105 Norfolk St - Blue Condo

[BigMac]

Curbed
August 24, 2005

What's Big, Blue, and Coming to the LES?

http://www.curbed.com/archives/2005_8_norfolkblue.jpg

Blue Condo (http://www.bluecondonyc.com)

A couple months ago, while spreading Lower East Side rumors both delicious (mmm, Tiny's) and wrong (oops, Lansky), we brought up a planned 17-story condo going up next to Tonic on Norfolk Street. "Anyone seen the design?" we asked. There was resounding ... silence. But worry not, for a tipster finally chimes in:

I just saw the advertisement going up on the scaffolding in front of the Gem Store on Delancey at the corner of Norfolk. They are promoting the condos going up on the lot behind the store, the former Lansky Lounge parking lot. Really striking architecture !!!

Striking indeed. In fact, it's so striking, we hear a crew of men armed with shovels have already been recruited to scoop up the pigeon carcasses that will line the sidewalks beneath the building.

Copyright © 2005 Curbed

[Stern]

Great building. I really hope this one gets off the ground, it is just as good and the fascade is very similar to this one:

http://www.arcaid.captureweb.co.uk/imagefiles/11/04/2-/15/0-/11042-150-1-2.jpg

http://www.arcaid.captureweb.co.uk/imagefiles/11/04/2-/20/-1/11042-20-1-2.jpg

http://www.arcaid.captureweb.co.uk/imagefiles/11/04/2-/50/-1/11042-50-1-2.jpg

[redhot00]

Is this a joke? That thing looks it was purchased in an adult bookshop.

[Kris]

Blue at 105 Norfolk Street

http://www.archpaper.com/images/feature_13_05/developers_21.jpg

Location: 105 Norfolk Street
Developer: John Carson and Angelo Cosentini
Architect(s): Bernard Tschumi Architects with SLCE Architects
Consultant(s): Israel Berger & Associates, Thornton Thomasetti, Ettinger Engineers
Size: 16 floors, 32 units, 60,000 sq. ft.
Completion (est.): 2006
Budget: $18 million

The irregular form of this building is due in part to a series of site restrictions: The developers purchased the air rights to the building next door so that they could build over it, but zoning regulations do not permit the insertion of a column within the neighboring commercial space, so the architects had to cantilever the upper floors out over the adjacent building. The upper levels taper back because of setback requirements.

http://www.archpaper.com/feature_articles/13_05_all_rise.html

[redhot00]

Not exactly the type of architecture one associates with the Lower East Side, is it?

[Kris]

Why should new development conform to clichés?

[sfenn1117]

Stern that thing you posted is ugly! It reminds me of that new tower in London only with a horrible color treatment.

The facade reminds me more of the Westin Times Square, without its base.

[Fabrizio]

This would be lovely in a happy tropical locale.... you´d want the pool tiles to match the facade of course. And Versace sunglasses for everyone!

[redhot00]

Why should new development conform to clichés?

It shouldn't. But what it should do is please the eye and complement it's surroundings. This does neither.

[NewYorkYankee]

Well, this certainly is diffrent. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.

[macreator]

I dig this building. What a breath of fresh air to see a new residential tower that isn't a black box or a "contextual brick and glass box".

This thing looks great.

[212]

I love the attention to detail. Though it's a big building for the area, I think it'll play well in the LES streetscape. Instant landmark! Hope we'll see a rendering soon that shows the building's base ...

[macreator]

Between phase 2 of the Avalon Christy project on Houston, Swathmore's building and others, the area is getting a ton of new stuff.

[lofter1]

Blue at 105 Norfolk Street ... site restrictions: The developers purchased the air rights to the building next door so that they could build over it, but zoning regulations do not permit the insertion of a column within the neighboring commercial space, so the architects had to cantilever the upper floors out over the adjacent building.
Am I the only one who thinks that this type of construction (cantilever over existing structures) is crazy? God forbid if you live in the building being built over (even though this one seems to be a commercial building that is being encroached upon). The owner who got the cash for the air rights must be in heaven.

