This week we saw designs for two large condo towers planned for what will be among the last sites available for residential use in Battery Park City. At right is 1 River Terrace (also now known as the River House condo at Rockefeller Park), a 320 unit condo designed by Polshek Partnership with Ismael Leyva. Located in the north end of the development, it will be configured in a U-shape with 3 different elevations. A 4 story glass portico/lobby will allow light to filter into a landscaped interior courtyard. Also announced was a 250-unit condo designed by Cesar and Rafael Pelli for a site at the southern end of BPC. After the jump view a rendering of the Pelli design, and a view of 1 River Terrace from the courtyard. With its strict design guidelines and master plan, BPC has resulted in a crowd-pleasing cookie-cutter developer's paradise, while something of a disappointment to the design community. Our view? We would call the whole thing a missed opportunity. What's been built there has been competent and thoughtful, but almost none of it inspires us. We're glad the lots are running out and that the page can finally be turned. Our motto might be: no more landfill.
High Line Living: Place Your Bets
The Times recently published a useful roundup of development activity along the planned High Line park that runs through the West Chelsea and Meatpacking districts of Manhattan. We thought we would start off the new year with a recap of what may be in the works: new residential projects from Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel, Robert A.M. Stern, Gwathmey Seigel, and Annabelle Seldorf among others. This once dormant elevated railway will be re-imagined by Diller Scofidio & Renfro into a corridor of public space. Developers plan to line the adjacent properties with a mix of condo and rental apartments and lofts. Our cheat-sheet of details and locations (courtesy of that informative Times article) is after the jump.
Enrique Norten's Tribeca Icon
The web site for One York Street, a project we wrote about way back in June, has finally gone live with lots of new detail about this glassy Tribeca loft condo designed by Enrique Norten. The 40 one to three bedroom apartments will fill two 19th century buildings, and be linked by a new thoroughly modern glass and steel structure that rises up out of the core. More after the jump, including dramatic interiors by Norten, cool apartment finishes, and a freaky automated private car park system.
447 West 18th Street
The live/work concept in loft living was an early hallmark of residential life in Soho and Tribeca. But as the art world moved north to West Chelsea, new apartments and conversions have tended to be configured as conventional living space. We were pleased to read in the Times recently that this 12-story condo planned near 10th Avenue in Chelsea will have four ground-floor duplex units that will double as live/work spaces, with sky-lit galleries below grade meant for production and display of art. Units will also have sliding walls to allow flexible open plans. The design by architect Audrey Matlock will have a curtain wall with horizontal bands of glass set at irregular angles, giving it the kind of striking abstract form we tend to like. The project, developed by Madison Equities, will have 47 units in all, including one, two and three-bedroom apartments. Occupancy is expected in March of 2007. The area is about to see a dramatic transformation, with Frank Gehry's IAC headquarters just two blocks away, and major residential projects planned along the coming High-Line park.
More High Line development details HERE.
Ian Schrager's 40 Bond Street
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.
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.
15 Central Park West
If the Manhattan real estate term "prewar" causes your heart rate to increase and your pupils to dilate then you're likely to have been unmoved by much of the new modern glass-tower development we've been chronicling on this page. Well sit up straight and adjust the screen all you old-world classicists because today is your lucky day: we take a closer look at Robert A.M. Stern's 15 Central Park West, a new condominium now rising that actually manages the rare feat of living up to its grand prewar antecedents. After the jump some striking images you may not have seen yet.
Jean Nouvel in Detail
The good folks over at Curbed last week practically dared us to surf through the dazzling web site for Jean Nouvel and Andre Balazs' 40 Mercer condo without drooling. After the jump we wipe our chin on our sleeve and focus in on one of the more amazing details of Nouvel's residential vision in SoHo: the huge retractable panes of glass.
330 Spring Update
Philip Johnson's Urban Glass House has already risen several stories on SoHo's western edge at 330 Spring Street. More detail about the project has now emerged. Johnson's design has been completed through a collaboration between Alan Ritchie, SLCE Architects, and Annabelle Selldorf. 40 condominium units will range in size from one to four bedrooms. The lobby, common areas, elevator cabs, and unit finishes have been designed by Selldorf drawing on (apparently) a loose inspiration from Johnson's early work. The apartments will feature 10 foot ceilings and open plan stainless steel kitchens by Bulthaup. Click through after the jump to view two new interior images.
First Look: Norfolk Street Lofts
It has become cliche to breathlessly cite the dramatic transformation of Manhattan's Lower East Side. So instead we'll simply take calm note of this 24 unit residential development now going up at 115-119 Norfolk. Designed by the firm responsible for the nearby Hotel on Rivington (Grzywinski Pons Architects), this glass fronted apartment house will have a mix of 1 and 2-bedroom units with two 3-bedroom duplex penthouses. Ground floor units will have private yards. A common roof garden (above) will have a small lap pool. Two more renderings appear after the jump.
Three Ten Condominium
The influence of Richard Meier's West Village glass towers continues to be felt in a number of smarter new residential projects around town. Here we look at Macklowe Properties' new Three Ten condo now rising at 310 East 53rd Street (right). Comprising 88 apartments on 28 stories, this glass tower will sit on a minimalist limestone-clad base. Tower apartments will have two or three bedrooms, while the base will have a small number of loft spaces with double-height ceilings. Most units will have private outdoor space, and the building will be capped by a 3,600 sq ft penthouse. Click below for a closer look at these new glassy modernist homes now for sale on Manhattan's east side.
New Lofts at 4 West 21st
The pace of luxury residential development in New York continues to defy skeptics. Here we look at a project now rising in the Flatiron District just off 5th Avenue at 4 West 21st Street. Loyal readers of Triple Mint were first alerted to this 62-unit condominium way back in February. Click below to continue reading and view new images that reveal something of a hybrid apartment house and loft building.
Lindy Roy's High Line 519
In her first multi-dwelling residential project, architect Lindy Roy delivers a conceptual solution to a narrow lot adjacent to the elevated railway that will become High Line Park. 519 West 23rd Street will be an eleven-unit condominium with the innovative spatial arrangements and fluid folding forms she has become known for. Distinctive space-agey scrims rise up the curtain wall. Winner of the MoMA/PS1 Competition in 2001, Roy's work has included the Hotel QT and the New York offices of Vitra. In this case the renderings don't do the design justice. To get a full sense of how well the building relates to the High Line you need to see the cool scale model on view at the sales office for the condo (it's located in the retail space across the street, complete with model kitchen and bath). The scale model reveals the full-floor loft spaces almost as alternate levels of the High Line itself. This welcome design gives us hope that High Line Park will inspire more innovative work from developers, and we look forward to the way architects might approach the challenge of interfacing with a century-old elevated railway made new.
