Rem Koolhaas's 23 East 22nd Street: still not happening.

As some of New York's avid construction watchers have noticed, something is afoot at One Madison Park. Specifically, on the 22nd Street side of the site, where Rem Koolhaas and his firm, OMA, were once tapped to build a staircase-like 22-story tower, which was to rise from the townhouse-sized site and cantilever over the building to the east.

That plan is no more, done in by the recession and the original developers' spectacular bankruptcy. Something is, however, now rising from the site, and the neighbors are wondering, what's up?

Curbed published a tip in January suggesting that the building now rising will be six stories, which The Observer has confirmed with an executive from the Related Companies this afternoon. We also learned that the lobby, as the relatively squat structure is being called, will feature two full-floor duplex units, starting on the third floor and rising to the sixth. The architect, however, has not yet been named.

Meanwhile, back at the main tower on 23rd Street, it's been more of the usual weirdness from last cycle's most ostentatious blow-up—a number of in-contract units were taken down from Streeteasy last month, ranging from a $2.26 million one-bedroom on the 19th floor to a $13 million, 3,310-square foot spread on the 57th; two would-be buyers also just now got their deposits back, after nearly five years in escrow.

Still, we're guessing all of this will be forgotten once sales, to be handled in-house by Related, start back up again this spring—just in time to ride the latest condo boom, with two new units to boot.

"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."

Mr. Levinson emphasized that this was not a traditional architecture competition, where he was selecting a design so much as a firm. He acknowledged that Lord Norman Foster had a head start, but as the competition got underway, that choice became harder to make.

"Things we knew early on about the Foster organization, it's a very deep bench with a great deal of knowledge about office buildings," Mr. Levinson said. "There is an emphasis on function, the techtonic aspect, but also an emphasis on form, how it fits into the Park Avenue context and makes an impact."

Foster proposed a set of three floating towers—Mr. Levinson called them separate buildings connected by a central spine—with each higher segment held aloft by dramatic trusses. In the spaces between the office blocks are vast open spaces, some 42-feet high, that will be open to building occupants and occasionally the public.

"We wanted to address the public realm, how does a building fit in to the public realm, the way people approach the building," Mr. Levinson said.

This was true of all the designs, but the way they addressed them were different. Rem Koolhaas conceived of a dramatically torqued building, with retractable walls throughhtout to reveal the spaces or protect them from the elements. Richard Rogers created what Mr. Levinson joked was an "Adirondack park." Like Mr. Foster's plan, there are three discreet office volumes, but here they are held up by a robust orange structure with diagonal cuts to make room for pocket parks, planted with tall pine trees—certainly nothing else like it in New York. Zaha Hadid created a sinuous building that resembles a giant white flower. It has cutouts at the base of the petals, in the towers four corners, which would have been open to the sky.

"Rogers we knew would have an exoskeleton, something very muscular, Zaha would create something real organic, Rem would have some movement and a very cerebral project and Foster would have elegance with an emphasis on the presence of the building," Mr. Levinson said.

It is a challenging commission since all the firms were given the task of peeling back 75 percent of the current boxy building that sits at 425 Park Avenue, then building back up from the base that remained. This was part of a zoning quirk that were Mr. Levinson to demolition the entire building, he would actually be forced to build something smaller than the current building, about 500,000 square feet compared to 650,000.

Mr. Levinson is eagerly awaiting the Midtown East rezoning, which might remove certain impediments to his project, like a better base to the building, but he also admitted that he does not expect to build an even bigger building, even though the new zoning would allow it, up to 24 FAR, compared to the 18 FAR the building currently has (current zoning only allow 15 FAR, but since the building was built before the zoning was revised in 1961, it is bigger than that).

"We are building a bespoke office building," Mr. Levinson explained. "I don't think we need to go much bigger than what we have now. Around Grand Central, bigger might work, but this is the Plaza District, this is a bespoke office building, and I believe this is the right size for us."

Mr. Levinson said he was not joking about finding a place for all these architects in his stable. "We actually do hope to work with all the firms in the future," Mr. Levinson said. No doubt the city's architecture cognoscenti hopes he does.

