NEW NEW YORK ARCHITECTURE

[ltjbukem]

i have been to new york many times and will be back for a week in september, calling all architects to recommend the best new buildings in the city to visit, want to visit cool new buildings, spaces,clubs- i-beam not,your usual stuff
thanks
kevin 8)

[Jasonik]

http://www.hx.com/images/627_avalon.jpg
Limelight 3.0
*
John Blair gives HX an exclusive sneak peek at Avalon, which opens September 14 as a nightclub franchise with Bruce Willis as a partner.

by Gregory T Angelo

Limelight may not be the most famous nightspot in New York City, but damned if it isn’t the island’s most infamous. In its 20 year history, the former church- turned-club played host to as many top-drawer celebrities as it did shady pill pushers. Legendary parties such as the famed Disco 2000 fête that ushered the techno craze into the US shared equal space in the city’s tabloids with the debaucherous (and sometimes flagrantly illegal) antics of the gaudy club kids who claimed the space as their own throughout much of the 1990s.

That energy still lingers in the air. It infects you as you walk around the club’s perimeter. You can feel it even now, amid the cadre of architects, welders and the dozen or so teamsters wheeling cartfuls of wiring and steel in and out of the building in preparation for its September 14 opening as Avalon.

As the building's newest tenant, John Blair, of Roxy Saturdays and xl fame, is now coupled with John Lyons and Steve Adelman, owners of the highly revered Avalon nightclubs in Boston and L.A. “And Bruce Willis is a partner. Yes - as in the actor!” Blair volunteers with a smile. The diehard celeb is involved in the creation of The Spider Room, “a real exclusive club,” according to Blair, a V-V-VIP area with a “separate entrance, separate coat check, separate everything. It will be in the old Geiger Room, but much more high-tech, more plush.”

Linking with the entrepreneurs has given Blair a hookup with mainstream music mogul ClearChannel Communications, a move that gives Avalon a wealth of potential concert options for non-club nights. The Avalon boys also bring with them a built-in roster of resident DJs. “Avalon has [connections with] big-names,” Blair says of the Boston and Los Angeles Avalon outlets, known to host waxworks luminaries including Paul Van Dyk, John Digweed, Danny Tenaglia and Junior Vasquez. “It’s easier to book DJs, because they can play [at all the Avalons] - Thursday in Boston, Friday in New York and Saturday in L.A.”

But it was L.A.-based Manny Lehman who snagged the coveted residency at the club’s long-running gay Sunday night, along with rotating vinyl vixens Chad Jack and Alex Lauterstein. “He’s a good name and a good draw,” Blair says of his choice to tap Lehman as the club’s main man. “Plus he’s one of the nicest people to work with, which adds another dimension to the club.”

Lehman takes the reigns from Victor Calderone, who helmed the decks during the club’s Estate days. Blair shies away from discussing Calderone’s absence from Avalon’s lineup. “The decision was a mutual one. It was a good run,” is all Blair says in regard to Vic, adding: “I don’t want to copy what we did before.”

Yet even the most seasoned New York scenesters have lost count of how many times the club has advertised a “Grand Opening” event. Any successor to the Limelight’s title would have a time of it erasing the memory of years past - regardless of any new design or renaming. Doubtless, it’s a major challenge to follow a decade of shutterings and re- openings under the enigmatic and hubris-filled watch of the club’s former owner Peter Gatien.

Gatien is out of the picture now - completely. After declaring bankruptcy in 2001, the clubland impresario was recently deported back to his native Canada by a federal judge, the final chapter in a decidedly un-fabulous denouement from king of nightlife to exiled criminal. It's Blair who’s calling the shots now, situated in his newly appointed office deep in the recesses of the club’s remodeled interior. The room is sparsely decorated: A stack of boxes sits piled in one corner. A gorgeous cherrywood bookshelf backs Blair’s massive desk - empty save for a few disparate books and a mishmash of paperwork. The smell of fresh paint and sawdust permeates the room.

Rather than getting bogged down chatting up Limelight’s murky past, Blair is most interested in describing Avalon’s cutting-edge design. “More sound, more lights. The bathrooms are being torn out and redone,” he beams of Avalon’s markedly modern image; high on glitz, absent of grit. Last fall, I had the same conversation with Blair before the opening of Estate, the short-lived would-be successor of the Limelight legacy. “Sundays [at Estate] were a smashing success,” Blair is quick to point out, correctly. And Estate did have everything going for it: the big-time draw of resident DJ Victor Calderone, a massive sound system with a state-of-the-art lightshow and a completely refurbished interior that all but eradicated any lingering references you were partying in the former church. On the night of Estate’s opening last November, I stood perched atop the club in one of the sleek fishbowl VIP lounges looking down on the wall-to-wall mass of bodies lining the space. Then, the image of “The Limelight” as a seedy archetype of all that was wrong with the underground was fading fast, assuredly destined to become nothing more than a hazy memory in the annals of New York’s nightlife past.

