News

Saving Chelsea Market

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David Burns of STUDIOS Architecture presented his firm’s vision of an expanded Chelsea Market, above, to a meeting of Community Board 4 last night, attended by residents wearing “Save Chelsea Market” buttons. He promptly heard one viewer’s verdict of “ugly building” endorsed by a peal of applause. The view above looks northeast from the West Side Highway. The design tries … Saving Chelsea Market

Where is Michael Bolla’s Lawsuit?

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The doors of developer and real estate broker Michael Bolla’s 1835 rowhouse at 436 West 20th Street remain plastered with building notices over a year after a Daily News puff piece proclaimed it “one of the most perfectly restored homes in Manhattan.” On February 10, the Department of Buildings’ website indicated that the project was issued … Where is Michael Bolla’s Lawsuit?

Chelsea Mansion: The Art of Fiction

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       In February, a Daily News article by Jason Sheftell described 436 West 20th Street as “one of the most perfectly restored homes in Manhattan.”  Cracked and displaced bricks and window lintels are now features of its façade, following restoration by its owner, the real estate broker Michael Bolla.  ArchiTakes first reported on the building in a March post, “436 West … Chelsea Mansion: The Art of Fiction

436 West 20th Street Rises Above the Law

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White stains of efflorescence mark new brickwork at 436 West 20th Street.  The gable end of the 1835 rowhouse has been raised several feet and given a gambrel profile.  The original peaked roofline is clearly legible in darker-looking brick, about four feet down from the new roofline.  “You have to pay attention to history,” the building’s new owner and co-developer, Michael Bolla … 436 West 20th Street Rises Above the Law

Mapping New York's Shoreline, 1609-2009

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  Henry Wellge’s “Greatest New York”, published by The New York Times Company in 1911 and featured in a new exhibition at the New York Public Library, places the city within a liquid embrace.  Its foreground features the Jersey City waterfront.  New Jersey commuters transferred from Central Railroad of New Jersey trains onto ferries bound for Lower Manhattan, tracing a … Mapping New York's Shoreline, 1609-2009

Robert A.M. Stern, part 2

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Stern’s presumptuousness may owe something to the huge attention and acclaim that attended upon 15 Central Park West, the luxury condo he designed for the Zeckendorf Brothers.  Based on classic prewar apartment buildings by Rosario Candela, the project is probably the biggest real estate phenomenon New York has ever seen.  Quarterly New York real estate reports had to be adjusted to factor … Robert A.M. Stern, part 2

Robert A.M. Stern, part 1

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A rendering shows the main entrance of Robert A.M. Stern’s George W. Bush Presidential Center.  “I’m not considered avant-garde because I’m not avant-garde,” Stern says, “but there is a parallel world out there – of excellence.” Earlier this month Robert A.M. Stern presented his preliminary design of the the Bush Library.  Stern has just the right attributes to be … Robert A.M. Stern, part 1

Influential "Life" Cartoon Turns 100

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  This year is the centenary of a cartoon that has had a remarkable influence on architecture.  Published in Life magazine’s “Real Estate Number” of March, 1909, the full-page cartoon by A.B. Walker shows conventional houses stacked on an open skyscraper frame.  Its caption reads, “‘Buy a cozy cottage in our steel constructed choice lots, less than a mile above Broadway.  … Influential "Life" Cartoon Turns 100

Plug-in Architecture Loses an Icon

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  With Kisho Kurokawa’s Nakagin Capsule Tower (photo: Scarletgreen/Flickr) headed for demolition, the world will lose not just one of the few executed works of Japanese Metabolism, as noted earlier this month by Nicolai Ouroussoff in the New York Times, but a rare built example of plug-in architecture.  The Capsule Tower might at first appear no more than a quaint, dated vision of … Plug-in Architecture Loses an Icon

Nouvel's Tower Verre Not the Only Vision in the Hearing Room

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Jean Nouvel presented his design for the new MoMA tower in a public hearing at the City Planning Commission yesterday.  Calling it “zee meezing peez of zee pizzle”, Nouvel made a case for the spike of his “Tower Verre” as a natural fit within the sawtooth rhythm of Manhattan’s skyline.  Describing its lack of bulk and the way it leans back from the street and attenuates into … Nouvel's Tower Verre Not the Only Vision in the Hearing Room