New Frank Williams tower @ 18 w 57th St.?

[londonlawyer]

The following image was recently posted on Frank Williams' website.

http://archfwa.com/files/project_images/21a-usanewyork18west57thstreet.jpg

Here's what's currently on the site:
http://propertyshark.com/mason/components/photo/pic_view.html?size=1&imgname=1-01272-0050.j52SWT1F.jpg
http://propertyshark.com/mason/components/photo/pic_view.html?size=1&imgname=2715-1-01272-0050-0052.jpg&type=pano

[londonlawyer]

Based upon the above-posted photos, I could live with the loss of 16-18 West 57th Street. However, it would be tragic if Macklowe's fellow philistine, Solow, destroys the stunning structures located at Nos. No. 6 and No. 12, as the psycho Lois Weiss discusses below.

GOING SOLOW ON 57TH ST.
EYEING PARCELS FOR NEW TOWER September 12, 2007 -- A high-stakes development chess game is under way on West 57th Street, with savvy Sheldon Solow right in the middle.

Solow, the owner of the city's premier office tower at 9 W. 57th St., has been quietly trying to in-fill properties to build yet another tower on the south side of the street.

He's owned 6 W. 57th St. for many years, and has quirkily left it empty since Arista Records moved out.

Now, as we first reported, the Henri Bendel Building next door at 12 W. 57th St. is on the market through Cushman & Wakefield, and sources say that Solow is among three finalists vying for the ability to redevelop that plot.

Solow could combine No. 6 and No. 12 and create a lovely boutique building, but he has a grander scheme.
The question is, how much will it take to buy out everyone else, with at least one other group having the same idea?

Another bidder for No. 12 is a European seeking an investment and redevelopment opportunity on that shopping strip.

But Solow is also competing with a deep-pocketed Israeli group that just bought the building on the other side at No. 16-18 W. 57th St., and paid $60 million to do so, city records show.

Solow, whose representative declined to comment, must be schvitzing over missing out on that deal.

That's because back in July, Solow also paid Dale Hemmerdinger's Atco Properties $60 million for No. 20-22, which is just west of the buiding to the west of the Israelis.

Kenneth Aschendorf of APF Properties scooped up No. 24 last October for $69 million after yet another developer made an unsolicited offer - sending the owner to the free market.

That art gallery building is a key parcel that runs 200 feet south through to 56th St., making it important for curb cuts and deliveries to any larger tower.

"We have been approached to sell the building," Aschendorf told us. "Our game plan is a long-term hold on the building and we are excited about what is happening on the block and so not interested in making the fast one."

Aschendorf also has 30,000 feet of air rights that could be transferred to another parcel but insisted they are not for sale.

"You are down the block from the most valuable retail in the world and across from the most valuable office building in the world," Aschendorf said of Solow's tower.

But how long can Aschendorf say "no thanks," as offers go While I could live

[ramvid01]

I like the design, the setbacks are well placed and it seems to continue the streetwall very nicely. I like :D

[lofter1]

And look: No BLANK wall facing to the east (and the beautiful sight of the Crown Building (http://www.thecityreview.com/crown.html)). Can only hope that the west facing facade of the proposed tower has windows as well.

[londonlawyer]

And look: No BLANK wall facing to the east (and the beautiful sight of the Crown Building (http://www.thecityreview.com/crown.html)). Can only hope that the west facing facade of the proposed tower has windows as well.

I respect Frank Williams and developers that would hire him.

[Stern]

And look: No BLANK wall facing to the east (and the beautiful sight of the Crown Building (http://www.thecityreview.com/crown.html)). Can only hope that the west facing facade of the proposed tower has windows as well.

No blank wall to the West as well. Proving it is possible to build a sliver or near sliver without ugly windowless walls.

http://www.archfwa.com/files/project_images/21b-usanewyork18west57thstreet.jpg

http://www.archfwa.com/files/project_images/21c-usanewyork18west57thstreet.jpg

[Fabrizio]

Wow! Now THAT'S how it's done.

[londonlawyer]

The building it will replace is one of the few mundane ones on that block, so it's no loss. However, the horrible Sheldon Solow wants to raze two masterpieces just west of the Crown Building. I hope the filthy SOB does not.

[londonlawyer]

This is great news that this project is proceeding. Hopefully, it will thwart greedy Solow's plans for a larger project nearby which would have entailed razing a magnificent structure just west of the Crown Building.

Boutique hotel coming to 57th St.
November 26, 5:10 pm

18 W. 57th St. A 120-key boutique hotel is planned by Prudential Douglas Elliman managing director Ilan Bracha for 57th Street, just west of Fifth Avenue. The hotel is at 16-18 West 57th Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues and near Bergdorf Goodman. "It's a great, great location for a boutique hotel," said Frank Williams of Frank Williams & Partners Architects, the project's architect. Bracha purchased the 100,000-square-foot property in August for $60 million, city records show. The hotel will have rates of about $1,000 a

[pianoman11686]

Frank Williams: a hidden gem among New York architects. Wish he were as prolific as Costas.

[londonlawyer]

I agree.

