in the process of developing a new streetlights to replace the current ‘Cobra Head,’ designed by Donald Desky in 1958. Stage II finalists include Imrey Culbert, the Chicago office of SOM, and Thomas Phifer. Unfortunately, none of the initial submissions (accepted or rejected) are available for viewing. But the competition documents include such goodies as detailed construction diagrams of the push buttons (used to activate walk signals) and a nifty, to-scale flash movie of the New York streetlights through the ages.