We promised to update you on Philip Johnson's last building, a posthumous condo project at 330 Spring Street at the western edge of SoHo that we first wrote about here. The 12-story 40 unit structure will be marketed as "The Urban Glass House," apparently a reference to Johnson's intention before he died to reinterpret his New Canaan Glass House for a Manhattan setting. Although it seemed stalled at one point, a new partnership stepped in to purchase the project from its original developer and construction is now well under way, with completion expected in spring 2006. The Sunshine Group has been chosen to market the condos. At the future web site for the project (theurbanglasshouse.com) a splash page place holder boldly declares
"Modernist luxury has evolved." The page also seems to reveal a kind of speak-to-the-dead collaboration between the ghost of Mr. Johnson and the very-much-living Annabelle Selldorf. Whether the talented Ms. Selldorf has reworked any of Johnson's original scheme or was brought in only to plan the interiors is unknown. Click through after the jump to view the original rendering of the Urban Glass House as once planned by Philip Johnson and Alan Ritchie.
Our best guess is that the design is likely to look substantially the same. The Hudson Square area of SoHo is becoming something of a laboratory of condo cool, with about half a dozen modernist projects either completed or in the works. More updates to come as circumstances warrant...
This story has now been updated yet again. Click HERE