Gene Kaufman...kough...kough, hack....hack...

[Fabrizio]

In another thread LondonLawyer, posted a link to the "Gene Kaufman Architect" website. A website I had not seen until now.

For those of you who are not fully aware of the stuff that's coming out of this guy's studio, you MUST page through his renderings.

I'm aware that many of his renderings have been posted here already, but it's quite an experience to see them ALL TOGETHER in one place.

I am nauseous. This must be what it's like flipping through John Wayne Gacy's clown paintings.

Folks, we got an architect-psyco on the loose.

Go to: http://www.gkapc.com

Note the 1977-ish Studio-54 graphics style of the logo!

The web site looks like it was designed by "the number 4 web designer in Kazakhstan".

Go to "project", Click on "commercial".

And weep.

----

Here are some sample texts....I guess they were translated from Kazak :

"The tri-partite composition gives each flag its unique expression but joins them into a greater whole. The central window-wall extended stay building is flanked by two short-term stay buildings clad with a checkerboard brick motif that varies in color and height".

"The design provides separate visual identities to two differently flagged buildings that nonetheless form a pair with a major urban presence. Metaphorical development of the images of the king and queen chess pieces, with attendant implications of privacy, duality, and gender roles, informed the design concept"

"The stepping façade concept was readily adapted to the incremental growth."

"The special iron-spot "black" brick, a GKA signature material, frames figural areas of French gray glazed blocks arranged in a symmetrical, but informal, archetypal configuration."


---

[antinimby]

Note the 1977-ish Studio-54 graphics style of the logo!
The web site looks like it was designed by "the number 4 web designer in Kazakhstan".Fabrizio, actually his website was updated very recently.

If you think it is bad now, you should have seen it before.

[krulltime]

I actually went out the other day to check out most of this sites.

[krulltime]

Proposed. Yet to start any construction....


Intercontinental Hotel (On Nassau Street): 55 floors

http://www.pbase.com/image/77304594.jpg

Radisson Financial (99 Washington Street): 40 floors

http://www.pbase.com/image/77304566.jpg

Sheraton Downtown (100 Greenwich Street): 39 floors

http://www.pbase.com/image/77304567.jpg

Holiday Inn Financial (50 Trinity Place): 35 floors

http://www.pbase.com/image/77304561.jpg

Times Square Hotels (337-343 West 39th Street): 35 floors/32 floors

http://www.pbase.com/image/77288441.jpg

Hilton Herald Square (59 West 39th Street): 18 floors

http://www.pbase.com/image/77288427.jpg

[krulltime]

Under construction...

Sheraton Four Points (326 West 40th Street): 33 floors - 297 feet
Marriot Fairfield (330 West 40th Street): 33 floors - 297 feet

http://www.pbase.com/image/77288440.jpg

Holiday Inn Chelsea (125 West 26th Street): 24 floors

http://www.pbase.com/image/77288430.jpg

Holiday Garden (121 West 28th Street): 24 floors

http://www.pbase.com/image/77288429.jpg

Fairfield Inn (126 Water Street): 26 floors

http://www.pbase.com/image/77304517.jpg

Chelsea Hotel (128 West 29th Street): 25 floors

http://www.pbase.com/image/77288421.jpg

Holiday Inn Express (20 Maiden Lane): 20 floors

http://www.pbase.com/image/77288432.jpg

Strand Hotel (33 West 37th Street): 19 floors

http://www.pbase.com/image/77288437.jpg

Sheraton Four Points (66 Charlton Street): 19 floors

http://www.pbase.com/image/77288435.jpg

Wyndham Hotel (37 West 24th Street): 18 floors

http://www.pbase.com/image/77288444.jpg

Marriot Fairfield (116 West 28th Street): 17 floors

http://www.pbase.com/image/77288434.jpg

[alonzo-ny]

Ive been violated.

[Spoon]

Are those all planned for New York?!!!!! Holy Hell!!!!!!!! I'll say it again Holy Hell!!! I thought that hack Condlyis (however you spell it) was bad, but this is a friggin joke. I just realized I hate everything in this world. I think I'm done with architecture if this stuff is built.

This man is going to single handily ruin a lot of manhattan.

Ok I'm being dramatic but come on!!!! Can't someone inspire me with something great and I don't mean weird I mean great.

[investordude]

I confess I'm not a huge fan of many of these buildings, but the two mentioned above look alright to me.

I think the reasoned objection would be to the downtown buildings. On the one hand, they are uncreative boxes. On the other hand, that might be necessary - most of downtown sites are very narrow and tourists want to be on a high floor because that is their impression of New York (especially lower Manhattan, where you're giving up the amenities of midtown).

On balance, I don't like Kaufman's work - I agree his aesthetics are too quirky for me, based on pattern rather than elegance.

[pianoman11686]

I think "stupid" is the best word to describe Kaufman's work. Even when it seems he has the opportunity to make a decent, nondescript building, he inexplicably makes a stylistic decision like changing the brick color, or the pattern around the windows, or that ridiculous rainbow vertical striple. Don't architects know that certain things just don't work, and if you're not good at being creative, it's better to just be boring?

[londonlawyer]

MACKLOWE IS THE WORST! As bad as Chang is, Macklowe is worse. He develops crap in the most prime locations in the city.

I am giving up on NY. When greedy bastards like Schmucklowe have license to raze stunning structures and replace them with crap, a city has clear problems.

I am sickened by this schmuck's annihilation of these beautiful buildings. Adding insult to injury, Schmucklowe plans to replace them with a 40 story glass box.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/179/455781094_1e8f646f92_b.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/250/455880255_b76095e7dc_b.jpg

[antinimby]

This took me 10 minutes using Microsoft Paint to draw up.

Sam Chang, I can provide your company with the same architectural services that Gene Kaufman can.

I can do 50 buildings all in one day and I'll only charge you 5 cents each.

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/1385/kaufmanfn9.jpg

© Antinimby Architects Inc. 2007

[Fabrizio]

LOL & LOL.

Wow, right down to the air-conditioners. I love the bad-ass acid green.

What these clowns, Kaufman and Chang are doing, is bringing boondock, roadside, strip-mall architecture to the center of Manhattan.

It's as if Jethro got his degree.

Sorry guys, but not in my backyard...

The thing that's ironic about architects and developers that pull this kind of crap is that, with their millions, they live in exclusive communities where you can't even change the color of your mailbox without community approval.

Go figure.

[James Kovata]

His designs look like they're made out of Legos. I feel sorry for Legos.

[Fabrizio]

Antinimy: I hope you'll forgive me for pointing this out, but I just noticed one thing about your design proposal that might not pass approval. Look at the windows. You've added a horizontal bar at the center of each window creating 4-panes.

There are a few extravagant exceptions, but a genuine Gene Kaufman window-treatment usually features no such embellishment.


---

[antinimby]

So in other words, even in my attempt to be as bad as Kaufman, I still managed to do better than him?

Sad, really sad (for NY).

[Citytect]

NYC really needs some aesthetic regulations. Considering the expense and disruption correcting these mistakes will require, the likelihood we'll be stuck with them for a long time is great. With such a dense urban fabric, New York needs to be especially careful about what is built within it's city blocks (or demolished, for that matter).

[Fabrizio]

Antinimby: some design inspiration. Click on the photos and compare them side by side:

(BTW: do you guys prefer the rock or the fountain?)

[antinimby]

^ Good one.

I have some taste, so you know I would've flunked out of the Gene Kaufman School of Design (for the Mentally Disabled).

Thankfully.

[Harvick2933]

What really angers me is that all these hotel chains (Marriott, Sheraton, Holiday Inn, Hilton, Radisson, InterContinental, Wyndham, you name them!) are stupid enough to go along with Kaufman/Chang's plot to screw NYC over with their cheap buildings. How can any of them not see that Kaufman's work is nothing short of laughingstock quality and reflects nothing of New York's rich architectural history?

Seriously, it obviously takes Kaufman less time to design and sketch up his designs than for him to render them in his cheap rendering software. Heck, he probably thinks up of the building's design as he does the rendering (like this: I'll start with a 20-storey box, I'll clad it in blue glass. Now let's add vertical columns of red masonry, with a splash of grey here and there. Make the penthouse yellow. Done!). What a disgrace for an architect.

Unfortunately, since 20-storey buildings are pretty much the norm in much of Manhattan, even for areas outside the commercial high-rise districts, those numbskulls at City Hall probably thinks of the impact of those Kaufman buildings on the skyline/streetscape as minimal, which is probably why those Kaufman buildings are being churned out at assembly line rates. But a bad building, no matter how short, is still going to screw the streetscape of a city over, even if it's not tall enough to stick out in the skyline.

[BrooklynRider]

I'm a gold level Marriott Rewards member. I can tell you that I absolutely take into consideration how a property looks and build it into my reservation decision. The only possibility that I can imagine is that these cheap ass, crap designs result in a lower PPSF and therefore lower room rates. However, I doubt that possibility will be a reality. These "affordable, limited service hotels" (i.e., Marriott Court Yard, Marriott Fairl Inn, etc.) are running $200/night and higher. I think there's plenty of choices in this city besides these ugl new properties. Yet, a lot of people on a Marriot Rewards plan will choose and ulgly Marriott property over a niver independent to get the points. If these were independent hotels, they'd be hourly rentals.

[TREPYE]

NYC really needs some aesthetic regulations.