So ... I'm wondering who was the genius bureaucrat who OK'd the first application for this use of air rights? No doubt that dimwit got a nice kickback from the real estate folks -- or at the very least a good inside price.

And can anyone show me (renderings or photos please) even one of these new cantilevered constructions over an existing structure that has resulted in a good building -- and good in close-up, not from 20 blocks away? (Please note that the rendering doesn't show how this proposed building relates either to the street or the buildings nearby.)

[Fabrizio]

Like the "sliver" buildings that were out-lawed in the 80´s , the cantilevered construction over an existing structure is awfully third-world looking.... Mexico City maybe. It looks abusive.... like somebody got away with something ...or as if somebody paid someone off.

Also: I agree with Lofter: it´ll be interesting to see how this building will work down at street level. In this neighborhood, it´s ALL about the street. This isn´t Park Avenue in mid-town. So showing a rendering that only illustrates the upper portion of the building means practically nothing.

And: I guarantee you that the "gaiety" of this facade (like the Westin Hotel) is going to look sad and forlorn as it ages.

[ablarc]

And: I guarantee you that the "gaiety" of this facade (like the Westin Hotel) is going to look sad and forlorn as it ages.
True enough; just imagine this building dirty and worn.

Not sure I agree about the assessment of sliver buildings, though. Didn't know they were "outlawed"; haven't there been some built recently?

[Fabrizio]

I was wrong to say "outlawed". However they were zoned out of certain areas. Here is a blurb from "The City Review" about one of the worst (this is on Madison) :

"One of the avenue's most notorious buildings is the sliver apartment tower shown at the right that is known as Morgan's Court, because it is half a block south of the Morgan Library on the avenue. ...............The building, erected by the Perlbinders, was slow to sell its units and its very narrow form was one of several sliver buildings that aroused considerable public ire in the 1980's that resulted in the city rezoning several areas to prevent more such ungainly, awkward projects."

And I think "ungainly, awkward" is a good way to describe the cantilevered buildings we are now hearing about.

[kz1000ps]

OH I love these buildings that say absolutely nothing yet are constantly screaming at the top of their lungs. A perfect match for an ADD-ridden society.

"Wow, that's flashy! <brain immediately moves on to next proverbial sugar fix> Wow, that's shiny!" (repeat process ad infinitum).

No rhythm for the eye to dance along with, no signs of human scale, irrational form (well, unless you're the one profiting). Can't wait for this architectural fad to expire.

Speaking of which, since many places are building structures going for the Times Square style, where will this leave architecture as an art and not a canvas for advertisements? This "style" is almost a bigger affront to historic architecture than banal mid-century stuff.

[Stern]

The Villager:

September 07 - 13, 2005

Big BLUE on Norfolk has some seeing red

By Ellen Keohane

A soon-to-be-built 16-story blue building on Norfolk St. on the Lower East Side is getting mixed reviews from local residents, and many of them are not rosy.

Aptly called BLUE by developers, the proposed condo building at 105 Norfolk St. will house between 30 and 40 units, some with private outdoor access. According to promotional materials, the 700-to-2,000-square-foot condos will range in price from $700,000 to more than $3 million. The building is scheduled to be completed by late 2006.

“The height is what bothers me,” said Al Orensanz, of the Angel Orensanz Foundation for the Arts, which is just a couple of blocks from BLUE’s construction site. “It will change forever the skyline of our neighborhood.” Most of the buildings on the block between Delancey and Rivington Sts. are less than half as many stories tall.

As of Tuesday morning, construction had already begun on the formerly vacant lot at 105 Norfolk St. On scaffolding, which wrapped around the corner of Delancey and Norfolk Sts., was a large sign advertising the new high-rise. In an artist’s rendering of the building, the modern structure appeared to have an exterior of blue-tinted glass with upper floors that extend over an adjacent low-rise building.

