We happened to notice that five web domain names relating to the condo project on the former site of St. Vincent's Hospital were registered just last week by Rudin Management. The property spans a number of different buildings between 11th and 12th Streets in the West Village. The domain names relating to the north side of the properties were registered as follows: 140west12.com, 150west12.com and 160west12.com. Meanwhile, on the south side of the properties the domains registered were 145west11.com and 155west11.com. Permits on file with the city indicate each of these addresses will have a lobby of its own. As with the marketing for 130 West 12th Street (roof garden seen above), we expect the condos to be sold using these simple and understated addresses rather than some fancy new moniker dreamed up in the shower. The Rudins are smart enough to know that when you have product like this you let it speak for itself. Completion is still two years away, but it will be interesting to see how fully their plan calls for treating each of these addresses as separate buildings, and if they roll them out to the market one by one over time.
After the jump a look at what we know so far, a peek at the townhouse portion, and some fresh construction photos...
The new condominium going up at 150 Charles Street in the West Village has been in the works since before the recession. Patience on the part of the developer Steven Witkoff has paid off as there is very little new construction in this part of town - and demand is off the charts. The site, near the Hudson River Park, is where the former Whitehall Storage building once stood, and the base of the new apartment house will maintain the same street wall mass, with large multi-paned windows that echo the former factory days of this waterfront location. CookFox Architects deserves much credit for a great job on the street wall here, keeping to the red brick of the previous structure, and also for delivering a lower, wider (warehouse style) building rather than just another tall skinny tower. After the jump some more images and details.
When we last left this story the dark clouds of the financial crisis and the recession were descending on Manhattan development like a heavy curtain at intermission. Turns out it took the bankers almost four and half years to get their drinks at the bar and come back for the second half of the show, because financing is back in place for the condo tower at 56 Leonard Street in TriBeCa. Crain's New York reports that Bank of America, among others, have closed on $350 million in financing to finish the 60-story Herzog & de Meuron condominium. You can read our take on the design below, but purely as evidence of the return of the housing construction engine this is a pretty big clue.
Nowhere else in New York is the supply/demand equation more out of whack than in the West Village. While no one was looking a prewar apartment house in a prime location has been returned to the precious housing stock - this time as condos. The Rudin family purchased the former St. Vincent's hospital residence building in a side deal separate from the main development planned further west on 12th Street and Seventh Avenue. This building is actually the gem of the existing structures formely owned by the hospital. Rudin has hired Cook + Fox architects to return the residence to its former glory as pre-war apartments - this time just 43 units of one to four bedrooms. Demand for this location almost guarantees the project's success, no matter what the state of the rest of the market. This is a complete, though sensitive, gut renovation we've been watching with interest for some time. The multi-paned windows will be maintained, giving the building a look as good as the day it was built 75 years ago. The preservationists should be pleased. The advocates for afordable housing, not so much. We're predicting a sell-out in 3...2...1...After the jump a larger image.
As we predicted way back during the Lehman crisis, foreclosures auctions in Manhattan would be very rare. Sure, a few condo developers in New York would eventualy be forced to either reduce prices dramatically or put unsold new apartments and lofts in auctions to move inventory. But certain factors here keep things from going under the hammer. The pace has been slow and the auctions rare for units in the hot downtown Manhattan market. But there has been some movement, as the New York Times now reports. Below are a few smart tips on how to approach the auction and foreclosure game:
The long awaited design for 56 Leonard Street in Tribeca by Swiss
architects Herzog & de Meuron has been revealed. Above you can see
the upper floors, where a stack of cantilevered condo lofts will tower
over the once charming neighborhood. The 57 story tower, to be
completed in 2010, will have 145 apartments, each with a unique
layout. It is worth noting that on the same day this project is
revealed another major Wall Street bank has gone under - Lehman
Brothers - and with it thousands of high paying New York City jobs.
This project could be the capstone to an era. One thing is for sure: it
is another step in the transformation of Tribeca into Triburbia, where
nannies push strollers by day and black towncars idle at night. Manhattan as stage set for wealthy foreigners and tourists. After
the jump some other views for your pleasure, and our take on why this works better than Rem Koolhaas's similar concept uptown.
Who said the credit crunch would stem the flow of design driven condo development? Here we take a look at Neil Denari's HL23 where the message is as clear as glass: architecture marches on, at least near Manhattan's much anticipated High Line Park anyway. Architect Neil Denari has conceived a form that bends and folds into its tight surroundings. The challenge is a 40 foot wide lot near Tenth Avenue which is partly covered by the High Line. The condo will rise up on one side and then slightly cantilever over the old elevated railway bed. Glass will reveal structural crossbeams that look almost like tiebacks holding everything together against gravity. The condo will include nine floor-through apartments ranging in size from about 1,900 square
feet to 2,600 square feet. The penthouse duplex unit will have 3,700 square feet and
a terrace. A ground floor duplex will also be available. After the jump a closer look at this striking new form of park front living, and how it boxes in Lindy Roy's High Line 519 condo right next door.
