By Matt Chaban 10/19/11 7:02pm

Starchitects

An early proposal by Kevin Roche for a new U.N. tower—it's not Maki, but you get the idea. (KRJDA)

U.N. Architects Back to the Drawing Board; Pritzker Winner Still on Board

The United Nations has a long tradition of employing the world’s finest architects.

The original Secretariat complex was the work of Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer, two of the most revered designers ever to pick up a T-square. DC-1 and DC-2, the 1976 expansion of the campus better known as U.N. Plaza, was designed by Kevin Roche, builder of many New York towers and heir to the throne of Eero Saarinen.

In 2002, when it came time to plan for a new tower to house this globetrotting workforce, the United Nations Development Corporation, the city agency that handles all U.N. property, held a competition. It was open only to Pritzker Prize winners, and Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki was selected in 2004. Not long after, the project ran into political hurdles and was put on hold, but earlier this month Albany, the city and the U.N. reached a deal so the project can move forward. Almost as soon as the ink had dried on the land swap, Mr. Maki and his local partners, FXFowle, unrolled their blueprints and got back to work. Read More

By Chris Shott 3/17/08 3:54pm

Fubar–Poof! Talk About Getting Smashed

My first apartment in New York was conveniently located right across the street — well within stumbling distance — from the dive bar Fubar at 305 East 50th Street.

I always wondered how the reputedly rowdy tavern — which the doorman warned me about on move-in day — got its trade name past the liquor Read More