I resoundingly agree. Some agency that has some influence and power to mandate unlike the LPC. This Kaufman dork, (or those Klondys incompetent and SOM sellout architects for that matter) would never get a job in this city if the politicians werent so freaking oblivious and they enforced some quality architecture.

[stache]

The historical precedent in this town has always been about making money so while I agree with you, I think that this is going to be an uphill battle.

[kz1000ps]

The historical precedent in this town has always been about making money

To quote the movie Wall Street: "Now you're not naive enough to think we live in a democracy, are ya buddy? It's the free market.."

[clubBR]

I agree with Citytect that New York needs aesthetic regulations which will ultimately improve quality of life.
Kaufman and Changs' designs look bland and simple. Are these architects popular amongst developers because they are cost efficient (cheap and gets the job done)?
Dont you wish we can bring Art Deco back

[Fabrizio]

"The historical precedent in this town has always been about making money"

While that's true, the ARCHITECTURAL precedent of NYC, and we are talking about architecture here, has been largely about beauty and quality. If this were not true, how many of you would be interested in the city?

Certainly plenty of ugly stuff has been built, but these guys are taking "ugly" to a new low.

---

[londonlawyer]

I sent the following e-mail to Macklowe:

Macklowe's greed is an utter disgrace. I was appalled when I saw the cheap box that "Billy" and Harry are constructing at 510 Madison. My disdain was particularly keen in light of the fact that they razed many beautiful structures in order to obtain that site.

When I learned that they were razing The Drake, I was utterly nauseated. However, their planned destruction of several beautiful townhouses on 57th Street deals an even graver injury to our city's architectural heritage. I understand that these magnificent buildings and The Drake won't even be replaced with a great new building, but rather with a cheap, glass box.

Macklowe's avarice and lack of concern for the city is reprehensible. At least other developers, like Rosen and Silverstein, hire world class architects, such as Foster and Rogers, in an effort to create new landmarks. The Macklowes, by contrast, destroy New York's architectural treasures and replace them with the lowest quality buildings. Your company is an anathema and should be banned from "developing" in New York.

[Vengineer]

Perhaps you should've downgraded your verbiage a bit. I doubt anyone in their office can define words such as 'anathema' or 'architectural'.

[Ninjahedge]

I see it as pure genious!!!

I mean, I have never seen such a brilliant manefestation of 80's pop culture in my life!!!!

http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4134&d=1178408174 http://www.colinfahey.com/oldpages/2002dec22_eclectic_images/space_invaders01.jpg

I think this one is worth at LEAST 25 pts!!!!!

[Harvick2933]

^ hehe...25 points to blow it up I'm assuming?

Golly, if I can just become a developer in NYC with plenty of cash sometimes in the future, the first thing I'll do is to try to buy as many of those McSam garbage buildings as possible and reclad all of them.

[alonzo-ny]

Reclad? just level them for everyones pleasure and wellbeing.

[Harvick2933]

Reclad them, take them down piece by piece, blowing them up into smits, I don't give a dang. Whatever is the cheapest option I will do. One thing for sure, I won't be gentle with them...lol

[Ninjahedge]

Re-cladding may be all most of these things need, but the problem is I do not think their facade beams were designed to hold anything more than aluminum and glass.

So if you wanted stone/brickwork up there, you would be forced to Faux it.

[Fabrizio]

Forget faux ... I'd go with GENUINE aluminum and vinyl siding:

http://www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com/bigmap/brooklyn/greenpoint/siding/index.htm

[Ninjahedge]

They come in TWO COLORS!!!!!

[AtlanticaC5]

Ugh, those are some damn ugly and pathetic buildings, what is the guy thinking? I wonder how he even has the balls to call himself an architect. :mad:

[Spoon]

I think he just comes cheap so people hire him. My buddy said that New York is so hard to build in b/c there are so many laws and it's so expensive so I guess if you can get a cheap architcet and save a couple million you would.

For the most part I don't think most real estate people are into great design. They just want to make money. That sucks I know but it is true.

Also most of the approval process I think is about the zoning and what isn't allowed. Design requirements aren't a huge part of it as much.

For example. Say there is a curved wall in a design. To buy actual curved glass is insanely expensive so developers just use straight glass and create and artificial curve out of it. It looks terrible but it is cheaper so developers do it and the city doesn't care.

anyway this guy sucks and is an embarrasement.

[investordude]

The less regulated an environment, the more good buildings go up. Just look at Hong Kong or Chicago. Fewer rules = more innovating buildings. You're right that people will build some ugly towers with deregulation, but there is also economic value is building a tower that looks good - people want a home that looks nice if they are going to pay 2 million dollars for it. As more proof, consider New York's buildings before regulation, and the kind of colorful competition that led to the Chrystler dome. Now we have government buildings, and its all garbage, from Robert Moses housing towers to modern buildings that beat people up in the approval process.

[antinimby]

I think he just comes cheap so people hire him.That plus he just has no talent and bad taste. A very bad combination.

[investordude]

Untalented people don't get hired repeatedly. His talent is controlling costs and getting projects approved. In this city, those are very impressive talents.

I don't find his taste appealing either though.

[antinimby]

That's what they call a cheap whore.

[sfenn1117]

If you google Gene Kaufman this is the third page to come up. Hopefully he likes to check in on himself!

[macreator]

If you google Gene Kaufman this is the third page to come up. Hopefully he likes to check in on himself!

I had to Google him myself to believe it. That is great. I hope he runs a vanity search sometime soon.

[alonzo-ny]

i hope he runs off a bridge.

[Ninjahedge]

i hope he runs off a bridge.

Just so long as he does not design it first.

[alonzo-ny]

lol

[zarzapan]

I was walking by yesterday and just stopped in my tracks to say... ACK.

[BrooklynRider]

Walk into Chelsea and it's "Ack, Ack, Ack, Ack, Ack, Ack, Ack, Ack, Ack..."

[Ninjahedge]

It is like an inverted elementary school bathroom from the 1960's.....

[Scraperfannyc]

If I lived here, I would never admit it.

[pianoman11686]

Are those Skittles?

Talk about "taste the rainbow." Yeesh.

[Punzie]

If you google Gene Kaufman this is the third page to come up. Hopefully he likes to check in on himself!
If ya'll type his full name every time you criticize him, like in every sentence...:D

[Stern]

I was walking by yesterday and just stopped in my tracks to say... ACK.

Even the very worst architect from the 1960's era wouldn't design anything so ugly.

[Ninjahedge]

Even the very worst architect from the 1960's era wouldn't design anything so ugly... and put their name on it.

Edit... ;)

[Fabrizio]

It looks like an insane asylum that they tried to add a little cheerfulness to.

[antinimby]

A highrise day care center?

[Punzie]

Any possibility that Gene Kaufman is color-blind? Oops... sorry... "prismatically challenged."

[antinimby]

Maybe but how do you explain Sam Chang signing off on them? Is he prismatically challenged as well?

Here's another one from the deadly-duo that is going up as we speak:

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/6418/326w40go0.jpg

[Fabrizio]

It looks like he's re-done his web site. A lot of the really hideous projects like the one posted below are now gone. I wonder if he's trying to distance himself from Chang?

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/6418/326w40go0.jpg

^ We'll all miss this howler of a description:

"The design provides separate visual identities to two differently flagged buildings that nonetheless form a pair with a major urban presence. Metaphorical development of the images of the king and queen chess pieces, with attendant implications of privacy, duality, and gender roles, informed the design concept"

--

Some architectural disasters still remain though.

Unfortunately the texts are no longer poetic, but he has coined a new term: the "Gotel":

http://www.gkapc.com/Commercial-108-24thstreet.html

[Punzie]

^^So that's what happened to the lego tower I built in kindergarten!

[BrooklynRider]

Gene Kaufman is, without peer, the worst working architect in New York City. Gene Kaufman's putrid designs will pollute the city landfscape for decades to come and will become textbook examples of the absolute worst in urban design. If this city had an architectural review board, Gene Kaufman buildings would be rejected outright.

[MidtownGuy]

Oh how I wish we had such a review board.

[ablarc]

Gene Kaufman is, without peer, the worst working architect in New York City. Gene Kaufman's putrid designs will pollute the city landfscape for decades to come and will become textbook examples of the absolute worst in urban design. If this city had an architectural review board, Gene Kaufman buildings would be rejected outright.
Now let's back off for a minute.

Many of Gene's designs are crude, primitive and tasteless.

Others are crude, primitive, tasteless, and a little bit interesting:



http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/6418/326w40go0.jpg

^ We'll all miss this howler of a description:

"The design provides separate visual identities to two differently flagged buildings that nonetheless form a pair with a major urban presence. Metaphorical development of the images of the king and queen chess pieces, with attendant implications of privacy, duality, and gender roles, informed the design concept"
The description may be funny, but it's easy to buy. I can see the metaphor, for what it's worth. I can also see the quotation from Graves' Portland building. Furthermore, I can see that this building[s] is nowhere near as screamingly dull as a run-of-the-mill Kondylis apartment building on West 42nd Street.

Since we're as stuck with Gene as we are with Costas, we should encourage Kaufman's attempts to at least not be boring.

Even if these efforts are crude, primitive and tasteless --and come with hilarious descriptions.

I'll take crude, primitive and tasteless over deadly dull. Any day.

[Fabrizio]

It's the 4th of July over by you guys.