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

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).“We are grateful to each of the firms for the thoughtfulness and creativity they demonstrated throughout the process,” Mr. Levinson said in a release. “There is no doubt that each group was fully capable of helping us realize our vision of a 425 Park Avenue tower that redefines the modern office environment while also respecting and enhancing the timeless allure of the Plaza district.”

The project poses an unusual challenge. Because the existing 32-story building was built in 1957, it is larger than current zoning (created in 1961) allows. Were Mr. Levinson to demolish the entire building, he would be forced to replace it with a smaller structure. But his clever real estate attorneys have determined that they could retain the base of the building, building a replacement up from there, and, through some zoning wizardry, maintain the new building at the current one size, 650,000 square feet.

425 Park today.

The new building as currently conceived will reach 687 feet, considerably taller than the 370-foot structure it will be replacing. The design by Foster + Partners is interesting in part because it looks somewhat like a midcentury office tower in the Seagrams/425 Park vein, except that it has been judo-chopped in two spots and is now held up by giant trusses. This not only breaks up the scale of what would likely be a massive building but also creates two terraces, an increasingly popular amenity in office towers. On the street, a rendering shows a vast plaza, providing much-needed open space (even if there is a building overhanging it) in the heart of Midtown.

Should the Midtown East Rezoning be approved, it would allow Mr. Levinson to potentially build a tower 50 percent bigger than what he already can do, but he would have to wait until 2018 to do so, because of a special provision in the rezoning to protect the development of projects at Hudson Yards and the World Trade Center, where millions more square feet of office space is already poised to come online.

Lord Foster is best known for his pioneering work on what became known in the 1970s and '80s, when he began to build serious projects such as the  HSBC headquarters in Hong Kong and London's Stansted airport, as high-tech or high modern architecture. In New York, he has built the new Hearst Building and the Sperrone Westwater Gallery on the Bowery as well as designing 2 World Trade Center, the second tallest building on the site that is indefinitely stalled at the moment.

For those eager to get a look at all of Foster + Partner's designs for 425 Park, as well as the three losing proposals, they will be on display Oct. 18 and 19 as part of the Municipal Art Society's annual MAS Summit, to be held at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Correction: An earlier version of this post stated the new building would be not much taller than the existing one. In fact, the new building is almost twice as tall. It also credit Lord Foster with designing the Pompidou Centre with Richard Rogers. It was he and Renzo Piano that built the Paris museum. The Observer regrets the errors.

425 Park Avenue, before it needed tearing down. (Eral Soto)

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.

These starchitects—Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid, Norman Foster and Richard Rogers (all foreigners, including three Brits!)—each gave two hour presentations at L&L’s West 57th Street offices, according to a source, one in the morning, one in the evening, on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week. This was followed by either lunch or dinner at a different nearby restaurant.

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

The architects themselves were on-hand to make the presentation to L&L principals David Levinson and Robert Lapidus and their deputies. There were joined by a design advisory committee led by Columbia real estate dean Vishaan Chakrabarti, CBRE CEO and REBNY chair Mary Ann Tighe, Municipal Art Society president Vin Cipolla and former Landmarks Commission chair and current Hunter College president Jennifer Raab.

According to our source, the designers each presented two different proposals, one in which the 25 percent provision was considered and another where the building could be torn down and replaced at the current floor-area-ratio with no restrictions, at an FAR of 18. There was no discussion of the recently announced Midtown East rezoning, which could allow buildings of exceptional quality to rise to a 24 FAR—50 percent bigger than the current zoning, a bonus that seems to tantalizing to pass up—because the plan had not yet been revealed.

The architects could always come up with such schemes at a later date, as the project is not expected to commence until 2015, when the tenants clear out all at once. Normally, this would present a major challenge for a landlord to re-tenant the building, but L&L has decided to use it to its advantage in replacing the aging structure instead.

Details of the different designs were not available, but they were said to be impressive. "They put a tremendous amount of time and thought into their presentations," the source said. "They were extremely detailed and highly creative in their solutions to the site’s challenges."