The modern structure is designed by Bernard Tschumi and SLCE Architects. Both firms, which have offices in Manhattan, would not comment on the building’s design. Neither would On the Level Enterprises Inc., the building’s developer. In addition, the public-relations representative for the property said she would not release any additional information about BLUE until next week.

Orensanz first learned about the proposed building, like many others, by walking by the advertisement. “[It] seems extremely sleek,” he said. “The color is all right — I don’t have a problem with the color blue.”

Others feel less positive about the choice of color. “It’s not going to fit in at all,” said Earl Holloway, 32, an administrator for the School of Visual Arts who lives across the street from the site. “It will look like one of those big toilet bowl cubes that turn toilet water blue,” he said.

“What the neighborhood needs is more affordable apartments here, not high-end condos,” said Antonia Garcia, 56, who paused to talk on the sidewalk near the construction site. Now staying with a friend in Baruch Houses, public housing, Garcia said she was priced out of her Lower East Side home. “The rents are too high,” she said.

Some see the new building as a positive change in the neighborhood. “Five years ago this used to be a dangerous neighborhood. You used to be afraid to walk around here,” said Frank Gonzalez, a 34-year-old contractor working at a new bar/lounge called Backdoor opening on the same block.

It’s much safer now, Gonzalez said. At the same time, he’d hate to see the Lower East Side turn into another expensive Manhattan neighborhood. “I hope the neighborhood stays the same,” he said, “not like Soho, where it’s too expensive to live.”

[krulltime]

Here is more from the New York Times:


Seeing the Blues on the Lower East Side


http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/09/11/realestate/postings.450.jpg
A rendering of a 16-story condo clad in blue glass now under construction
at 105 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street.



By NADINE BROZAN
Published: September 11, 2005


HE has a portfolio of high-profile buildings to his credit, but Bernard Tschumi, the internationally known architect and former dean of the Columbia University architecture school, had never designed a residential structure. So when two developers approached him to create a condominium in New York City, he did not hesitate.

The result was a curved and angular 16-story condo clad in sapphire-blue glass that is under construction at 105 Norfolk Street, near the corner of Delancey Street.

"They came to me one day and said they had heard my name from other architects," Mr. Tschumi said during a recent meeting with Angelo Cosentini and John Carson, his two development partners. "My reputation is in culture and large projects, and I was really interested in residential." (Mr. Tschumi's previous work includes the New Acropolis Museum going up in Athens and Alfred Lerner Hall at Columbia, his only other project in New York City.)

But, he continued, "I had always heard that doing it was a formula requiring no real architecture and that it comes with a lot of constraints like the zoning codes."

Undaunted, he asked himself: "Couldn't I do something interesting, and didn't the constraints make for rich possibilities?"

The building is rising on what was once a 50-by-100-foot parking lot for Ratner's, the legendary kosher dairy restaurant that closed in 2002. (Ratner's is now a Sleepy's mattress store.) The site, which Mr. Cosentini and Mr. Carson acquired in February, was augmented by the purchase of air rights from three adjacent commercial buildings. They will add one story to the building next door, and the roof on that addition will serve as a deck for the condominium residents. Mr. Tschumi was particularly drawn to the neighborhood.

"You still have different generations on the Lower East Side," he said. "There are many old people who still live there, but it is also hot and trendy, colorful and varied, and I wanted the building to reflect that. I have to use a word I hate to describe it: 'contextual.' But it is very contextual."

Whether his concept evokes the Lower East Side familiar to so many people remains to be seen. The building is almost totally clad in small panes of blue glass of varying intensity and translucence meant to resemble pixels, and a shape that combines a convex profile with cantilevers and angles.

But there is no question that it will be distinctive, for its color, which will range from light to dark and change with the angle of the sun, as well as for its shape.