There is beer, drinks, killer punch. Everybody is feeling good.

Instead, over here, the 4th of July is like any other day.

And guess what?

That building is ugly.

[ablarc]

^ But is it boring?

[Fabrizio]

I'd rather be bored.

To death.

[TREPYE]

LOL. Hmmm....Tacky vs Boring, quite the conundrum. Sounds like a good poll question. :p

[lofter1]

Boring can be ignored.

Tacky demands some attention. But ultimately is boring, as well (in its own way).

If I had to choose:

Tacky in small doses.

[Punzie]

Tacky is unnerving, creates anxiety, the last thing Manhattan needs more of. Boring, if nothing else, is relaxing. As for the future, it's easier to 'spiff up" a boring building than 'dull-down' a tacky building.

...Tacky vs Boring, quite the conundrum. Sounds like a good poll question. :p
Great idea^^ - Who's going to do it?

[ablarc]

Boring, if nothing else, is relaxing.
Yeah, I know what you mean. Those last few blocks on 42nd Street just before you get to the River: I get really relaxed going through there.

[Punzie]

That's it, get relaxed and saunter off the pier.:p:)

[pianoman11686]

Manhattan's getting soooooo boring.

[ablarc]

^ Grows more relaxing by the day.

[antinimby]

Time to unleash another Kaufman-McSam beauty on ya.

As some of you already know, this one's on the corner of Maiden Lane and Liberty Place right in the Financial District.

Enjoy the loveliness...

http://www.rkf.com/resources/11988/20MaidenLane_main2a.jpg

[lofter1]

He and his developers are so cheap -- they even create a blank wall above their own setback :eek:

[Fabrizio]

^ Rendering of the kitchens :

http://www.aperfectworld.org/Other_Projects/Sears/sears208.jpg

[TREPYE]

He and his developers are so cheap -- they even create a blank wall above their own setback :eek:
http://www.rkf.com/resources/11988/20MaidenLane_main2a.jpg
How disgusting. :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

[Ninjahedge]

His sets scream pre-fab LEGO like design.

Almost anything is built with these basic shapes, probably from a related contractors catalog. The only reason he gets these is because he is probbably profiscient with them and their lack of true differentiation means that the typical details and other features take so little time that the only major cost is construction manpower hours.


And Fab, funny! But I would think they would put a marble countertop on top of that washer.

It is luxury you know!!!!!

[lofter1]

But Mr. Kaufman would suggest you use the Formica (http://www.formica.com/publish/site/na/us/en/index/laminate.html) "marble" instead ...

http://www.bottlebrushstuff.com/new%20Pics%201/MVC-527S.JPG

[Derek2k3]

Unreal.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1236/577999775_617e1a4b61_b.jpg


http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1303/747143831_858d3af500_o.jpg


http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1289/747143813_d759696d6b_o.jpg

[ablarc]

^ Just because you don't know what to do, don't let that keep you from doing it!

[Stern]

I'm not saying Kondylis is a great architect, but he is a good architect, given a limited budget he will produce something acceptable. For this reason I don't criticize buildings like the Epic, which was designed by Fox and Fowle on a limited budget, it takes a certain skill to produce an acceptable building on a small budget. Gene Kaufman can produce on a limited budget, unfortunately for all us he is a horrible architect with a horrible eye and horrible design skills and the city suffers for it. The positive of all this is that I feel that alot of his buildings wont stand the test of time, passing his new hotel across from the NYTimes yesterday I was reminded of that slender tower that existed on the BOFA site, because these buildings are so cheap it won't be as difficult to replace them when a developer with a greater vision purchases these monstrosities as part of a larger site.

[lofter1]

That "slende" beige-ish tower at 305 W. 39th across from the NY TImes Tower was designed not by Kaufman but by his apparent clone, Peter Poon. Seems where one of those two goes the other follows not far behind.

[ablarc]

Peter Poon.
Comic book name. Lives in Gotham. ...Or is it Metropolis?

[Stern]

That "slende" beige-ish tower at 305 W. 39th across from the NY TImes Tower was designed not by Kaufman but by his apparent clone, Peter Poon. Seems where one of those two goes the other follows not far behind.

Although very ugly, the one across from NYTIMES has some design sensibility, albeit suburban, I should have known it wasn't a Kaufmann by the lack of red, green, or yellow zig-zags.

[ablarc]

Attacking an architect for being unoriginal:

I was never excited with 15 Central Park, I think its rather dull for all the money they invested in the design, now that I'm convinced that its a rip-off of a smaller pre-war building right off a smaller park, I have come to thoroughly dislike the building imposter, perhaps AM should stick to writing about NYC history instead of copying it in his designs.
Making excuses for another architect's unoriginality:

I'm not saying Kondylis is a great architect, but he is a good architect, given a limited budget he will produce something acceptable. For this reason I don't criticize buildings like the Epic, which was designed by Fox and Fowle on a limited budget, it takes a certain skill to produce an acceptable building on a small budget.
Consistent? :)

.

[Stern]

What I wrote is consistent.

I was never excited with 15 Central Park, I think its rather dull for all the money they invested in the design, now that I'm convinced that its a rip-off of a smaller pre-war building right off a smaller park, I have come to thoroughly dislike the building imposter, perhaps AM should stick to writing about NYC history instead of copying it in his designs.

I'm not saying Kondylis is a great architect, but he is a good architect, given a limited budget he will produce something acceptable. For this reason I don't criticize buildings like the Epic, which was designed by Fox and Fowle on a limited budget, it takes a certain skill to produce an acceptable building on a small budget.

If 15 Central Park was built on a limited budget I would think it was "acceptable" because it is "acceptable", but because of the budget allowed I expect an architect to take advantage of his opportunity and design something far more creative and ambitious. I can understand a building being somewhat ordinary and won't entirely rip apart the architect if the budget for the project is small, ie. most of Kondylis' buildings and the Epic by Fox and Fowle. Such an excuse cannot be given to Robert AM Stern and 15 Central Park West.

[antinimby]

^ Just because you don't know what to do, don't let that keep you from doing it!FUNNY!

By the way, what is that material with the colors? Is that some sort of wallpaper?

[LeCom]

Cocaine is a hell of a drug.

[ablarc]

By the way, what is that material with the colors? Is that some sort of wallpaper?
That's about the thickness of it.

[zarzapan]

I thought it was tile. But my friend swore it had to be paint.

It should be *possible* to design a building with a strip of colorful mosaic running up the middle in such a way that the result would be attractive. But this sure ain't it.

[lofter1]

The windows are no help (how much $$ can they save by going this route?) ...

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1303/747143831_858d3af500_o.jpg

[zarzapan]

I thought it was tile. But my friend swore it had to be paint.
Hey, maybe it's Formica?

[lofter1]

I'd be willing to bet that it's glazed brick (http://www.masonrymagazine.com/11-02/cover.html) ... or more likely here a thin veneer of brick look-alike tiles ...

Here's a manufacturer of exterior-ready porcelain tiles from, yes you guessed it, China: YUXIANG Ceramic Tile (http://www.ceramictile.com.cn/polished-porcelain-tiles/300by600.html)

And an American manufacturer of color "thin brick" veneers: Castaic Brick (http://www.castaicbrick.com/swatches_glazed.htm)

http://www.castaicbrick.com/images/swatches/british-green.jpg
British Green

http://www.castaicbrick.com/images/swatches/bfrench-blue.jpg
French Blue

http://www.castaicbrick.com/images/spacer.gifhttp://www.castaicbrick.com/images/swatches/white.jpg
Arctic White

http://www.castaicbrick.com/images/swatches/cappuccino.jpg
Cappuccino

http://www.castaicbrick.com/images/swatches/turquoise.jpg
Turquoise

http://www.castaicbrick.com/images/spacer.gifhttp://www.castaicbrick.com/images/swatches/lemon-ice.jpg
Lemon Ice

http://www.castaicbrick.com/images/swatches/cb_burntorange.jpg
Burnt Orange http://www.castaicbrick.com/images/spacer.gif

[Ninjahedge]

I think they just "borrowed" their windows from a nearby school rennovation project... :p

[lofter1]

Kaufman's website (http://www.gkapc.com/) (> projects > commercial) says this about the facade:

The black brick sides frame two full height bay windows, which in turn flank an abstract multi-colored polished masonry mural on the central pier.


polished masonry :confused:

And does a 2 inch protrusion really count as a "bay window" :confused: :confused: :confused:

[stache]

WTF does this mural depict?

[lofter1]

For a change of pace ...

Go HERE (http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showpost.php?p=175727&postcount=34) to see the design for the McSam / Kaufman hotel at 66 Charlton, where :



Rare steel framed construction for this building type was crafted to minimize building weight, avoiding pile foundations, and to benefit from low-cost local labor to reduce construction costs.


That is nearly hilarious.

I guess workers from China are considered local to Chang.

As for the Mexicans .....

[Bob]

Perhaps Kaufman is the Morris Lapidus of our times?

[lofter1]

Kaufman should only wish ^^^

Lapidus was sensuous and understood the allure of a curve -- a shape which seems entirely foreign to Kaufman.

[Stern]

Kaufman should only wish ^^^

Lapidus was sensuous and understood the allure of a curve -- a shape which seems entirely foreign to Kaufman.