The details were confirmed by an L&L representative who declined to comment further. The designs are due to be unveiled sometime in the coming weeks, with a finalist to be announced by the end of the year.

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)

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.

Only Lord Norman Foster has enjoyed real success here, with his Hearst Tower and Sperone Westwater gallery on the Bowery. His fellow Brit Sir Richard Rogers has had a number of almost-built projects, from Vornado's Port Authority tower to a vastly expanded Javits convention center. Both are also working on nascent towers for Larry Silverstein at the World Trade Center. Then there is Rem Koolhaas, who despite making his name here with the book Delirious New York, has only ever built a store for Prada, and Zaha Hadid. The first woman to win a Pritzker Prize (along with her three competitors), she has only one American project to her name, the Cincinnati's Contemporary Arts Center.

The six designers who did not make the cut have all built quite a bit here: Christian de Portzamparc, Herzog & de Meuron, Jean Nouvel, KPF, Fumihiko Maki, Renzo Piano and Richard Meier.

Whomever should win, this project has the possibility to present the city with a new, daring landmark. That is if David Levinson will allow it. As The Times notes, a prospectus for the project warns the four designers not to be too indulgent: "While the client team is open-minded about material and aesthetic expression, a restrained elegance has often proven to be more successful for this building type than irrational exuberance.”

This is presuming, of course, he does not get carte blanche to design any kind of building, courtesy of the big Midtown East rezoning.

SOM, the firm that designed Cornell's original entry and one of the world's largest, made the cut. They have designed everything from the Lever House to the masterplan for Columbia's new Manhattanville Campus. Local stars Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, responsible for the High Line and Lincoln Center, were tapped, as was New York fanboy Rem Koolhaas and his Office of Modern Architecture. He has yet to build in the city, but he just completed a celebrated expansion to Cornell's architecture school.

Steven Holl is another local boy on the list, one of the dean's of New York architecture. He has designed a philosophy department offices for NYU, is completing a sports center for Columbia at the northern tip of Manhattan and is perhaps best known for his funky residence halls at MIT. Morphosis, run by LA's Pritzker Prize winner Thom Mayne, knows a thing about New York campuses, having built the new metallic monolith for Cooper Union in Astor Place. And the ostensible dark horse is Philadelphia's Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, a firm that makes some sense given that their most famous work is as designers of all the Apple Stores. Perhaps a giant glass cube for Roosevelt Island?

"We were incredibly impressed by the quality represented in the 43 firms originally considered for designing our core building," CornellNYC Tech Vice President Cathy Dove said in a release. "Our goal is that this first building exemplify sustainable design principles, represent a forward looking attitude and form vibrant and contemplative public spaces that can be expanded through future buildings."

On the sustainability front, the first building will be designed as "net zero," meaning it uses no grid energy, generating or limiting its own use through strategies ranging from solar panels to thermal wells to the right kind of window shades and light bulbs. Successive buildings will not be quite up to that standard but will at least meet LEED Silver standards, a mid-range sustainability benchmark grade—think of it as a compact car but not a hyrbid.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

"I think that preservation has become a default position," Mr. Koolhaas said. "If you don't know what to do, preserve it. Bureaucrats and planners are suffering, because they don't know what else to do. That is where some kind of charter of destruction is needed."

He was speaking to reporters last Thursday inside a whitewashed storefront next door to the New Museum, which was hosting his Biennale-recycled show, Cronocaos, as part of the Festival of Ideas for the New City. Mr. Koolhaas was out to expose the perversions of preservation--what used to take 2,000 years or 200 years to become historic now takes 20, and so on. "We need a prospective approach, we will have to decide what to preserve in advance," he noted on a screed. The Library of Congress' decision to catalogue all tweets comes to mind.

It makes sense that Mr. Koolhaas--as always, dressed head-to-oily-black-oxfords in Prada--might want to sow some destruction on New York. This is the city he co-opted for the manifesto that launched his career, Delirious New York, even though he has realized but three projects here, all interiors: his friend and favored tailor Muccia's store in SoHo, off-Broadway's Second Stage Theater and the Lehmann Maupin Gallery. Christened instant landmarks by the popular and professional press alike, perhaps they are due for a run in with the Rem wrecking ball.

