If, as some magazine writer recently opined, Richard Meier is the Prada of architecture, then certainly the Swiss team of Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron are its Helmut Lang--the brand for the real insiders. Nobody understands this "degree of coolness" factor better than Ian Schrager, who has turned his attention from hip accommodation to luxury condos for the Art Basel jet set. Having sold most of their new condominiums on Gramercy Park, Schrager and his partner Aby Rosen are now set to soon break ground on a vacant lot on NoHo's Bond Street, where they have hired Herzog & de Meuron to work their avant-garde magic for design conscious downtown loft buyers. After the jump we give you a bit more detail on the hush-hush project.
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Richard Meier's East Side
Last week a master plan was unveiled for one of the largest sites left in Manhattan for large scale residential development. The former Con-Ed power plant just south of the UN along the East River is owned by Sheldon Solow, known for building the famously sloping 9 West 57th Street office tower and a group of modernist luxury apartment houses with exquisite glass curtain walls. Solow has brought in Richard Meier and SOM's David Childs to devise the master plan (right), with Meier set to design four apartment towers. The site will eventually have more than 2,200 apartments, the exact mix of condos and rentals so far undecided. Meier told the New York Times his towers would take the UN building "as a starting point." That sounds to us like more of his bright white contemporary take on the International Style, with clear glass rather than the dark reflective skin of the apartment towers that have UN Plaza as their address. This one is still years away from realization, but bears watching as news warrants. Meanwhile, walk by Solow's Sutton Place North (by Davis Brody Bond) and take a look at what we think is the best, most seamless curtain wall in New York.