I've never heard anyone say Lapidus was sensuous before, I know I wouldn't. Kaufman is right down there with Lapidus and Alfred Easton Poor, the very worst of the 1960's era of architecture, luckily Kaufman hasn't had the opportunity to design anything so imposingly ugly such as Lapidus' 2 Penn Plaza, Madison Square Garden, and the Prudential Tower in Boston.

What I want to know is who gave this thread one star out of five, does Kaufman deserve as much?

[lofter1]

I was talking about Lapidus' hotel designs ... shich, for the period in which they were designed, had some sensuality and panache.

And WIT.

Kaufman is sorely lacking in any of those virtues.

[Fabrizio]

"I've never heard anyone say Lapidus was sensuous before, I know I wouldn't."

Sensuous to the max.

There is some confusion here. First of all, Lapidus' had NOTHING to with 2 Penn Plaza, Madison Square Garden, or the Prudential Tower in Boston.

The most famous Lapidus creation was the Fontainbleau in Miami. Designed like a Hollywood stage set, it was the height of swank. Kitschy... you bet.. but it caught the public's fancy. Lapidus used extravagant materials and forms.

The hotel was used in "Goldfinger" and "The Bellboy" among many others and as an advertising backdrop through the 50's and 60's.

Don't even THINK of comparing this guy to Kaufman.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontainebleau_Hotel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Lapidus

[ZippyTheChimp]

Not Kaufman

http://www.metropolitanhotelnyc.com/images/exterior2006-2.jpg

[ablarc]

I've never heard anyone say Lapidus was sensuous before, I know I wouldn't. Kaufman is right down there with Lapidus and Alfred Easton Poor, the very worst of the 1960's era of architecture, luckily Kaufman hasn't had the opportunity to design anything so imposingly ugly such as Lapidus' 2 Penn Plaza, Madison Square Garden, and the Prudential Tower in Boston.
You're confusing Lapidus with Luckman. Charles Luckman designed all the buildings you cite.

[BrooklynRider]

The Eden Roc and Foutainbleu in Miami Beach are Lapidus designs and they are beautiful.

[ablarc]

The Eden Roc and Foutainbleu in Miami Beach are Lapidus designs and they are beautiful.
Yeah, the way Liberace was beautiful (he was, you know ;) :)).

[Stern]

You're confusing Lapidus with Luckman. Charles Luckman designed all the buildings you cite.

Woops. I was thinking of Luckman.

[lofter1]

Glad we got that ^^^ cleared up ...

I've never heard of Luckman, and when Stern connected Lapidus with 2 Penn Plaza I was somewhat dumbstruck -- but know that just about anyone is capable of terrible work (at atimes) and can be corrupted by $$.

Good to see that wny has cleared Morris of that crime.

[Bob]

Apologies to WNY readers and to Mr. Lapidus...I wasn't trying to say that Kaufman is lousy and so was Lapidus. I actually think Lapidus was under-appreciated! I was drawing comparisons to Lapidus because Kaufman seems to use overly simple geometric designs which appear cartoonish. This is what has often been said of Lapidus. Who knows? Thirty years from now, someone will be wildly proclaiming the genius of Kaufman, and saying how "those guys back in 2007 didn't get it."

Architecture is often as fickle as skirt lengths. To wit, I think art deco never went out of style, and neither did miniskirts.

[212]

From Curbed:

http://www.curbed.com/2007_07_4thAveMcSam1.JPG

As a follow-up to our recent report (http://www.curbed.com/archives/2007/07/11/downtown_towerwatch_mr_gehry_meet_mr_mcsam.php) regarding prolific hotel developer (http://www.curbed.com/archives/2007/05/01/sam_changs_city_takeover_continues_unabated.php) Sam Chang and his latest McSam project we now bring you something entirely different: Adaptive Re-Use, McSam-Style. Under the name Rising Sun (perhaps that should be Rising SAM?) a new-ish 11-story Gene Kaufman-designed structure will be inserted within the existing 2-story little beauty at the SW corner of E. 13th Street and Fourth Avenue just below Union Square, a site (http://www.curbed.com/archives/2007/01/15/rumblings_bumblings_responses_more_mcsam.php) we bumbled about last winter.

http://www.curbed.com/2007_07_4thAveMcSam2.JPG

Unlike some other colorful (http://www.curbed.com/archives/2007/07/03/mcsam_not_making_many_mcfans_with_this_one.php) Kaufman creations (http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006/10/18/scary_interesting_williamsburg_renderings.php) this project, according to architect Kaufman's website (http://www.gkapc.com/), will make use of an "architecturally elaborate two-story building underbuilt by 50,000 square feet". No wrecking ball here. And they're saving the AWNINGS!

http://www.curbed.com/2007_07_4thAveMcSam3.JPG

[The building along the south side of E 13th Street, just east of Broadway]

[212]

^ Nice to see a McSam that doesn't shred the urban fabric.

[GVNY]

Everything this man creates is just tremendously awful. My heart hurts.

[Stern]

Simcity has better looking buildings than the ones Gene Kaufman designs. Punchout windows? They didn't look good in the 1970's they sure don't look good now.

[212]

^ Y'all are too tough. The new part won't be overly visible, and the design preserves the original structure and streetscape.

[lofter1]

But if he had a bit of wit and a touch of finesse this could be really terrific.

Instead it's just kind of dull and sort of OK and fairly forgettable -- although me fears that in real life it will actually be deadly and most likely worse than the old blank walls that one can see at the site now.

[stache]

Considering the location I don't think the addition will be very noticeable.

[Ninjahedge]

^ Y'all are too tough. The new part won't be overly visible, and the design preserves the original structure and streetscape.

Not really. The thing looks liek a giant grey box on the roof. That is all. Maybe he had too much exposure to cat-carriers when he was a child or something, but that "design that preserves" does not preserve anything really. It just builds a big boring box on the roof of an existing structure.

[ablarc]

It's not so bad. Better than the blank walls, and we get to keep the nice old building.

For Kaufman, this is a foray into acceptability. Since he's not going away, maybe we should applaud his better impulses.

[GVNY]

The one and (hopefully) only, Gene Kaufman:

http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/2613/gkago6.png

[Fabrizio]

^ That would make a mean comb-over.

[zarzapan]

Wow. That hair is almost as arresting as his architectural aesthetic.

[TREPYE]

Wow. That hair is almost as arresting as his architectural aesthetic.

Well pretty much like the aesthetics, the hair is not there.

[LeCom]

Wow. That guy shouldn't be allowed to pick his hairstyle. Who allowed him to pick building designs?

[ablarc]

Wow. That guy shouldn't be allowed to pick his hairstyle. Who allowed him to pick building designs?
The architectural registration board. There's no requirement for aesthetic competence.

[212]

From Curbed:

'Silvery Metallic Megastructure' Coming to Burg's Union Ave.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007, by Robert
http://curbed.com/2007_07_544%20Union.jpg
What you're looking at is 554 Union Avenue. You might know the former building on the site as the Abbe Eng. Co. for many years. It's on a part of Union Avenue in Williamsburg that's getting a radical makeover (http://curbed.com/archives/2007/03/14/new_look_on_union_avenue_chocolate_edition.php). The design of the six-story condo is from the offices of Gene Kaufman Architect (http://www.gkapc.com/). They describe it so:A derelict contaminated site in the hip Williamsburg neighborhood is reclaimed for a new silvery metallic megastructure configured as 100 residential condominiums. The L-shaped, 120,000 square foot building occupies half of a city block. Two separate new six-story buildings spanning two streets extend an urban paradigm to a smaller scale integrated with adjacent row houses and factories.

[212]

^ I hope that's retail at the base. Not sure how it'd work with the cross bracing.

[ablarc]

^ I hope that's retail at the base. Not sure how it'd work with the cross bracing.
Inexplicable --like many of this guy's decisions.

This building is certainly a departure for Gene.

[LeCom]

Wow, that's actually a nice buidlign. What happened, Gene? Where's all the low quality brick? Where are the bright yet dirty colors? Where are the solid brick/concrete walls? I got a bad feeling that there is a surprise on the two walls that we don't see in the rendering. There must be. Or maybe those blue panels are not windows, but plywood painted blue.

By the way, brick started going up on the central of the three hotels to the south of Port Authority. Oh, the horror. I had no idea red brick could be so ugly.

[212]

I know, he finally designs a nice building, and then he forgets it needs a door :)

Maybe that's why all those people are standing on the balconies. They're trying to find a way out ...

[scumonkey]

By the way, brick started going up on the central of the three hotels to the south of Port Authority. Oh, the horror. I had no idea red brick could be so ugly.front
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb276/scumonkey/39th-view.jpg

back
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb276/scumonkey/40th-view.jpg

[ablarc]

Gadzooks ... all those bricks and windows ... trapped in the grid !!

[DominicanoNYC]

I know, he finally designs a nice building, and then he forgets it needs a door :)

Maybe that's why all those people are standing on the balconies. They're trying to find a way out ...

Oh any you have those people at ground level looking up thinking "How'd they get in there?" :) That actually is a nice design though. But that brick building is... yikes.

[krulltime]

Oh no! That building is ugly already.

[BrooklynRider]

It's hard to look at. How can such a large structure be allowed to be so horrendous? Is there such a thing as "architectural pollution"? Gene Kaufman is truly a blight on this city.

[LeCom]

Somebody needs to sneak into his office and sabotage his architecture license. Now.

[antinimby]

No use. He'd only get a replacement.

I suggest something deadlier.