But on Estate’s business side, a storm was brewing. In his two decades as a promoter at some of New York’s most legendary clubs (Studio 54, Palladium, Sound Factory) Blair has had to contend with his fair share of the obligatory shade that inevitably comes with the territory. “I’ve dealt with difficult people before,” Blair says. But never so openly. The Estate debacle was wrought with gossip from the moment Blair nabbed the space’s lease from the embattled Gatien at a public auction in 2001: The Page Six rumor mill questioned the building’s true ownership from the get-go, a Village Voice exposé all but confirmed clubland kingpin David Marvisi’s stake in the business, and a massive “For Sale” sign pegged on the club’s own grounds by landlord Ben Ashkenazi made it all but impossible for the Blair camp to insist to Estate’s patrons that everything was on the up-and-up. “From the very beginning of this process, the particular officials who needed to know what was happening knew step by step,” Blair assures of Estate’s bureaucratic imbroglio.

Without exaggeration, you could fill a book trying to outline the bitter back-and-forth that plagued Estate during its five months of operation. To put things in concise laymen’s terms: Too many chefs spoiled Estate’s soup. The club’s landlord, its lessee and promoters were all wrangling for control of the space, and by March matters were getting out of hand. To combat the behind-the- scenes powerplay, Blair played a trump card: He withdrew the club’s liquor license. “I knew this building would be nothing without a liquor license,” he says. “All of a sudden [the club’s landlord] started [negotiating] with me, and we finally made a deal.”

Blair is emphatic that things will be different this time around. When Avalon opens on September 14, it will stay that way.
*
*
Copyright ©1996-2003 Two Queens, Inc. All rights reserved.


****
BTW where are you spinning? :wink:

[Kris]

The LVMH Tower (http://forums.wirednewyork.com/viewtopic.php?t=1249), on East 57th Street.

The Rose Center (http://forums.wirednewyork.com/viewtopic.php?t=1269).

There's more, of course.

[Kris]

The Austrian Cultural Forum, on 52nd Street:

http://www.nycsnapshots.com/images/architecture/austriancultural/main/austriancultural_main3.jpg

http://www.nycsnapshots.com

And the nearby American Folk Art Museum (http://forums.wirednewyork.com/viewtopic.php?t=692&highlight=folk).

[krulltime]

Hello guys,

This is really cool information about the architecture of some of the new and old apartments buildings in NYC. Check it out...it has phots as well as a slide show. :wink:

http://slate.msn.com/id/2096551/

[Stern]

Funny how I thought this was an endorsement for a book by the same name, which I actually own New New York Architecture of a City. The book is extensive and has all the notable new works, definitely check it out; it has rerouted my own itineraries.

[Derek2k3]

Funny how I thought this was an endorsement for a book by the same name, which I actually own New New York Architecture of a City. The book is extensive and has all the notable new works, definitely check it out; it has rerouted my own itineraries.

I thought the same also.

[thomasjfletcher]

as I always say, i think New York's old stuff is where it's at. However, there is some quirky interesting stuff still, and some of the best Modernism. My favourites-----

Perry West of course comes in at number one----

http://www.nyc-architecture.com/CHE/030F.jpg

http://www.nyc-architecture.com/CHE/Pict0313f.jpg

http://www.nyc-architecture.com/CHE/PICT0022.jpg

http://www.nyc-architecture.com/CHE/030D.jpg

some info-- http://www.nyc-architecture.com/CHE/CHE030-PerryWest.htm

number two---
Conde Nast (not an amazing building, but in Times Square which is an interesting little hive of Modernity....)
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/MID/MID109-10.jpg
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/MID/MID109D.jpg

info-- http://www.nyc-architecture.com/MID/MID109.htm

number 3--
down the road from there, a great piece of schlock.....the Westin Hotel by Architectonica

http://www.nyc-architecture.com/MID/MID160-13.jpg
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/MID/MID160-22.jpg
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/MID/MID160-12.jpg

info-- http://www.nyc-architecture.com/MID/MID160.htm

number 4- old favourite, Comme des Garcons--

http://www.nyc-architecture.com/CHE/028C.jpg
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/CHE/Pict0026.jpg

info-- http://www.nyc-architecture.com/CHE/CHE028-CommmedesGarcons%20.htm

number 5- not new, but Modern -Civic Center Synagogue
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/SOH/Pict0127.jpg
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/SOH/Pict0036.jpg

info- http://www.nyc-architecture.com/SOH/SOH003.htm

number6- Post Luminaria- an interesting block of apartments for once (a working man's Perry West)
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GRP/Pict0016.jpg
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GRP/Pict0064.jpg
http://www.clarett.com/images/lumpic.jpg

Probably a bit dull for a European though.

and of course, the American Folk Art museum, a must see.

http://www.wirednewyork.com/museums/folk_art_museum/american_folk_art_museum_53rd_3feb02.jpg

http://www.wirednewyork.com/museums/folk_art_museum/american_folk_art_museum_top_3feb02.jpg

http://www.wirednewyork.com/museums/folk_art_museum/american_folk_art_museum_facade_3feb02.jpg

http://www.archidose.org/Jan02/folkart1.jpg

http://www.archidose.org/Jan02/folkart2.jpg

http://www.archidose.org/Jan02/folkart3.jpg

http://www.archidose.org/Jan02/folkart4.jpg

and there'd be a lot more than that once you get started.
cheers
t

[krulltime]

Wow Cool Photos!!!

