Monday: Schrager Doesn’t Like Cheap Buyers

Ian Schrager finds François Pinault, one of the richest men in the world, too difficult and turned him down for

  • Ian Schrager finds François Pinault, one of the richest men in the world, too difficult and turned him down for an apartment at 50 Gramercy Park North. Also, he’s cheap: “‘Rich people are rich,’ Mr. Schrager said, ‘because they have this intrinsic respect for money.'” (The New York Times)
  • An Upper East Sider, who felt his apartment was simply too big, learns to love Harlem. How … Mary Tyler Moore? <em>(The New York Times)
  • Sprawl has spread beyond the exurbs, to the once faraway airports that find more stationary tenants. (The New York Times)
  • West Coast architect Ray Kappe is designing a prefab community of homes near Joshua Tree National Park. But, the houses can be settled anywhere you like. Might one stand beside a Brooklyn brownstone? (Land+Living)
  • Lady Liberty is turning a new shade of green. Her torch will now be lit by eco-friendlier windmill power. (New York Post)
  • Tomorrow, the CUNY Graduate Center at 365 5th Avenue is hosting a course on designing and building an environmentally friendly home. (American Institute of Architects)
  • Hearst, makers of Seventeen, Esquire and Cosmopolitan, will occupy “New York’s most environmentally friendly skyscraper.” (Hearst)
  • Work at the cruise ship passenger terminal in Red Hook, which will receive the Queen Mary 2 in April. (New Yorkology)
  • On St. Patrick’s Day, McSorley’s doors open at 8am. (The Village Voice)
  • Italian architect Renzo Piano, known for Centre Georges Pompidou, will redesign the Harvard University Art Museums (HUAM), which will move to the new campus across the Charles River in Allston. (The Harvard Crimson)
  • “Motorised blinds that fan out like a peacock’s tail” keep the newest glasshouse at Kew Botanic Gardens cool. (The Times)
  • Ettore Sottsass, Italian architect and designer, will unveil his first major United States museum show. “If you have ever mixed multiple patterns in a single room, painted one wall a daring color, purchased a teapot with a little bird that whistles when the water‘s hot,” it is because of him. (Los Angeles Times)
  • City Tunnel No. 3 began construction in the Bronx in 1970 and is scheduled for completion in 2020, when about one billion gallons of water a day will run through it. BLDG BLOG goes into detail–with pictures!
  • Forbes gathers the best and worst zip codes in which to buy a home.
  • Anthrax and mecury found in Greenwich Village apartment buildings. (The Villager)
  • Fighting for every square foot on West 12th Street. (The Villager)
  • J. K. Rowling will pay $500,000 for a cozy summer in the Hamptons. (New York)
  • The Stamford Review, an urban planning/architecture journal, published its spring issue:
    “At current rates of growth, the city’s population will reach capacity within seven to ten years. Some selective upzoning might allow the city’s resident population to approach nine million, but this is the approximate limit without radical redevelopment at much higher densities. If New Yorkers wish to preserve their existing residential neighborhoods, then immigration and economic growth must be accommodated by improved regional transportation and housing development.”(Gothamist)
  • – Riva Froymovich

    Monday: Schrager Doesn’t Like Cheap Buyers