[Skylimitone]

This thread has me rolling on the floor with laughter when I come here. I think the developers responsible for choosing him are just as terrible.

[LeCom]

Oh no! That building is ugly already.
That brick is not the one I was talking about. That color is actually decent. I was talking about the acid red brick monstrocity that's beginning to climb up the wall of another Kaufman masterpiece on the same block, facing Port Authority.

[scumonkey]

oh, you mean this other POS (that's right behind the other one)!
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb276/scumonkey/other-one.jpg

[Spoon]

If you are a developer why would you choose this guy? Is it because he is cheap? or is he efficient and gets things planned and done under budget?

I for one would be embarrassed to live in one of these things but what do I know. I have friends that live in he bilmore which I think also sucks and they thinks it's the greatest thing ever. They are also corporate and lack any sense of art or vision.

[lofter1]

The red brick wall facing the PABT will soon become non-visible as two (yes TWO) additional hotel projects are slated: (1) at the recently cleared site to the west of the Lam /Kaufman hotel duo on W. 40th, and (2) at a soon-to-be demolished building just to the west of that.

Both will rise to nearly the same height as the Chang trio on W. 39th. Probably all the hotels will have similar "back" walls of solid red brick looking out onto each other -- a nice amenity for hotel guests looking for a bargain rate room near Times Square :rolleyes:

[scumonkey]

Those red brick walls on the backs that the guests get to look out at, are FAR NICER than the crappy patterned schlock that we all get to see from the front!!!

[BrooklynRider]

Somebody needs to sneak into his office and sabotage his architecture license. Now.

Driver's License vs. Architecture License

Is there an architecture equivalent to vehicular manslaughter?

[antinimby]

Yes and it's called McSams.

[LeCom]

I'm not sure if breaking the streetwall in every building he designs is one of his crimes or a blessing, since removing the building a few feet into the block spares us from seeing as much of it while walking down the street.

[RandySavage]

Does anyone know if the hideous black and white POS with the hollow rectangle on top (on the right of the photo) is a Kaufman design?
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1358/758318208_dd7b4606b6_b.jpg

This horrible building is a real blight on the Hudson River side skyline. On a positive note, Sky House looks pretty good from the Hudson side.

[scumonkey]

NO!!!!
if I'm not mistaken it's
Chelsea Arts Tower - 545 West 25th St - Commercial Condo
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/197/469322983_9e039147fa_o.jpg

A very nice building (No POS by any means) (imho)!

[TREPYE]

If you are a developer why would you choose this guy? Is it because he is cheap? or is he efficient and gets things planned and done under budget?


Exactomondo! SOM falls under the same category, and they designed whats supposed to be our next "iconic" tower. Just to give you the state of things here in NYC development.

[Skylimitone]

YUCK!

https://community.emporis.com/images/6/2007/10/568114.jpg

https://community.emporis.com/images/6/2007/10/568116.jpg

Couldn't even hold the camera still for this one.

https://community.emporis.com/images/6/2007/10/568115.jpg

[kz1000ps]

What I want to know is who gave this thread one star? Nobody rates threads here (a good thing), and yet somehow this one got one star.

I like to imagine it was one of Kaufman's underlings who came across it and thought, "hehe haha hoho we'll show those hoity-toity snobs! You think we're lousy, well right back at ya!" :D

[scumonkey]

Couldn't even hold the camera still for this one.
And that's just the back...which will be blocked out by another Chang POS
(Which they haven't even started yet)!
The front will make you want to scratch your eyes out.

[antinimby]

Instead of a star there should be some kind of warning instead.

Warning: opening and viewing the photos found in this thread will cause irreversible damage to your eyesight.

[BrooklynRider]

What I want to know is who gave this thread one star? Nobody rates threads here (a good thing), and yet somehow this one got one star.

I like to imagine it was one of Kaufman's underlings who came across it and thought, "hehe haha hoho we'll show those hoity-toity snobs! You think we're lousy, well right back at ya!" :D

Actually, the rating legend has one star correlating with "terrible."

[krulltime]

Ugrr. Those are scary looking buildings. Well just in time for Halloween I guess.

[LeCom]

Let's shoot him.

[alonzo-ny]

Not a bad idea but maybe too harsh, lets just tie him up in a basement so he cant practise any more.

[BrooklynRider]

He ought to be put on top of a Grayline tour bus and forced to host six tours daily on his buildings. That'll be some instant feedback.:mad:

[LeCom]

Or we can just shoot him.

[Front_Porch]

^ giggle giggle tee hee.

ali r.
{downtown broker}

[lofter1]

The latest proposal from our favorite, Gene Kaufman ...

1 - 13 Greene Street / 335 - 341 Canal Street (NW Corner Green / Canal)

SoHo Cast Iron Historic District

DOB New Building (http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/JobDetailsServlet?requestid=4&allisn=0001417083&allboroughname=&allnumbhous=&allstrt=) Application DISAPPROVED 9.09.07

6 Stories + PH
Height: 100'

Architect: Gene Kaufman
Owner: Judo Associates (Land held under Agreement with 335 Canal LLC, a remnant of the Sol Goldman Estate)

***

Community Board 2 HEARING / ZONING & HOUSING David Reck, Chair

Thursday, November 8 -- 6:45 PM
NYU Silver Building, 32 Waverly Pl. Room 520 (I.D. Required)

PROPERTY: 341 Canal St nw corner Greene (Block: 229, Lot: 1)
CPC# 070161 ZSM
City Planning Commission Special permit pursuant to Section 74-712 of the Zoning Resolution to allow construction of a new six story plus penthouse residential building, Use Group 2 with ground floor retail Use Group 6 (no eating & drinking establishment) and to permit minor bulk modification for height, setback, and sky exposure plane in an M1-5B zoning District.

***

CITY PLANNING:


341 Canal Street; special permit pursuant to Section 74-712(a) and 74-712(b) for the modification of the use regulations of Section 42-14(D) to permit residential use group use on the upper floors and retail use below the floor level of the second story; and the modification of the bulk regulations of Section 43-43 to modify the height and setback requirements of a proposed building to be located in an M1-5B zoning district within the
SoHo Cast Iron Historic District. (M2)

CERTIFIED ...


MAP of the Site ...

[scumonkey]

With all the umm... corruption in this city, do you think we could start a pay off fund to help the DOB keep rejecting permits from sam & lackies?!

[NYatKNIGHT]

The idea of having Greene Street tainted by Kauffman is absolutely nauseating.

[lofter1]

Especially at that location, where Church Street intersects Canal directly to the south -- and therefore making this property is a very visible "gateway" of sorts to SoHo.

Hoping to get to the CB2 Meeting on Thursday to see if there are renderings of the plan.

[Skylimitone]

This gives me a headache. The back, front, back is front, back is front, LOL!

11-17-2007

https://community.emporis.com/images/6/2007/11/572509.jpg

https://community.emporis.com/images/6/2007/11/572524.jpg

https://community.emporis.com/images/6/2007/11/572514.jpg

https://community.emporis.com/images/6/2007/11/572513.jpg

[Citytect]

I don't understand. I just don't understand.

[TREPYE]

Head shakingly disgraceful

https://community.emporis.com/images/6/2007/11/572509.jpg

https://community.emporis.com/images/6/2007/11/572524.jpg

[lofter1]

Low-end is always in vogue ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJjE-UtqQdU&feature=related

[Stern]

I much prefer the penitentiary back side to the bozo-the-clown circus front side.

[lofter1]

The exposed floor plates on both exposures are very finely wrought :cool:

However at the rear north-facing exposure they seem to have a particular power -- something which gets lost amongst the riotous interaction between the three differentiated south-facing facades.

[scumonkey]

I've said it before I'll say it again...The Back is Way better looking than the front (and that's not saying much)!
The pictures also don't show how shiny the McDonalds red brick is going up on the building next door in the back (40th st)- what a frightmare:eek:

[Fabrizio]

Looks like Tirana, my favorite 3rd world city:

http://membres.lycos.fr/viperpms/manu/images/tirana%20couleur2.jpg

[scumonkey]

I think Tirana looks BETTER!
At least it's playful - not DREADFUL like Gene's

[tone99loc]

I would like to see the world through Gene Kaufman's eyes for a day...

[alonzo-ny]

You already did when you were around 4.

[GVNY]

I would like to see the world through Gene Kaufman's eyes for a day...


Those who do never live through it.

I've only heard rumours of terror...

[BrooklynRider]

Gene Kaufman has eyes? All along I thought he was blind and scribbling wildly in the few Crayolas that they allowed him in the school for the soul-deficient.

[Skylimitone]

You already did when you were around 4.

LOL!!:D

[tone99loc]

Ahhhh, too funny - you guys crack me up...

[alonzo-ny]

Maybe its like that movie ratatouille where there is a rat trying to be an architect with Gene being the 'human'. Actually calling him human makes me feel nausea.

[krulltime]

http://www.ac-nancy-metz.fr/enseign/anglais/Henry/throw_up.jpg


:( Sorry about that! I couldn't hold my self, after those photos.