Mr. Koolhaas has, like so many proud architects architects before him, suffered glorious Gotham failures, as well. A hotel for Ian Schrager on Astor Place fell apart after 9/11, two condos were victims of the most recent recession and then there was the Whitney addition. A Blade Runner boomerang jutting violently out the top of Breuer's masterpiece, the plan was defeated by stodgy Upper East Siders.  Mr. Koolhaas told The Transom she is not one to revisit old projects, but this is the rare exception, a vision he wishes could still be built, even as the Whitney has abandoned Breur altogether.

And here we are downtown some eight years later plotting an end to preservation, as least as she is currently practiced. Go figure! "There is very little new stuff in New York that is noticeable," Mr. Koolhaas said cooly. "You need to get a grip on the bureaucracies."

1. Brits Fight for Arts Funding
British art-world heavyweights have begun a letter-writing campaign to the government protesting proposed budget cuts for arts funding. Famous patrons like Lord Stevenson argue that philanthropic gifts cannot replace government funds; gallery directors plead for a 10 percent, rather than 25 percent, cut.

Our take: Cutting funding for an industry that yields at least 2 euro for every 1 euro invested isn't just desperate-it's bad business.  
[The Guardian]

2. Medici Cold Case: Solved!
Scientists concluded that Francesco de Medici and his wife Bianca were not poisoned to death, as drama-loving art historians previously believed. After exhuming the bodies of the nearly 400-year-old art patrons in Florence, researchers confirmed the two died of malaria.

Our take: All this anthropological art news is fascinating, but it makes us wonder what Italian scientists could innovate if they weren't picking at the bones of dead Renaissance figures all day.
[Discovery News]

3. Rem Koolhaas to Receive Golden Lion
The Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas-famous for creating buildings that evoke the sentiment, "The future is now"-will receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 12th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice.

Our take: The man has been one of Time's 100 Most Influential People and he was knighted into an order established by Napoleon Bonaparte. A Golden Lion just seems logical.

4. Picasso and Chagall Forgery Ring Busted in France
Twelve men involved in a French forgery ring were imprisoned and fined up to $1.2 million for trafficking over 100 fake versions Picasso and Chagall paintings between 1997 and 2005. They approached buyers as down-on-their-luck heirs in need of fast cash.

Our take: Attention, Russia: This is what an art crime looks like! (Clarification: It's not curating a show that includes Jesus with a Mickey Mouse head.)
[AFP]

5. Art World on the Move
More than six galleries will move to new, expanded locations this fall, including two of Chelsea's most prominent galleries, Lombard-Fried and Zach Feuer. Gallerists cite a number of reasons for the geographical shuffle, like low commercial real estate prices, marketing, and increased appeal to artists.
 
Our take: Some say mid-priced galleries are still struggling and paying for their expansions out of savings. It's unclear whether those investments will actually pay off.
[NYO]
 
6. Egon Schiele Restitution Dispute Resolved
After more than a decade of complicated legal action, the Leopold Museum in Vienna agreed to pay $19 million to buy an Egon Schiele painting from the heirs of a Jewish gallery owner from whom the Nazis stole the work in 1938. The painting was seized by the US government while on loan to MoMA in 1997 and held for the duration of the dispute.

Our take: The fact that the dispute took ten years to work out means the only ones really winning here are the organizations' lawyers.
[NYT]

7. Christie's Founds New Art Fair
Christie's will sponsor a fair devoted to contemporary prints, editions, and photographs during the week of London's Frieze Fair in October.  The fair will model itself after the annual Editions/Artists' Book Fair in New York.

Our take: Although the idea of yet another art fair is daunting, Chistie's smartly identified a gap in Frieze's programming and a good opportunity. 
[Bloomberg]

8. Rodarte Collaborates with Catherine Opie on Art Book
The sisters behind the fashion label Rodarte have invited artists such as Catherine Opie and Gregory Krum to interpret their designs through photography for the book "Rodarte: Mondo Rodarte," due out in November.