[Derek2k3]

Good article about his firm here.
http://www.therealdeal.net/issues/November_2007/1194216720.php

I've overlooked his work until now, since I detest his most recently built towers, the Marc on 8th Ave and the W Hotel in Times Square. I guess that's what happens if you work with a developer like Moinian. These next set of projects seem pretty nice and thoughtfully designed.

The article says he has 4 projects in NYC in the works. This one, the mixed-use tower on Madison and ? Perhaps he's still the architect of Extell's 57th Street project, and that 800' West Street garage tower is a serious proposal.

[londonlawyer]

....that 800' West Street garage tower is a serious proposal.

I hope so. Are you speculating or do you have inside information?

[Derek2k3]

Speculating what the other 2 projects are.

[ablarc]

A truly beautiful building. And it fits right in.





(And it doesn't have a stupid, tortured shape.)

[LeCom]

Nice little infill tower with beautiful massing. An overall elegant building, great for the area. Not an attention whore, yet beautiful and classy. Great background building.

If only Sam Chang hired Frank Williams as his token architect. We'd combine cheap hotel supply with beautiful unassiming buildings all across the city. Too bad that if we want something cheap, cheap is often what we get in all aspects.

[antinimby]

A Socialite Dons a New Title


http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/03/23/realestate/23deal1-450.jpg
Tinsley Mortimer flanked by Ilan Bracha, left, and
Haim Binstock.


By JOSH BARBANEL
Published: March 23, 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/realestate/23deal1.html)

YOU know you’ve made it in New York when: A) you are one of the most visible faces on New York’s social scene. B) you are an icon in Japan for your own line of handbags and ready-to-wear clothing. C) you join the ranks of Donald Trump, Jacques Grange, Jean Nouvel and Ian Schrager, in providing branding power and panache to a new condominium development.

Tinsley Mortimer, the much-photographed young socialite famous at first for simply being famous, has moved on from A and B to choice C. The blue-blood Virginia native, whose family claims a link to Thomas Jefferson, has formed an alliance with two Israeli-born developers who are drawing up plans for a 29-story condominium or condo-hotel on West 57th Street, off Fifth Avenue, their first big Manhattan development.

“Tinsley is an authority on luxury living, ” said Ilan Bracha, a partner in the B+B Investment Group, which paid $60 million last August for a 50-foot-wide commercial building at 18 West 57th Street. Mr. Bracha is also a broker and managing director at Prudential Douglas Elliman and heads a sales group of more than a dozen agents. “She sets a lot of trends,” he said.

Ms. Mortimer was given the title “lifestyle director” and a mission of advising the developers on layout designs, amenities packages and décor. She will attend “strategizing, branding and marketing meetings,” according to a news release, “and plan private events for the company.”

In an interview, Ms. Mortimer said: “They want me to inject my personal style and my taste into the project and hope that it gives them a creative edge. I am obviously a very creative person. I know what I am doing with my handbag design and clothing design. This is just another creative outlet.”

Mr. Bracha and his partner, Haim Binstock, a developer with three decades of experience in suburban New Jersey, have not yet filed building plans for the site. They said the final shape of the project would depend on the market in the next few months. (They are also mulling a backup offer from what they called a major “big-box retailer” to lease the existing five-story building, Mr. Bracha said.)

Ms. Mortimer said that she also had some interior design experience, working with her mother on renovating and designing her new apartment, recently featured in Harper’s Bazaar. She said she was an art history major at Columbia, and at one point had considered going into the design business with her mother.

Ms. Mortimer’s new project is only a part-time salaried position and not likely to crimp her lifestyle. “Haim and Ilan,” she said, “they understand that’s what makes me who I am — the various aspects of my life and all the different jobs I do, the traveling, my charity work and my New York experience.”

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

[londonlawyer]

She is HOT! It's a shame that the putz Balazs has appropriated the name "Beaver Tower" because that is precisely what any project she's involved in should be called!

[antinimby]

I figured she would raise your interest.

Anyway, this project appears to have shrunk six stories (from 35 to 29) and therefore possibly Frank Williams' design may no longer be current.

[londonlawyer]

That's a shame.

Williams' design was nice.

[alonzo-ny]

She is HOT! It's a shame that the putz Balazs has appropriated the name "Beaver Tower" because that is precisely what any project she's involved in should be called!

Exactly my first thoughts too amigo!

[londonlawyer]

I agree with you, buddy.

Pardon me while I get some handcream!

[BrooklynRider]

Guys! This isn't a locker room.

We have ladies reading these forums and the comments are really pushing it. Confine your drooling and lechery to Private Messages.

Mucho gracias-

[ReelDeal]

who would want to live with anti-social socialites

what type of branding is that ?

all she did was a good job picking her parents .

[joseph_willis]

Pic is really Nice. I also like the design and architectural curves.

[Hamilton]

Hahaha. LondonLawyer, maybe you should change your moniker to LondonLecher.

[ramvid01]

You know it is just speculation that Frank Williams design is not being used. No one has come out affirmatively with that kind of statement. I believe AN was just speculating and did not actually have any information showing that they are not using the same design (aside from the drop in floors).