[212]

From Curbed:

Kaufman Set to Cross Canal and Invade Soho
Wednesday, November 21, 2007, by Pete

http://curbed.com/uploads/2007_11_341Canal1.JPG

Now that architect Gene Kaufman has seemingly managed to finally plug the ever-seeping hole at 370 Canal Street (http://curbed.com/archives/2007/05/29/strike_3_for_mcsam_at_370_canal_hotel_site.php), he's set his sights on a big parking lot across the street on the southern edge of Soho. The vacant lot at the corner of Greene and Canal will soon be home to Kaufman's new take on a classic Soho cast iron building. Given Kaufman's singular vision (http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13617&highlight=kaufman), that means his version will be less articulated than its neighbors. In fact it all looks pretty flat, as if someone put an old loft building through the wringer.

http://curbed.com/uploads/2007_11_341Canal2.JPG
The parking lot at the NW corner of Canal and Greene in SoHo.

Maybe because the developer plans to market this 7-story, 58-unit building (http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/JobDetailsServlet?requestid=2&allisn=0000071350&allboroughname=&allnumbhous=&allstrt=) as a rental, the little things like materials and proportions aren't getting the attention due them. But the venerable Landmarks Preservation Commission and notoriously ornery Community Board 2 aren't too concerned and both have given this project the needed OK. One minor sticking point might be the distinct possibility of some nasty fuel seepage from old underground storage tanks. But the NYC DEP is on top of that and has this site documented from here to Tuesday. Besides, with all the professionals on board here what could possibly go wrong?


http://curbed.com/uploads/2007_11_341Canal4.JPG
http://curbed.com/uploads/2007_11_341Canal5.JPG
Testing the soil for seepage last spring.

[Citytect]

http://curbed.com/uploads/2007_11_341Canal1.JPG


This is a masterpiece by Kaufman standards. It's actually an alright filler building, but this particular site deserves something more vibrant. Plus you know the material choices will be whatevers the cheapest. Ugh.

[scumonkey]

Is it just me or does it look like this building comes further out onto the
sidewalk than the others in the rendering- the exact opposite of what
this Poser usually does. If so WHY?
I bet Gene was the kind of child who couldn't even stay within the lines
in his colouring books.

[alonzo-ny]

How did he even get a degree???

[Optimus Prime]

scumonkey, I noticed that, too. It's like an anti-setback. My guess is it's just a crappy rendering. GKA doesn't do anything well, and that includes renderings.

[scumonkey]

Let him know you don't appreciate what he's doing to our city!
Gene Kaufman, Hackitect
424 Broadway. 8th floor
212-625-8700 Fax 212-625-8867

[212]

This is a masterpiece by Kaufman standards.

Maybe the intern designed it?

[tone99loc]

Someone should just print out this entire thread and mail it to him...

[LeCom]

Any word as to why we haven't shot him yet?

[212]

^ You're not allowed to execute the insane.

[TREPYE]

^^ Lets not forget guys that as bad as this guy is (and his work is mostly horrid) there is also some dirtbag of a developer who actually pays this guy to come with these designs and eventually builds em.

[lofter1]

... does it look like this building comes further out onto the sidewalk than the others in the rendering ...

I think that ^ is due to the lack of articulation of the facade -- all the areas which in a classic cast iron building would be recessed (areas around doorways / windows) are in this rendering pushed forward -- hence the "flat" appearance. The windows, too, appear flat with little articulation between panes / mullions.

This building has no historic "weight" -- just bulk. It looks like a photocopy of a cast iron buidling pasted onto a box :mad:

I'll be willing to bet that GKA's latest gift to NYC will be clad using a thin grade of metal -- something akin to the fairly new building that went up on Houston / Greene a few years back (although that one doesn't have the extreme degree of flatness as this one).

Given that this is a Kaufman design we can rest assured that the completed building will look as bad as (if not worse than) the rendering.

:mad:

[Ebola]

I love this man.


10,000/10

[LeCom]

^ You're not allowed to execute the insane.
I'm not saying we should kill him; just shooting him a few times will do. Besides, he is a criminal, he deserves punishment. Or if you choose to be a humanist ("blah blah, we cah't shoot people even if they really deserve it") and claim that he's insane (which he is), at least put him in a straight jacket so he can't use his hands to produce any more horrid schemes.

[Ebola]

I really love this one of his:

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/6545/capturebt8.jpg

All of the others, most of them, not so much...

Like I've said before, I hope NY gets more buildings like this with lots of structure showing.

[scumonkey]

I'm sorry, but to me, that building looks like Port Authority with a glass skin job :o
structure - yes - Lincoln Logs @ Lego boxes - no

[investordude]

I'm normally pro-development, but the heart of Soho is no place for a Kauffman building. As an intact historic district, Soho has a lot of value. I wouldn't have any problem with this building being in the area around where the Trump Soho building is - but I think the "real" Soho should require some architectural review. In fairness, Kauffman gave it a try. But we need a Robert Stern kind of skilled architect who can respect Soho while adding new building stock.

[Ebola]

I'm sorry, but to me, that building looks like Port Authority with a glass skin job :o
structure - yes - Lincoln Logs @ Lego boxes - no

To me, it looks like one of the greatest buildings in the city. I wonder if it's built or will be built. Buildings like that add charm.

[ramvid01]

^^ The kind of charm that wants you to barf multiple times. :mad:

[ZippyTheChimp]

Top floor is all wrong.

Why did this have to be a corner lot?

[Ebola]

^^ The kind of charm that wants you to barf multiple times. :mad:


I had to go back a page to check if the building that I posted really was bad. Sorry, but it's amazing in my opinion. It's most likely this guy's apex, though. I don't understand how people can't like it.

[londonlawyer]

I'm not saying we should kill him; just shooting him a few times will do....

While I oppose the use of coersive tactics on the prisoners at Guantanomo, I would like to waterboard (and engage in other forms of torture) Macklowe, Zuckerman, Chang and Kaufman.

We should set Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and Rumsfeld loose on these d...cks!

[Fabrizio]

From Wikipedia:


"Ebola is both the common term used to describe a group of viruses belonging to genus Ebolavirus, family Filoviridae, and the common name for the disease which they cause, Ebola hemorrhagic fever."

"Ebola has caused a number of serious and highly publicized outbreaks since its discovery, as well as featuring as the gruesome antagonist in many forms of entertainment."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola

[antinimby]

In Hotel Design, He’s Mr. Prolific


http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/02/17/business/17sqft.1904.jpg
The architect Gene Kaufman is
designing 36 hotels in Manhattan,
including three that will share a
single building on West 39th Street
near Times Square, right, and
three more on West 40th Street.


By FRED A. BERNSTEIN
Published: February 17, 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/realestate/commercial/17sqft.html)

IN his SoHo office, the architect Gene Kaufman is presenting drawings of his latest buildings.

“This one is for Marriott in Chelsea,” he said, pointing to a rendering of a slender, gray tower. “This is a Sheraton on Canal Street. This one’s a Doubletree in the financial district ...”

Mr. Kaufman is just getting warmed up.

Many architects would be happy to design a single hotel in Manhattan; his firm, Gene Kaufman Architect, is designing 36 of them. Nearly all are for national brands that are trying to establish beachheads in the city.

On one block near Times Square — 39th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues — Mr. Kaufman, 50, has five hotels under construction.

Three of the hotels will share a single, 36-story building on the north side of the street. When it is completed, it will contain a Holiday Inn Express, a Candlewood Suites and a Hampton Inn. Each will have its own signs and lobby, and guest rooms that are outfitted in its signature style.

“But,” Mr. Kaufman said, “we have found there are huge economies in building it, structurally, as one building.”

The Holiday Inn Express will be covered in red and black brick (alternating in three-story stripes); the Hampton Inn, in white and black brick; and the Candlewood Suites, in silvery metal. The effect of putting three different facades on a building just 110 feet wide may be jarring. But it is economics, not aesthetics, that is driving the projects.

As Mr. Kaufman explained it, the three-in-one approach will help the eventual owner — in this case, Gemini Real Estate Advisors — improve the building’s occupancy rate. That’s because three reservation systems, not just one, will be helping to fill the building’s 600 or so rooms.

Mr. Kaufman has designed another trio of hotels just a block away, on 40th Street. “It’s becoming a hotel district,” he said, while showing off designs for adjacent Four Points by Sheraton, Fairfield Inn and Staybridge Suites hotels, each more than 30 stories tall.

The chains, which are striving to maintain customer loyalty, want to be able to offer hotels in as many locations as possible. Building several small hotels in different neighborhoods, instead of a single large hotel, helps them achieve that.

The developer of most of Mr. Kaufman’s projects is the McSam Hotel Group, which is based in Great Neck, N.Y. Its chief operating officer, Gary Wisinski, said Mr. Kaufman “has a wonderful and deep knowledge of Manhattan, and is well respected at the Buildings Department.”

McSam is developing some 30 hotels in Manhattan, Mr. Wisinski said, and Mr. Kaufman is the architect “for 90 percent of them.”

Bill Ryall, a partner in Ryall Porter Architects in Manhattan, said that in a city filled with talented architects, “it is a sadly missed opportunity that most of these new hotels are designed by just one architect.”

But Mr. Wisinski said he and his colleagues at McSam were pleased with Mr. Kaufman’s designs. “We look at all of them like our children,” he said. “I know some people would like us to build the Plaza. But we’re not. We’re building mid-price-point lodging facilities.” Rooms in the hotels, he said, will command $240 to $350 a night, depending on the time of year.