The interiors will be serene, a contrast to both the bustle of the immigrant neighborhood of the past and the chic of the present. The lobby, for example, with stone flooring, will be suffused with light beamed through a glass wall. "We consider light to be a material," Mr. Tschumi said.

The apartments will vary from floor to floor, with some living room windows angling inward, others projecting outward. The units will have open spaces combining living, dining and kitchen areas. Master bathrooms will have windows in the showers, tile floors with pebbles encapsulated in resin, black countertops and glass tile walls. Kitchens will have quartz countertops and white lacquer cabinets, and the ones in the more expensive units - two floor-throughs and a duplex penthouse - will have Boffi cabinets and countertops.

In contrast to comparable buildings, the architect and developers are planning little in the way of communal amenities. Though there will be storage units and refrigerator space for grocery deliveries, there will be no fitness center or party rooms. "The neighborhood provides plenty of party rooms," Mr. Cosentini said.

Units, ranging in size from 780 to 2,400 square feet, will be mostly one- and two-bedrooms.

"How many 4,000-square-foot apartments does Manhattan need?" Mr. Cosentini asked. But he is not averse to the idea that buyers might want to combine units. Prices are expected to range from $750,000 to $3.5 million.


Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

[Stern]

This building is a great companion to the recently completed boutique hotel nearby.

[lofter1]

Units, ranging in size from 780 to 2,400 square feet, will be mostly one- and two-bedrooms.

"How many 4,000-square-foot apartments does Manhattan need?" Mr. Cosentini asked. But he is not averse to the idea that buyers might want to combine units. Prices are expected to range from $750,000 to $3.5 million.

The real question is how many $1,000 per sq. / ft. condos does Manhattan need?

[krulltime]

This building is a great companion to the recently completed boutique hotel nearby.


I agree. It looks to be a nice neighbor.

[ablarc]

This building is a great companion to the recently completed boutique hotel nearby.
Yup, another shot in the arm for a rapidly improving neighborhood. I can see Tschumi's point about the building being contextual.

It's contextual culturally, since it's a little whacky, like the neighborhood; and it's contextual visually, since it's fine-grained, busy and a little disheveled --like the neighborhood.

All in all: thumbs up.



PS It functions in its context much as Gwathmey's blue glass gadfly does at Astor Place.

[BrooklynRider]

The real question is how many $1,000 per sq. / ft. condos does Manhattan need?

You're reading my mind.

[lofter1]

^ The price is contextual -- same as everywhere else in downtown NYC.

[ablarc]

^ The price is contextual...
Lol!

[pianoman11686]

From http://cityrealty.com:

Lower East Side tower will have full-time doorman and bamboo floors 12-SEP-05

Apartments at "Blue," the 16-story residential condominium building now under construction at 105 Norfolk Street will range in price from $745,000 to $3,950,000.

Norfolk Hudson LLP announced today that the building, which will have 32 apartments, will have a full-time doorman, reportedly the first residential building on the Lower East Side to have such a feature, as well as apartments with bamboo floors, floor-to-ceiling windows, individual storage units, and residential communal outdoor space on the second and fifth floors.

The building, whose distinctive façade of different shades of blue was described by the developers as resembling "a perfectly cut azure gemstone," has been designed by Bernard Tschumi, who was dean of architecture at Columbia University from 1988 to 2003.

It is on the site of the former parking lot belonging to Ratner’s, the famous kosher restaurant, and its sales office at 100 Norfolk Street occupies Ratner’s former restaurant kitchen that was briefly occupied by Lansky’s Lounge, a night club named after Meyer Lansky, before and after the restaurant’s closing last January.

The $17 million building is a project of Angelo Cosentini and John Carson, who completed The Atalanta at 25 North Moore Street, and Hudson Realty Capital LLC., a real estate fund led by Richard Ortiz.

