Triple Mint

130 West 12th Street West Village

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.

Foreclosure Auctions in New York City

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:

56 Leonard Tribeca Condo by Herzog & de Meuron

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.

HL23 - Condos at 515 West 23rd Street

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.

15 Union Square West - 15 USW

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.

Twenty9th Park Madison - 39 East 29th Street

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.

One Madison Park - 23 East 22nd Street

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.

Superior Ink Condos - 400 West 12th Street

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 - 122 Greenwich Avenue

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.

166 Perry Street - Asymptote

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.

Condos at 151 & 205 East 85th Street

 

• The Lucida - 151 East 85th Street
• The Brompton - 205 East 85th Street

Two new condo apartment houses offer a look at differing design approaches in an established and densely populated urban setting like New York's Upper East Side. The Lucida and The Brompton have been dueling it out in full page ads in the New York Times magazine. Developers Extell and Related are the warring parties here, and they have each hired blue chip firms to design their condo battleships. We take a look at the different styles on offer after the jump.

Soho Mews - 311 West Broadway

At right is a rendering of the Gwathmey Siegel designed condo going up on the through-block lot across from the SoHo Grand on West Broadway. The 68 loft apartments housed here will live in the behaved, well-ordered universe that Gwathmey Siegel is known for. At times the firm seems to take its inspiration from graph paper--the repeating square has been a constant theme in their work for example. Here they have worked with the community and the developer to come up with a plan that would not offend preservationists, and they have succeeded in filling a blank space in the heart of SoHo with quiet, muted luxury. This will actually be two separate buildings. At the base of the Wooster Street side will be townhouses with street entrances, a rare sight in SoHo. The West Broadway portion will rise with a wall of large glass panes and articulated metal panels that will be a subtle nod to the historic district of cast iron landmarks the area is known for. After the jump we take a close-up look at the detail on this exterior, and show you dramatic views of the penthouse and townhouse garden you haven't seen yet.

100 Eleventh Avenue - Jean Nouvel

New details of Jean Nouvel's design for a condo tower on Manhattan's far west side (opposite Frank Gehry's IAC headquarters, no less) have just been unveiled to the press. The cluster of new development near the High Line in the West Chelsea gallery district has been among the most ambitious in terms of design. Here we go inside to look at Nouvel's solution for a corner site on the river, where light and open views for 72 apartments are reflected and refracted through a mosaic of glass panels arrayed like a crowded Mondrian painting. Above is an interior view. After the jump some interesting detail you may not have read about yet.