Mr. Kaufman’s first hotel, in 2003, was a Hampton Inn on West 24th Street in Chelsea. Until five years ago, the chain had more than 1,000 hotels nationwide, but not a single location in Manhattan. The 24th Street property is now one of the highest-performing Hampton Inns in the country, according to Charmaine Easie-Samuels, a spokeswoman for the chain, which is owned by Hilton Hotels. Since then, Mr. Kaufman has designed four more Hampton Inns in Manhattan.

What he brings to the table, he said, is the ability to maximize the number of hotel rooms on a given site. Recently, he said, a client showed him another architect’s plans for a hotel in Lower Manhattan; Mr. Kaufman was able to alter the plans to squeeze in 25 percent more rooms. In the current market, a mid-range Manhattan hotel room — typically 250 square feet — is worth $400,000 to $500,000 to the developer, he said.

“If you get one more room for floor, and you have 20 or 30 floors,” he said, you may be adding $10 million or $15 million in value.

But maximizing the number of rooms, he said, involves more than just making them smaller. He said buildings could be organized in ways that eliminate “uninhabitable space.”

For hoteliers, Mr. Kaufman provides entree into the sui generis Manhattan market. “The prototype hotel, for almost any chain, is a low-rise building with a parking lot and swimming pool,” he said. “We have to adapt that to Manhattan, but still meet all their standards.”

The chains control every detail, he said, “down to what kind of breakfast they serve.”

“If you don’t meet their standards,” he added, “you can’t put their name on the door.”

Mr. Kaufman found his niche in 1999, when Sam Chang, the founder of McSam, asked him to design a hotel for a narrow site on Pearl Street in the financial district. As Mr. Kaufman recalled it, “Sam said, ‘I’m doing you a big favor,’ and he was right” — by allowing Mr. Kaufman to get in on the ground floor of a hotel boom that almost no one was predicting.

“Until then,” Mr. Kaufman said, “the prevailing wisdom was New York City did not need more hotel rooms.”

Mr. Kaufman now has 35 employees, including architects from Russia, Argentina, Colombia, Lebanon, Turkey, Nigeria, Algeria, Albania and Sri Lanka. His wife, Terry Eder-Kaufman, a lawyer, helps run the business. The couple live with their 12-year-old daughter, Maya, in an 1861 brownstone in Greenwich Village, which Mr. Kaufman has renovated in stages. (When he bought it, in 1993, he said, “We had very, very little money.”)

A Queens native and a graduate of Cornell’s architecture school, he worked for Rafael Viñoly before starting his firm in 1986 at the age of 28 — which is young for an architect to go off on his own.

“Even though it may not have been the prudent thing to do from a business point of view, it was something that I felt I had to try,” he said. “And 22 years later, I’m still trying.”

Mr. Kaufman conceded that it’s hard to make compelling architecture out of a hotel containing hundreds of identical rooms. “You can end up with a facade that’s very repetitive,” he said. But he described his buildings as positive additions to the urban fabric. Many of the sites, including two-thirds of the 39th Street property, were previously parking lots, he pointed out.

Not all of his projects are chain hotels. The 45-room Duane Street Hotel, near City Hall, is being operated independently. And he is designing apartment buildings in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

In the case of a six-story apartment building in Williamsburg, Mr. Kaufman chose a shape based on the Villa Savoye, the house outside Paris by Le Corbusier.

Part of the facade was going to be covered in a mint-colored tile. “But we didn’t get the tile we picked,” he said, citing cost overruns.
When it comes to getting things built the way he envisions them, he said, “people don’t know how difficult that is.”


http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/02/17/business/17sqfft.1903.jpg
Gene Kaufman.

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

[antinimby]

I have a sudden urge to throw up.

[RandySavage]

This guy needs to be stopped. Right now.

[scumonkey]

But it is economics, not aesthetics, that is driving the projects.
,,,,and it shows!:mad:

[Stroika]

It is economics, not aesthetics, that is driving the projects.

Call it what it is -- cheapness. "Economics" is a social science. No college has a major in "crappy cheap Kaufman buildings."

But Mr. Wisinski said he and his colleagues at McSam were pleased with Mr. Kaufman’s designs. “We look at all of them like our children,” he said.

(Shudder.) Feels like being around a hideous baby with oblivious -- or self-deceptive -- parents. A face only a mother could love.

But he described his buildings as positive additions to the urban fabric. Many of the sites, including two-thirds of the 39th Street property, were previously parking lots, he pointed out.

I'm glad you think your buildings are better than parking lots, Gene. I guess I could only agree, but, hell, in terms of creating an urban fabric even this (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/nyregion/21bowery.html?scp=1&sq=bowery&st=nyt) is better than parking lots.

Barf is right.

[stache]

Not a good sign that the Times would run a puff piece like this, pretty obviously imo dreamed up by a publicist.

[Stern]

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/02/17/business/17sqft.1904.jpg

What the hell is that?

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/02/17/business/17sqfft.1903.jpg

What the hell is that?


What is more likely Gene Kaufman producing a good design or Gene Kaufman ever getting laid? You just know as a child he spoke in Klingon, the Starwars language.

[Stroika]

^^ YES.

He's the guy at the party you hope and pray doesn't approach you for what you know will be 2 minutes of awkward, painful conversation, followed by 10 minutes of standing around before you decide to "get a chip."

[stache]

He has a wife and child so I'm assuming his sex life is taken care of.

[BrooklynLove]

this guy definitely needs to cut his losses and go 100% dome

[TREPYE]

In Hotel Design, He’s Mr. Prolific

By FRED A. BERNSTEIN

Mr. Kaufman conceded that it’s hard to make compelling architecture out of a hotel containing hundreds of identical rooms. “You can end up with a facade that’s very repetitive,” he said. But he described his buildings as positive additions to the urban fabric. Many of the sites, including two-thirds of the 39th Street property, were previously parking lots, he pointed out.



Come on Gene, dont be stupid......:rolleyes:

[Fabrizio]

Last week I received a PM from Fred Bernstien author of the above NYTimes article about Gene Kaufman.

He wanted to know if I would be willing to be quoted for an article he was doing about Kaufman's work. He said it would my require using my real name and occupation.

I gave him the OK.

I thought he would just be grabbing some quotes from the Kaufman thread (there are plenty to choose from) but in the meantime he sent me a few questions... interview style.

But I've been very busy and could not respond right away. I was going to get to it this weekend.

And I thought, great, finally some critical coverage of Kaufman's work in the Times! If he was interested in quoting me, obviously somewhere in the article Kaufman's taste would be called into question.

So I am surprised and very disappointed to see this article. Practically a Valentine to Kaufman.

So what changed Mr. Bernstien's mind? Why this piece of fluff?

Anyway, Mr. Bernstien, here's the title I would have used:

In Hotel Design, He’s Mr. Horrific

[Ninjahedge]

But it is economics, not aesthetics, that is driving the projects.


,,,,and it shows!:mad:


Beat me to it. :p


Maybe something else should be "driving" these decisions, like community boards!!!

If so much money is at stake, and the buildings themselves are bought and sold for SO MUCH MORE than their construction costs, why do we have such a problem with an extra 5% cost to make these suckers LOOK A BIT BETTER??!?

This is what happens when buisnessmen make aesthetic decisions. (MOST buisnessmen that is....)

[Ninjahedge]

The chains control every detail, he said, “down to what kind of breakfast they serve.”

“If you don’t meet their standards,” he added, “you can’t put their name on the door.”

We all know what high standards Holiday Inn and Best Western hold their buildings (and service) to. :rolleyes:

[Optimus Prime]

The author missed the obvious "blind architect" angle.

[lofter1]

He's the guy at the party you hope and pray doesn't approach you for what you know will be 2 minutes of awkward, painful conversation, followed by 10 minutes of standing around before you decide to "get a chip."

Indeed ^

I recently had the unfortunate upportunity to hear GK speak at a Community Board meeting ...

The voice fits the face ...

Like nails across a black board :eek:

And adenoidenal :eek: :eek:

[GVNY]

And I thought, great, finally some critical coverage of Kaufman's work in the Times! If he was interested in quoting me, obviously somewhere in the article Kaufman's taste would be called into question.

A disheartening lost opportunity.

[antinimby]

If the Times had asked me, I would certainly have had plenty of things to say about him, although I doubt any of it would be publishable.

Anyhow, here's how it would have went:

"Gene Kaufman is a disgusting [bleep], [bleep] that couldn't [bleep] a [bleep] even if he [bleep] [bleep] it and all his [bleep]..."

Well, you get the idea.

[BrooklynRider]

Look at the photograph and that backdrop.

It really is a good representation of him and symbolic of his work. All wrong and he stands there oblivious.

Possibly the very worst architect working in Manhattan. He has lots of competition for the "worst" title in Brooklyn.

[zarzapan]

You just know as a child he spoke in Klingon, the Starwars language.

As a science fiction fan, I am completely and entirely offended by the suggestion that this person might have an appreciation of the genre.

P.S. Klingon is a Star Trek language, not a Star Wars language.

P.P.S. That is a rather Klingon-esque forehead, though.

[zarzapan]

this guy definitely needs to cut his losses and go 100% dome

hypothetically, if he had any sense of aesthetics

[RandySavage]

Kaufman's (and O'Hara's and Poon's) awful architectural aesthetic is certainly damaging the fabric of the City, but the lion's share of blame and anger probably should be aimed at the developers (SAM CHANG!) that (i) hire these hacks; (ii) mandate cheapness in their budgeting; and (iii) approve of the crap output. Kaufman should be designing penitentiaries and Days Inns somewhere in Indiana. That he keeps getting hired for New York hotels is frustrating.