The building’s one-and two-bedroom apartments and duplex penthouse range in size from 759 to 2,494 square feet. Some apartments will have terraces and the building will have a walk-in cooler for private grocery deliveries. "What we’ve tried to do with Blue is build a world-class architectural icon, a signature one-of-a-kind building that is emblematic, both externally and internally, of the lower East Side’s spirit of reinvention and experimentation," Mr. Cosentini stated in a press release.

The building, which will be one of the tallest on the Lower East Side, is expected to be completed in the fall of 2006.

The Norfolk Street project is separated by a one-story building that houses a nightclub from another striking new condominium project, the “Switch” building at 109 Norfolk Street, a 7-story building now under construction designed by Narchitects where the floors zig-zag and forth with gentle angles creating a lively façade and a new twist on bay windows. It is just to the south of the very pleasant, red-brick Asian Americans for Equality Community Center at 111 Norfolk Street designed by Victor M. Morales, a building that was completed last year.

[ebrigham]

Call me an optimist, but I think this building might look better in person than in the renderings. I am going to wait to see this thing in person before I make a final judgement - I was pleasantly suprised with Astor Place. On the other hand, I don't think I would live here...

[TBman]

While entertaining a friend of mine last night and discussed the contextual nature of the building...we concluded that it this building dresses up the neighborhood splendidly.

[lofter1]

^ Your links / attachments don't work

[Stern]

I love this building, one of my future fave's.

http://www.bluecondonyc.com/

[lofter1]

If the market holds up this entire neighborhood could easily become a hotbed of out-of-the-ordinary building design.

[Fabrizio]

I keep imagining a cross on the top of it....

[Stern]

I keep imagining a cross on the top of it....

Why? You think it looks like a church?

[Fabrizio]

Well, maybe a little....

http://img171.imageshack.us/my.php?image=blucondochurch2lj.png

[NYatKNIGHT]

Well since you put it that way, it sort of does!

Better than the bathroom floor I had it pegged for.

[Stern]

Well, maybe a little....

http://img171.imageshack.us/my.php?image=blucondochurch2lj.png

Its interesting that you should say that, because that's exactly what I like about this building. First and foremost this building looks nothing like a church, the parralel lies in the budget, attention to detail, and vertical expression, something that lacks in many residential constructions, but has been a common theme in church architecture for centuries.

[krulltime]

Sales launched at "Blue,' 16-story tower under construction at 105 Norfolk Street


http://www.cityrealty.com/graphics/uploads/1132267305_blue.gif


17-NOV-05

Sales began yesterday at "Blue," the 16-story residential condominium building now under construction at 105 Norfolk Street on the Lower East Side.

The building is expected to be completed in late 2006 and will have 32 apartments that will range in price from $745,000 to $3,950,000.

Norfolk Hudson LLP, the developer, announced today that the building had received more than 700 inquiries prior to yesterday’s sales launch. Its "presentation center" is located at 100 Norfolk Street, half a block from the F train's Delancey Street station.

Norfolk Hudson LLP is a venture of Angelo Cosentini and John Carson, who completed The Atalanta at 25 North Moore Street, 637 Hudson Street and 58 Thomas Street, and Hudson Realty Capital LLC., a real estate fund led by Richard Ortiz.

The building, will have a full-time doorman, reportedly the first residential building on the Lower East Side to have such a feature, as well as apartments with bamboo floors, floor-to-ceiling windows, individual storage units, and residential communal outdoor space on the second and fifth floors.

The building, whose façade of different shades of blue has been described by the developers as resembling “a perfectly cut azure gemstone,” has been designed by Bernard Tschumi, who was dean of architecture at Columbia University from 1988 to 2003.

It is on the site of the former parking lot belonging to Ratner’s, the famous kosher restaurant, and its sales office at 100 Norfolk Street occupies Ratner’s former restaurant kitchen that was briefly occupied by Lansky’s Lounge, a night club named after Meyer Lansky, before and after the restaurant’s closing last January.