'Light at the End of a Chelsea Tunnel' is really interesting...If it wasn't for you I will never knew it existed.

:D

[ZippyTheChimp]

Comme des Garcons:

I first encountered this entryway in 1998. My almost new car had a parking garage accident (they didn't even leave a note). The damage was minor and I didn't put in an insurance claim, but I wanted a transparent repair. A friend recommended Heavenly Body Works with the warning, "They're not cheap." I called the shop, and the manager said it was best if I waited a few weeks until they moved a few blocks to their new location.

When I arrived one morning, I mistook the new entry, with a hand machined surface similar to a prepainted auto body repair, for the entrance to the collision shop, thinking "I'm gonna need a bigger wallet."

[Dagrecco82]

I hope I posted this in the right thread, if not please move it.

Building Brands

How architects market themselves.

By Witold Rybczynski
Posted Thursday, May 4, 2006, at 7:11 AM ET



http://img.slate.com/media/1/123125/2079215/2133224/2141016/060503_SouthStSeaportTN.jpg (http://www.slate.com/id/2141032/)Santiago Calatrava's proposed 80 South Street tower
(http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/)Starchitects have long been the coveted designers of big new buildings—the Museum of Modern Art extension, the new Salt Lake City library, and the de Young Museum in San Francisco—but in recent months, the names of A-list designers such as Richard Meier, Robert A.M. Stern, and Charles Gwathmey have figured prominently in advertisements for high-end residential properties. Daniel Libeskind, Bernard Tschumi, Frank Gehry, and Herzog & De Meuron, who generally design cultural monuments, are all building luxury condominiums. From a developer's point of view, employing a famous architect is not only about adding design value, it's also about adding name recognition. In that sense, starchitects are transforming themselves from individual luminaries to companies bent on extending brand recognition throughout the world. The question, of course, is how much value a big-name architect actually adds to a real-estate project, and how architects became brands in the first place.
What makes an architect into a brand? Part of the recognition of a brand depends on what people who study such things call its "personality." Foster & Partners, whose Web site lists projects ranging from a congress hall in Kazakhstan to the Elephant House of the Copenhagen Zoo, is an international brand with a definite personality: Technical Solutions to Difficult Problems. Foster's chief rival is the Renzo Piano Building Workshop. The Piano brand, which conveys a sense of bespoke elegance, has been affixed to museums, airports, and office towers. It's more like Stylish Solutions to Any Problem.
Interestingly, neither Foster nor Piano has a house style; their designs vary considerably from project to project. This goes against the traditional notion that the work of celebrated architects should be individual and identifiable. But style can be a trap, as Richard Meier, with his persistent white walls and expanses of glass, found at the Getty Center, which seems to me like too much of a good thing. Michael Graves' Tuscan colors and simplified Classical forms likewise sometimes appear constraining. When I mentioned to a friend that Graves had recently built a building in Philadelphia, she said, "I didn't know that it was a real Graves; I thought it was a knockoff." Even Frank Gehry, who has perhaps the strongest architectural franchise in the world today—and recently designed a line of jewelry for Tiffany & Co.—sometimes seems hemmed in by his own success, as he builds yet another whimsical tour de force. The Tiffany necklace, by the way, looks like a very long key chain.


There are other sorts of architectural brands. Rem Koolhaas, who seems to have a love-hate relationship with his own celebrity, has shrewdly managed his OMA (Office of Metropolitan Architecture), turning it from a one-man studio into a brand. He has established a company ethos—one cannot really call it a style—in independent offices in Rotterdam, New York, and Beijing that have produced a variety of work, from a big-box convention center in Córdoba, Spain, to the crystalline Seattle Public Library and a dramatic nonskyscraper skyscraper in Beijing. The OMA ethos has a lot to do with cutting-edge problem-solving, which is perhaps why luxury condos are so far absent from the firm's portfolio.
There is nothing wrong with architects being given the opportunity to branch out—the great Vienna Secession architect Josef Hoffmann created some very beautiful jewelry—and greater public awareness of design is a good thing, but branding may turn out to have adverse effects. Most architectural careers are marked by a deliberate evolution—a slow simmer rather than a fast boil. The drive to establish their own unique brands pushes young architects to distinguish themselves early—too early. Moreover, public recognition of an architect's particular approach—Meier's minimalism, Stern's traditionalism, Santiago Calatrava's bravura—can serve to stymie the natural artistic evolution of a designer's style. Give the public what it likes and it simply wants more of the same. Remember New Coke? And that's not good for architects who want to explore rather than merely produce.

http://www.slate.com/id/2141017/?GT1=8190


Pay close attention to the link to 80 South Street under the pic. It links to our forum, I wonder why! :rolleyes: