By Matt Chaban 1/17 1:40pm

Dizzying Designs

5 Photos

Commodore Foster

A Million Little Tiles: Foster + Partners Design Understated Showroom on Madison Square Park

Lord Norman Foster, the hyper-modern British Pritzker Prize winner, is having a moment in New York, with numerous projects underway across Manhattan. But his latest hews away from the slick techno-futurism for which Lord Foster is best known, instead embracing a city landmark at one of our most famous intersections.

Last July, Spansh tile maker Porcelanosa, one of that nation’s largest producers of tiles and ceramics, purchased 202 Fifth Avenue for $40 million. Better known as the Commodore Criterion Building, the six-story granite structure once housed the Commodore Manufacturing Corp. and Criterion Bell & Specialty Co., two Brooklyn-based Christmas ornament makers (hence the building’s best known feature, a troupe of carolers permanently affixed to the second-story facade). Now, the 18,000-square-foot building will house Porcelanosa’s U.S. flagship, with interiors designed by Foster + Partners. Read More

By Matt Chaban 11/13/12 11:52pm

Skyscraper Living

Fostering fancy apartments. (Zeckendorf Holdings)

Presenting the Next 15 CPW: Zeckendorfs Unveil 50 UN Plaza, Norman Foster’s First U.S. Apartment Building

Those Zecekendorfs sure do love their starchitects.

From William Zeckendorf’s work with I.M. Pei and Minoru Yamaski in the 1960s and ’70s to his grandsons’ projects with the likes of  KPF and, most notably, Robert A.M. Stern, who created both the brand new 15 Central Park West and the newly renovated 18 Gramercy Park South, the Zeckendorfs have a thing for high design.

Add to that now 50 UN Plaza, a 44-story condo tower on the East Side that will be Lord Norman Foster’s first residential commission in the United States. Mr. Foster is well known for his work on the Hearst Tower, World Trade Center Tower 2 and the new Sperrone Westwater Gallery on the Bowery, as well as a new commission for 425 Park Avenue for L&L Holdings. With this latest commission, he cements his place as an all-around architectural power in the city. Read More

By Matt Chaban 10/18/12 8:30am

Starchitects

30 Photos

Rem Koolhaas

Unveiling Competing Designs for 425 Park, David Levinson Says He Will Not Wait for Midtown Rezoning

With the choice of four of the world’s greatest architects, how could David Levinson ever settle on just one to build a new tower at 425 Park Avenue?

“That’s my next job, to find three more sites so I can build all these buildings,” Mr. Levinson joked, seated at a conference table inside his sleek white offices on 57th Street on Monday. He was surrounded by renderings and models by Zaha Hadid, Richard Rogers, Rem Koolhaas and the winning architect Norman Foster.

“For us, it was really a blend of what’s the right concept for Park Avenue, a place that has not had a new building for almost 50 years, an avenue that is quite possibly the most important commercial boulevard in New York City, quite possibly the United State, and what is the place of a new build down the street from Seagrams and Lever House, two of the greatest buildings ever built,” Mr. Levinson explained. “We had to determine for that setting what’s the right firm. So really, it’s a blend of the concept and the firm we can work with.” Read More

By Matt Chaban 10/03/12 10:07am

Starchitects

Bring it up. (dBox/L&L Holdings)

Foster + Partners Wins 425 Park Sweepstakes, Creating New Midtown Landmark for L&L

Who needs the Midtown East Rezoning to transform the area when you have intrepid developers and unlikely circumstances? O.K., so both of those are super-rare, so bring on the rezoning,

In the meantime, though, we can occupy ourselves with David Levinson’s daring plan to tear down 75 percent of 425 Park Avenue and replace it with a dynamic new tower by Lord Norman Foster. Foster + Partners have emerged victorious from a competition Mr. Levinson’s L&L Holdings held over the past few months between some of the world’s most high-profile designers. The British Pritzker Prize winner beat out fellow starchitects Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid and Richard Rogers (no Americans, unfortunately). Read More

By Matt Chaban 7/20/12 2:38pm

Starchitects

An early model of a possible replacement. (L&L)

Starchitects Descend on 425 Park, Present Big Plans for Possible Replacement

In what sounds like a cross between a party and a design crit from architecture college, L&L Holdings held four marathon sessions last week to explore proposals for replacing the tower it owns at 425 Park Avenue with a new modern office building.

Last year, L&L revealed it planned to tear down the 1950s office block and replace it with something new. A complication in the zoning meant L&L had to keep the bottom 25 percent of the building intact, otherwise the developer would be forced to replace the current building with something smaller. It tapped 11 of the world’s top architects to come up with their own plans, then chose four to present preliminary designs, which took place last week. Read More

By Dana Rubinstein 7/07/09 9:53pm

Hearst Hunts For High Class: As Company Courts Stylish Tenant, Ground Floor of Norman Foster Tower Stays Empty

It’s been more than three years since the Hearst Corporation has been looking for a tenant to fill the 14,000-plus-square-foot ground floor of its now not-so-new Lord Norman Foster–designed tower at Eighth Avenue and 57th Street.

Sources attribute much of the delay to the Hearst Corporation’s style of decision-making. Any retailer must be approved not Read More