Our take: The "art-as-side-project" trend hits a new high. (Celebrity fashion lines: out. Fashion fine art projects: in.)
[Artinfo]

9. Aspen Gallerists Accused of Unethical Practices
Several Aspen art galleries were accused of unethical business practices, such as selling slightly altered imitations of work by established local artists signed with fake names and manipulating the market by selling works at a 70 percent discount. So far, the gallerists have been cleared of any wrongdoing; federal prosecutors declined to pursue the case, citing a lack of evidence.

Our take: The story is a case study of the effects of pricing on the art market as a whole. What the gallerists are doing may not be illegal, but it's definitely cheating.
[Aspen Daily News]

10. Art Market on the Rise
According to a survey released by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, art prices are rising in all sectors of the market except ceramics. Price increases in the $75,000-plus bracket doubled in the second quarter of 2010, compared with the first three months of the year.

Our take: Any market recovery is a good thing, but lower to mid-price segments of the market may still be looking at a rough road ahead.
[BBC]

They almost succeeded. Together, they built one of the tallest, most architecturally ambitious Manhattan skyscrapers of the decade. But in the end, their fairy tale was more Brothers Grimm than Walt Disney, ending with a fractured relationship between the onetime friends, a pile of lawsuits and, now, a looming foreclosure.

In February, iStar, the bank that now holds the more than $200 million debt on the 60-story condo tower at 23rd Street and Madison Avenue, sued for foreclosure. The men’s firm, Slazer Enterprises, is the defendant in more than a dozen lawsuits. And Mr. Jacobs and his wife, Rochelle, are now accusing Mr. Shapiro of fraudulently misusing his and his wife’s signatures.

Earlier this year, Mr. and Ms. Jacobs asked the Rockland County district attorney’s office to investigate more than 18 instances in which they claim their signatures were fraudulently used on personally guaranteed promissory notes and other documents related to the construction of One Madison Park, according to their attorney, Lawrence McCarron. “The DA, from what I understand, is investigating,” Mr. McCarron told The Observer. The district attorney’s spokeswoman declined to comment.

“We’re also pursuing a civil lawsuit,” Mr. McCarron added. “Marc feels terrible about this. A lot of these investors are personal friends of his. He would have liked to see the project proceed, so maybe these people can come out with something.

“I think a lot of people are going to have to account for their actions.”

BY MANHATTAN REAL ESTATE standards, Messrs. Shapiro and Jacobs, both 44, came from nothing. Which is to say they were successful, but not grotesquely so. Mr. Shapiro hails from a local real estate family; Mr. Jacobs was a successful commodities trader.

Prior to the construction of one of the biggest Manhattan condo towers in recent memory, Messrs. Shapiro and Jacobs had never built a project on the island. Earlier in the decade, they had erected their only other real estate project, a modest, 23-unit condo development, Mirabelle-on-the-Hudson, in … North Bergen. An ad that ran in New York magazine in November 2004 boasted of the seven-story building’s “panoramic river and Manhattan skyline views”; and “Kohler cast iron soaking tubs.” The asking prices ranged from $500,000 to $1.75 million. 

A lot for North Bergen. Peanuts by Manhattan standards. Following Mirabelle’s apparent success, their ambitions grew.

By 2005, they were scoping out the promised land. They called Eastern Consolidated broker Marcia Rose Yawitz. They wanted to see about a plot of land on 28th Street and Eighth Avenue. It was taken. Ms. Yowitz found them another one, a better one. Right on 23rd Street, between Broadway and Park avenues, on the unruly, un-landmarked south side of Madison Square Park. They snapped it up. In late 2005, in the middle of the transit strike, they entered into a contract to purchase 20 and 22 East 23rd Street from Peter Fine for $36.4 million. They closed on the purchase in spring 2006. In June of the following year, they bought 24 East 23rd Street, an adjacent plot, for, $16.8 million.

They decided they would call their project Saya. No, on second thought, they would call it One Madison Park.