Out with the Hotel Pennsylvanias and in with the Kaufman Best Westerns. Says a lot about where we've come as a City and a society.

[stache]

I should know, I escaped from there as a young adult. :p

[ablarc]

Last week I received a PM from Fred Bernstien author of the above NYTimes article about Gene Kaufman.
That means he must have read Wired New York's thread on Gene.

But I've been very busy and could not respond right away.
Yeah ... all those posts you had to write for Silver Towers. ;)

I was going to get to it this weekend.
That's what they all say.

And I thought, great, finally some critical coverage of Kaufman's work in the Times! If he was interested in quoting me, obviously somewhere in the article Kaufman's taste would be called into question.
Obviously.

So I am surprised and very disappointed to see this article. Practically a Valentine to Kaufman.
Schadenfreude frustrated.

"What a fearful thing is it that any language should have a word expressive of the pleasure which men feel at the calamities of others; for the existence of the word bears testimony to the existence of the thing."
--http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/schadenfreude

So what changed Mr. Bernstien's mind? Why this piece of fluff?
The milk of human kindness? An eleemosynary fit?

Penetration to the harsh reality that architects inhabit?

I'm especially sensitive to this issue, because like Kaufman I'm an architect and I do a lot of junk. I do the junk because my clients and the building laws they operate under demand the junk. It's absolutely non-negotiable; if I didn't provide it, they would just get someone else to do it, I would go out of business, my family would lose the roof over their head, and I would move into a box on Broome Street.

As any art historian will tell you, Verocchio needed Lorenzo de Medici to do art.

99% of what is built commercially is junk; outside New York, it's 99.99%. Is there anything non-residential at all built in say, Charlotte that isn't junk? All those evil, stupid architects ... and I'm one of them.

I dream of beauty. She comes to me in the drowsy minutes ... , a dream more romantic than scarlet pagodas by a silver sea.

For years the fairy child had come to him. Where others saw but Georgie Babbitt, she discerned gallant youth. She waited for him, in the darkness beyond mysterious groves. When at last he could slip away from the crowded house he darted to her ... She was so slim, so white, so eager! She cried that he was gay and valiant, that she would wait for him, that they would sail--

Unaware, oblivious, stupid ... he was the engine driver on the train to Auschwitz.

He who had been a boy very credulous of life was no longer greatly interested in the possible and improbable adventures of each new day.

He escaped from reality till the alarm-clock rang, at seven-twenty.

And reaching for his laptop, he went to see what Fabrizio had had to say that morning.





If I had it to do over, I'd probably go into fashion design.




Italicized words by Sinclair Lewis.

[stache]

You produce junk yet you spend a great deal of effort telling others what's wrong with out taste level. Physician, heal thyself.

[ablarc]

Cheap shot.

[lofter1]

But what happened to the line which is not crossed?

Before Chang / Kaufman came along hardly any developer / architect saw fit to construct this kind of crap in Manhattan.

But once Chang & Kaufman, with their priorites necessarily adjusted so that they could look themselves in the mirror and fill their pockets with coin, said "Do it" then others quickly followed suit.

Seemingly the "what should not be done" line has been moved and all the pros moved along with it.

Such is human nature?

Or just the inevitable decline when a culture gets too fat and convinces itself that there are all sorts of little unnecessaries which are required for ongoing existence?

[Fabrizio]

Ablarc: I really WAS going to get to it this weekend (if not Monday morning).

The Silver Towers... WaterSide Plaza...Cher... are NOTHING compared to Gene Kaufman. He deserves a special effort.

And Ablarc, we all do junk now and then... but he covers his junk with mint green tiles.

BTW: Does anyone else think he looks like Linda Hunt without bangs?

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/02/17/business/17sqfft.1903.jpg
Gene Kaufman.

[pianoman11686]

I'm certainly not condoning Kaufman's designs when I say this, but...

If we're to stay level-headed about this, we have to remember how lucky (some of us) are to live in a place like Manhattan. Ablarc's right: there really is an amazing amount of crap everywhere you go. The built environment, in general, is ugly. (If you don't believe me, come out to Durham for a weekend. I'll show you around.)

So it should not be surprising that, out of the hundreds of hotels Manhattan has, 30 or 40 of them will be tacky, cheap, completely devoid-of-architectural-merit crap that will hopefully be demolished and replaced with something better in 20 years. Just look at the hotel chains that are running them. This is what their hotels look like:

http://www.comfortinnsanford.com/images/content_04.gif

http://www.twinsdays.org/images/hampton_inn.jpg

http://www.trailsheaven.com/shared/content/accommodationpackage_objects/photo/best%20western.jpg

http://pegasus-images.travelsciences.com/EX_images/sjcmr_b1.jpg

For the most part, they're all built on the cheap. So if you're trying to build a 30-story version of one of the above in one of the most expensive places to build in the world, what do you expect?

In a sick and twisted way (because all too often that's life), a lot of this is New York's own fault for becoming such a big tourist attraction. No longer do Americans fear visiting. They come in droves, with their whole families. And they stay in these Comfort Inns thinking they got a great deal on a hotel room in "expensive" New York. Then they do all their sightseeing of "beautiful" New York, see a Broadway show, and cap it off with drinks at Applebee's, or Red Lobster. You know the rest...

I guess that's the penalty you pay for living in a place like New York.

(But Kaufman is still a klown.)

[alonzo-ny]

He is the human version of his buildings.

[MidtownGuy]

So if you're trying to build a 30-story version of one of the above in one of the most expensive places to build in the world, what do you expect?

Obviously we'd expect better, since the profit on one of these will also be a lot higher than one of those above which AREN't situated in an expensive and desirable place..
They want to enter a highly lucrative market whose appeal is based on the very architecture of the place they are building in. So you allow them to despoil it with bad architecture. Think things through. Doesn't make a lot of sense, what you are saying.

[ablarc]

But what happened to the line which is not crossed?
It's been crossed oodles of times. Just look around you.

You're singling out Kaufman's brand because it's the latest twist and it's identifiable. At least the guy tries, which is more than you can say of O'Hara.

What everyone's overlooking is that it's not the architect who sets the ground rules of design. Ever. And the building is a winner or not at the moment the ground rules are established. When these are stated by a Medici, you get a masterpiece.

Do you really think there are as many talentless architects at the helm of firms as there are lousy buildings? 98% or more of new buildings are lousy. There aren't nearly that many lousy architects. Lousy buildings may be drawn up by frustrated, self-deluding or compromising architects, to be sure, but they're generally designed by iron rules that are wholly controlled by others. Not a thing the architect can do about it --and not something they're anxious to admit.

First real inkling of this I got years ago working for a big, prestigious firm. I was asked to design an art school for a state university. The budget was stated. I designed my heart out, and I knew how to keep from wasting money. When I was done, everyone said, "Nice job!" When the contractor's bids came in, the lowest was 8% below budget.

Then the state's ombundsman took a look. "The building may have come in under-budget, but it's too nice," he declared, "the taxpayers will think we're splurging on their money." So they took out the skylights, they removed the slate sculpture court, they replaced the belgian block with bark chips, they dumbed-down the details, they eliminated the curved glass and the cut-stone sills, the sunken court, the reflecting pool and the entire delight of the building's relationship to the ground plane. They even replaced the parquet with carpet. When they were through value-engineering, they had chiseled the bid down another four percent. They were now 12% below budget.

They now had a building that you would hate. You'd damn the architect for it, and so would I if I didn't know how it had come to be.

I know how Kaufman's buildings come to be, since I design hotels for some of the same chains.

The folks who review hotel plans are "professionals." They can spot in a jiffy whether the architect knows what they "know" --and he's gone in the same jiffy if he's drawn anything outside their ironbound and desiccated parameters.


What he brings to the table, he said, is the ability to maximize the number of hotel rooms on a given site. Recently, he said, a client showed him another architect’s plans for a hotel in Lower Manhattan; Mr. Kaufman was able to alter the plans to squeeze in 25 percent more rooms. In the current market, a mid-range Manhattan hotel room — typically 250 square feet — is worth $400,000 to $500,000 to the developer, he said.

This passage resonates with any architect who has ever designed a mid-level chain hotel. I know exactly what it means, I could do the same myself.

Or I could play the role of the first architect --but please note that he's been replaced. (He never survives; in fact, he gets stiffed.)

You can't do a chain hotel without following the formula; it's the outcome of decades of fine-tuning. You may not like it, I certainly don't like it, it's probably not even the best way to make the most money --but it's believed in by so many layers of management hierarchy that there's exactly zero chance of getting anything outside the parameters beyond conceptual design

Here's proof-positive, Kaufman has mastered the formula(s):

any architects would be happy to design a single hotel in Manhattan; his firm, Gene Kaufman Architect, is designing 36 of them. Nearly all are for national brands that are trying to establish beachheads in the city.
Sure. By the standards of his masters, he's the expert in his business. By the standards of an urbanist, he's a defiler and a pig. You can assess his buildings wearing either hat, and you'll come up with opposite grades.

But Kaufman didn't invent the setback from the streetwall; his masters did when after years of study they had finished drawing up the standards for cracking the Manhattan market. On its crowded, narrow, menacing sidewalks, bewildered Raleigh travelers would alight sheltered against the Big