The conversion of the 5-story building at 15 Union Square West into 36 condominium apartments has revealed an 1870 cast iron facade that had been hidden for decades under a cheap 50's brick cover. The developers of the condo are adding seven stories and wrapping a glass curtain wall around the newly revealed cast iron arches. It will make for a unique kind of picture frame over New York's past while updating the site to a modern use more suited to the demand for shiny new homes in downtown Manhattan. There will be a mix of 2 and 3 bedroom units. Upper floors will be set back with outdoor space. Ceiling heights on the lower floors with the original arches preserved will be 16 feet. Many apartments will have fireplaces. Below the fold - an interior view.
Urban planners might want to make a case study out of the area just north of Madison Square Park in Manhattan. There's been a persistent stream of development activity in this part of town, and the latest entrant is a rather unremarkable 142 apartment 34-story condo tower rising fast at 32 East 29th Street. Called Twenty9th Park Madison (don't ask) this H. Thomas O'Hara designed condo topped-out in what seemed like record time. It is a plain straight forward design, with a mostly windowed curtain wall, and masonry accents at the base and corners. What interested us more than the building itself (roof deck at right) is whether or not this location will come together as a residential neighborhood. After the jump we consider the area and the neighbors.
This strikingly tall and narrow 60-story condo tower is to be known as One Madison Park and will smartly have its entrance on the leafy block of 23 East 22nd Street in Manhattan's Flatiron district. Only 100 feet shorter than the nearby Clock Tower building, One Madison Park will have just 70 condominium apartments (no more than two per floor). Units will range from one to four bedrooms, with a triplex penthouse. The glassy curtain wall will be divided into discreet sections as it rises, almost like stacked cubes. Views up Madison Avenue and toward the midtown skyline will be unobstructed. A second condo tower designed by Rem Koolhaas will sit on 22nd Street. After the jump another view of the condo tower in context from the busier 23rd Street side, and a look at that mad Madison Avenue view.
If only the most well located new condo projects are getting financing in the credit crunch, then Related's Superior Ink building at 70 Bethune Street (also to be known as 400 West 12th Street) in Manhattan's West Village would seem a good candidate to weather the storm. The PR machine behind this one is attempting to make this a downtown version of 15 Central Park West - incredible location, Robert AM Stern architects, historicist design. It's a straightforward formula for success. But word on the street is that Related's bean counters have value-engineered some of the life out of Stern's plans. Don't expect the no-expense-spared m.o. lavished on 15 CPW. While Stern's uptown loveletter to New York will be for the ages, this one seems unlikely to gain such widespread applause. Still, if you want only the latest in new construction and you must be in the West Village there isn't much to choose from. After the jump, a little more detail.
One Jackson Square at 122 Greenwich Avenue in Manhattan's West Village fills a long vacant lot just below 14th Street. Despite its central location, the lot had long defied development due to its odd wedge shape. The 35 unit condo apartment house to rise here is a glassy curvy design from William Pederson of the venerable Kohn Pederson Fox, a firm known for delivering extremely competent commercial work. Ribbons of floor-to-ceiling windows will run along a gentle curve. This jewel box of a condo will finally complete a busy crossroads of downtown Manhattan, where the West Village shakes hands with lower Chelsea. After the jump an alternate view facing north.
Another week, another "avant garde" condo in Manhattan -- this time from the developers who made the first leap in the direction of better architecture with the two original Richard Meier towers in the West Village. Here they have engaged the firm Asymptote to design a 24-unit contemporary neighbor at 166 Perry Street. Behind a cascade of glass will live 22 lofts and two penthouses that attempt through texture, form and palette to dematerialize their own massing and spaces. Like much of Asymptote's work, the design reads both as a response to its site and as an exercise in virtual-reality 3D modeling. So suit up and take a closer look inside.
The conversion of the 5-story building at 15 Union Square West into 36 condominium apartments has revealed an 1870 cast iron facade that had been hidden for decades under a cheap 50's brick cover. The developers of the condo are adding seven stories and wrapping a glass curtain wall around the newly revealed cast iron arches. It will make for a unique kind of picture frame over New York's past while updating the site to a modern use more suited to the demand for shiny new homes in downtown Manhattan. There will be a mix of 2 and 3 bedroom units. Upper floors will be set back with outdoor space. Ceiling heights on the lower floors with the original arches preserved will be 16 feet. Many apartments will have fireplaces. Below the fold - an interior view.
Urban planners might want to make a case study out of the area just north of Madison Square Park in Manhattan. There's been a persistent stream of development activity in this part of town, and the latest entrant is a rather unremarkable 142 apartment 34-story condo tower rising fast at 32 East 29th Street. Called Twenty9th Park Madison (don't ask) this H. Thomas O'Hara designed condo topped-out in what seemed like record time. It is a plain straight forward design, with a mostly windowed curtain wall, and masonry accents at the base and corners. What interested us more than the building itself (roof deck at right) is whether or not this location will come together as a residential neighborhood. After the jump we consider the area and the neighbors.