At the time, construction loans were disastrously easy to come by. In May 2006, Column Financial, a subsidiary of Credit Suisse, whose New York headquarters happens to be located on Madison Square Park, issued separate mortgages to Slazer Enterprises for $25.3 million, $66.3 million and $8.4 million, according to city documents. Later in 2007, iStar, a private commercial real estate banker, purchased the debt on the building.

Meanwhile, Messrs. Shapiro and Jacobs hired architects Cetra/Ruddy, the firm responsible for 77 Hudson on the Jersey waterfront and the Orion on 42nd Street. The tower rose. Problems rose with it.

BY APRIL 2007, very few units (if any) had been sold,” according to a Jan. 28 lawsuit filed by advertising virtuoso David Lipman against Mr. Shapiro and friends.

“In truth, and among other reasons, defendants were unable to market the Property because of their lack of a successful track record in the marketplace and their lack of standing in the New York City luxury condominium industry.”

So, Messrs. Shapiro and Jacobs “approached David Lipman and asked him to enhance Property’s brand and image (and in turn to increase its value) by turning the Property into a luxury brand, akin to Mercedes, Rolex and other well-known luxury items.”

In return for two 15-floor units in the building and $800,000, Mr. Lipman would use both his agency’s infrastructure and his personal network to help market the tower. By his own account, Mr. Lipman delivered.

He reached out to his contacts at Creative Artists Agency, which agreed to design a special screening room in the building. He reached out to Charlie Trotter, who agreed to open a restaurant in the building. He introduced the developers to Rem Koolhaas, who agreed to design the lobby, the spa, the fitness room, the screening room, the restaurant, the wine cellar and a 22-story annex to the original building. Celebrities like Naomi Watts, Liev Schreiber and Susan Sarandon were said to have purchased units in the building.

As all of these seemingly positive developments were going down, the two men were already casting about for short-term loans to keep the project going amid what had become the frothiest New York real estate market in a generation. They found willing and deep-pocketed lenders. On March 14, 2007, David Chu, the founder of Nautica and the owner of a gorgeous townhouse at 25 East 22nd Street, by the development site, agreed to lend Slazer $1.4 million, according to Mr. Chu’s attorney, Christopher Chang. Five months later, Mr. Chu lent Mr. Shapiro another $870,000. A year later, in September 2008, Lehman Brothers collapsed.

Mr. Chu is now one in a long line of litigants suing Slazer Enterprises.  

JANUARY 14, 2009, four months into the Great Recession. A black-clad Ira Shapiro poses for a photograph during the opening of the sales office for Rem Koolhaas’s 23 East 22nd Street, behind One Madison Park. He is of average height, balding, with a ruddy face. He’s standing next to a shiny silver model of the 22-story Koolhaas tower. It’s a beautiful, cantilevered building, one that seems to lean over and peer out from behind the tall, slender One Madison Park. The latter is already under construction. (In September 2008, architecture critic James Gardner, then at The New York Sun, wrote, “Mr. Koolhaas’s contribution will be Lou Costello or Jerry Lewis to the Bud Abbott/Dean Martin of its neighbor. Peeking out from behind the back of the taller building, it will deliver the impish and subversive laugh lines, while the taller building, the grown-up straight man in the equation, will preserve its unflappable rectilinear integrity. That should be interesting to see.”)

Mr. Shapiro’s photo-ready smile masked a world of financial distress. In June 2009, Curbed speculated that Mr. Koolhaas was no longer on the project. Buildings Department filings revealed that Cetra/Ruddy would now design the 22nd Street annex as well, and it would rise only to 11 stories. According to the pile of lawsuits that have since been filed against Slazer, around the same time Mr. Shapiro posed for the photo, he was scrambling for more short-term infusions of cash. Now, those who delivered short-term loans are suing for repayment. The most prominent lenders are Mr. Chu and Mr. Shapiro’s own former real estate broker, Wendy Maitland of Brown Harris Stevens, who declined to comment for this article.

But loan repayments are hardly the only accusations contained in the lawsuits. Plaintiffs allege numerous acts of double-dealing, from promising certain condo specifications but delivering others, to agreeing to sell a unit to one party and then selling it to another.

