We may have been in a minority among our dinner companions of late, but we sorta like the new Charles Gwathmey designed apartment house on Astor Place. Maybe part of it is how we remember growing up for a time in the neighborhood during the '80's, when the East Village skaz collided everyday into the gridlocked commerce of lower Broadway via Astor Place, resulting in a sometimes out-of-control mix of street vendors, saxophone players, panhandlers, and boom boxes. Everyone's ambition was to be either Jean-Michel Basquiat, Run DMC, or Gordon Gecko. While that seems like ancient history now, Gwathmey's reflective glass gives us a chance to stop, look in the mirror, and understand just how far we've come.
Now comes word of a new Gwathmey-designed project for the long-vacant parking lot at 311 West Broadway across from the SoHo Grand Hotel. As reported by Ronda Kaysen of the Downtown Express, the developer Albert Laboz commissioned Gwathmey Siegel to design a five-story 110-foot-tall glass and steel residential building for the site. The design includes retail space on the ground floor of the West Broadway side and townhouses on its Wooster Street side--an element that will require a special variance from the city. Laboz has been consulting closely with Community Board 2 and the SoHo Alliance to gain their approval. We'll be watching this project closely and will update with any news or renderings that come our way.
