By Matt Chaban 9/21/12 5:51pm

Dizzying Designs

8 Photos

Starchitect Switcheroo

Starchitect Switcheroo! Will the Upper West Side Get Any Pritzker-Worthy Buildings at Riverside Center?

Has the Upper West Side fallen for an eight-acre bait and switch?

At least one and possibly all five towers at the massive Riverside Center development will not be the work of Pritzker Prize-winning architect Christian de Portzamparc. The French designer helped Extell Development and the Carlyle Group sell their swank plans‘ to the community and the City Planning Commission. The latter was so taken with the crystalline designs of Mr. de Portzamparc, who also designed the LVMH headquarters and Extell’s One57 tower, that restrictive zoning covenants were set to ensure the buildings would look as promised.

But now, Extell and Carlyle have turned over one of their tower sites to the Dermot Company, which has hired local firm SLCE to design the apartment building on the West End Avenue section of the site. While Dermot insists its project will be up to the standards promised during last year’s public review process, some, including the exacting City Planning chair Amanda Burden, worry the design doppelgangers will lead to lesser work. Read More

By Matt Chaban 8/16/12 10:42am

Under Development

The entrance to the new tower. (DNAinfo)

Upper Best Side: A New Look and Some Affordable Housing for the First Tower at Riverside South

We already know that the DMZ between the Upper West Side and Hell’s Kitchen (call it Lower West End Avenue?) is a happening spot, with the Walentases, the Dursts, the Elghanyans, basically everybody building a slick new project over there. The biggest, of course, is Riverside Center, Gary Barnett’s massive reimagining of the final plots of the Riverside South complex.

Earlier this week, Extell returned to the local community board with plans for affordable housing in the project, according to DNAinfo, and therein he revealed the latest detailed designs for the Christian de Portzamparc-created project. Read More

By Matt Chaban 7/10/12 5:46pm

Starchitects

Updating Park Avenue: an early conceptual rendering by L&L of the potential for 425 Park. Might these designers do them one better? (ll-holding.com)

Everybody But Frank Gehry: Four Top Starchitects Finalists for 425 Park Redesign

It is one of the stranger developments in the city, but it could also prove to be one of the most spectacular. David Levinson is poised to tear down most, but not all, of 425 Park Avenue—were he to totally demolish the tower, what he could replace it with could be quite a bit smaller, given a quirk in the 1961 zoning that reduced the density of the site, where a rather unremarkable and outdated 1958 tower now stands.

To fix this problem, L&L Holdings, Mr. Levinson’s development firm, tapped 11 of the planets top architects to sort out this challenge. He has now winnowed the designers for 425 Park down to four, according to The Times, with an unveiling expected shortly. All of them are Pritzker Prize winners with a mixed history in the city. Read More

By Matt Chaban 6/11/12 4:48pm

Starchitects

Hello, my pet. (one57.com)

Christian de Portzamparc Channeled Not Just Waterfalls But Gustav Klimt for One57

We already know One57, like all of Gary Barnett’s projects, is the best everything all the time.

This goes for its marketing materials, too. Get a load of this insane video, for example, just posted to the development’s sleekly updated and expandedsite. Herein some clever video editors make Christian de Portzamparc’s tower come alive, which we guess is the kind of industrial light and magic one can afford when a project is on pace to gross $2 billion. Read More

By Matt Chaban 2/14/12 5:37pm

Starchitects

newyork+opera

When the Fat Lady Sang: Christian de Portzamparc Nearly Built a Wild Opera Tower

While working on yesterday’s story about Christian de Portzamparc’s decade-long struggle to get his tower at 400 Park Avenue South built, we stumbled upon another striking New York project by  the Pritzker Prize-winning Frenchman that never was. For two years starting in 2004, Mr. de Portzamparc labored on a new home for the New York City Opera, to be built on a site that belonged to the American Red Cross, before the dream was shattered like the climax of an opera. Read More

By Matt Chaban 2/13/12 10:21am

Starchitects

12 Photos

Christian De Portzamparc Crystallizes on Park

Mon Dieu! After a Decade, Christian de Portzamparc’s Park Avenue Shard Actually Being Built By Toll and Equity

“The project is now 10 years old, it’s time to build it!”

That was Andre Terzibachian’s response when The Observer emailed him about 400 Park Avenue South on Friday. A partner at Atelier Christian de Portzamparc, Mr. Terzibachian is responsible for many of the firm’s projects in New York, where the Pritzker Prize-winning Frenchman has had a number of surprising successes: the jagged LVMH North American headquarters on 57th Street; the skyline-redefining, outrageously priced One57 now rising a few blocks to the west; and beyond that, abutting the Hudson River, a daring complex of five towers at Riverside South.

All the while, 400 Park Avenue South was in the works the middle of Manhattan as a small-time developer tried, and eventually failed, to get an ambitious project off the ground. (Oddly enough, it is the only of Mr. de Portzamparc’s projects not somewhere on 57th Street.) Construction was set to begin after years of development and zoning approvals. Then the recession hit. In December, the site was sold to a partnership of two of the nation’s biggest builders, Toll Brothers and Sam Zell’s Equity Residential. It was not clear at the time what the fate of this crystalline castle would be, but it turns out Mr. de Portzamparc will be planting another shard in the New York skyline after all. Read More

By Matt Chaban 1/23/12 7:02pm

Dizzying Designs

Skyline, here we come! (Matt Chaban)

One57 In the Flesh

Leaving the Building Congress luncheon today, The Observer looked up to notice something we had never seen on the Midtown skyline before: One57! Garry Barnett’s Central Park-towering apartment building is now totally a part of the city skyline, unavoidably peeking down on Columbus Circle. Read More

By Matt Chaban 1/03/12 1:29pm

Starchitects

7 Photos

One57

Shiny! Christian DePortzamparc Shares New Renderings, Thoughts on One57 Bonanza

This is now officially the most-watched development in all of Manhattan.

As Extell’s One57 climbs skyward, so do the prices, with the penthouse now asking an astronomic $110 million. Christian de Portzamparc, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect behind the project, discussed the inspiration for the tallest residential tower in the city with the International Business Times, where he revealed new details about the project as well as (and more importantly) new renderings. Read More

By Elise Knutsen 12/05/11 2:12pm

Skyscraper Living

image003

You Can Now Buy That $98 M. Penthouse at One57

Sales opened today for Extell’s giant glass tower, One57, the latest and greatest in Midtown developments. When completed, the building will stand 90 full stories (no, that’s not a typo), and will be topped with a $98 million penthouse. The building, which will also include a “Five Star” Hyatt hotel (seems to be “five star” in the abstract adjectival sense, seeing as construction isn’t even complete yet…), in addition to the 95 luxury condos which can be yours, all yours, starting at just $6.375 million. Any takers? OK, aside from foreigners? Read More