Now, the fate of the building’s buyers and investors rests with the courts. About a dozen of the building’s 90 condos are occupied. And insiders estimate that the more than $70 million in escrow from contracted buyers should cover the completion of both One Madison Park and the tower behind it, which has yet to begin construction.

The fates of the dozens of buyers in contract with the building remain unresolved. The state attorney general’s office could grant buyers a right of rescission, which would allow them to demand their deposits back. But given the prestige of the building, its powerful allure and its ideal location, buyers might well choose to stick out the turmoil.

AS FAR AS  Messrs. Shapiro and Jacobs are concerned, some say it’s likely they will lose control of the building entirely.

“Eventually, Shapiro will be forced into bankruptcy, one way or another,” Mr. Chang, the attorney for Mr. Chu, said. “It’s pretty clear they’ve run out of money. That all has to be sorted out in the bankruptcy court.”

Neither Mr. Shapiro nor Mr. Jacobs would comment for this story. Nor would debt holder iStar. But Burton Dorfman, Mr. Shapiro’s attorney, said of the likelihood that Slazer would lose the property, “I don’t think it’s a possibility.”

In the end, it doesn’t matter to anyone outside of the mess who owns the development. Or who owns the otherworldly condos inside, second homes for those with too much money to spend.

What does matter is that a 60-story tower has been built on the south side of Madison Square Park, and will, in perpetuity, reside there, and surely outlive those involved in its creation, including the young men from Rockland County, and those millions of New Yorkers who move beneath its shadow.

At least it’s not ugly. Indeed, on a recent springlike evening, the skyscraper could be seen rising spectrally through the branches of the London plane trees that live on the north side of Madison Square Park. The reflection of the backlit 700-foot Clock Tower on Madison Avenue—another distressed condo conversion—shimmered on One Madison Park’s reflective facade.

The tower was, in its overpowering, hubristic way, kind of pretty.

drubinstein@observer.com

More from Dana Rubinstein:

City Beats LeRoys for 'Tavern on the Green' Name

Little Lord Fauntleroy Factory to Expand

Swig Gets Hammered with Yet More Lawsuits

First, the Rem Koolhaas-designed Prada store was engulfed by flames earlier this year. And now: Intermix.

In January, we reported that Intermix temporarily relocated from its 5th Avenue Flatiron site for a full scale renovation project. But two weeks after they cut the ribbon, a three-alarm fire ravaged the space.

The bells rang during the unfashionable hour of half past six in the morning, so, thankfully, no employees were injured. Sadly, the store is the company's first and oldest location.

The cause of the fire remains unknown, and according to an official Intermix statement, damages are still being assessed. Another temporary relocation has yet to be determined, but the company pledges that they are "looking into other alternatives to serve their Fifth Avenue customers."

Full press release after the jump.

- Riva Froymovich

Fire at Intermix, Fifth Avenue

On Sunday March 26th at 6:30 am, the five story building that houses Intermix's Fifth Avenue boutique suffered a massive fire. The four floors above Intermix were badly burned and the Intermix boutique was severely damaged. Thankfully and most importantly, all of Intermix's employees and the building residents were safe and uninjured.

Intermix Fifth Avenue is the company's first and oldest store location, it opened in 1993. Owners Haro and Khajak Keledjian decided earlier this year to give the 125 Fifth Avenue location a full reconstruction. After six weeks in a temporary space, on Friday March 10th Intermix resumed business in their newly renovated location.

Attached is a picture of the redone boutique, which fully incorporates Intermix's innovative retail design. The staff was only in the new store for two weeks before the damaging fire. Currently, the cause of the fire is unknown and damage to the store is still being assessed. The building is unstable so nobody has been able to enter the premise.

While everyone at Intermix is deeply saddened by this tragedy, the company is doing everything in its power to move forward and continue serving its clients. Intermix has four other New York boutiques around the city and an ecommerce website www.intermixonline.com. The company is also looking into other alternatives to serve their Fifth Avenue customers and will be posting updates on www.intermixonline.com Intermix appreciates the support of its loyal customers and vendors during this time.