The building’s one-and two-bedroom apartments and duplex penthouse range in size from 759 to 2,494 square feet. The Norfolk Street project is separated by a one-story building that houses a nightclub from another striking new condominium project, the "Switch" building at 109 Norfolk Street, a 7-story building now under construction designed by Narchitects where the floors zig-zag and forth with gentle angles creating a lively façade and a new twist on bay windows. It is just to the south of the very pleasant, red-brick Asian Americans for Equality Community Center at 111 Norfolk Street designed by Victor M. Morales, a building that was completed last year.


Copyright © 1994-2005 CITY REALTY

[czsz]

Was anything ever more out of place?

[Fabrizio]

".... has been described by the developers as resembling “a perfectly cut azure gemstone."

uh well...ok, if you´re talking costume jewelry.

[ablarc]

Was anything ever more out of place?
Well, that's the whole idea.

This area needs a monument, though the folks there don't know it.

Just as in 1889 Paris needed the Eiffel Tower.

[Fabrizio]

Oh c´mon: at least the Eiffel tower was intended to represent all of Paris...to represent France. It was the result of a competion among architects and voted in.

( This blue thing will be a short lived monument anyway...as other luxe condos crowd the scene.)

[lofter1]

Was anything ever more out of place?
give it ten years...by then it will be lost amid all the new buildings on the LES

[ryan]

I love this building, one of my future fave's.

I love the rendering - just hope the reality lives up to it.

[ablarc]

I love the rendering - just hope the reality lives up to it.
I hope white steam comes out of the top of it!!

[Kris]

Tschumi in front of the construction site:

http://www.letemps.ch/custom/imagesNewsletters/ArticleId5688/709.jpg

http://www.letemps.ch/dossiers/dossiersarticle.asp?ID=171273

[macreator]

Was anything ever more out of place?

I suppose it is out of place -- but who cares? It looks like a very unique building -- not a cookie-cutter "brick luxury" tower with exposed floorplates a la Avalon Chrystie.

[Stern]

Was anything ever more out of place?

Chrysler Building perhaps?

Wrong type of thinking....

[Fabrizio]

First of all, the Chrysler building although the tallest when it was built, was still a skyscraper among skyscrapers...set in a mid-town business district. And from the base of the crown on down, it´s massing and proportions are actually classical and it´s look is no different from any other art-deco skyscraper of the day. See 745 5th, built a few years earlier ...or especially the Fuller Building built in 1929. What made the Chrysler unique was the curved crown and spire...and the aluminum cladding... but the building fit very nicely into the neigborhood.

[Stern]

First of all, the Chrysler building although the tallest when it was built, was still a skyscraper among skyscrapers...set in a mid-town business district. And from the base of the crown on down, it´s massing and proportions are actually classical and it´s look is no different from any other art-deco skyscraper of the day. See 745 5th, built a few years earlier ...or especially the Fuller Building built in 1929. What made the Chrysler unique was the curved crown and spire...and the aluminum cladding... but the building fit very nicely into the neigborhood.

The Guggenheim then...

As evident by the photograph just posted this won't be the only highrise in the area and this is after all only New York City, I guess that's all beyond the point though...

[Fabrizio]

Yes the real aliens-in-the-neighborhood are things like the Gugenheim, the Whitney, the Calhoun School on West End ... but they´re also relatively small and public buildings.

This condo will certainly be joined by other over-styled creations... who knows, in 20 years time it all might be a great new neighborhood of architectural experimentation... or perhaps we´ll be saying, "what where they thinking?".

(In the end I guess do agree with Macreator... better this than "a cookie-cutter "brick luxury" tower with exposed floorplates a la Avalon Chrystie".)

[Stern]

I'm not a big fan of context and even if I was there's not much context near Canal Street. IMO the sign of a healthy city is innovative architecture.

[macreator]

IMO the sign of a healthy city is innovative architecture.

Agreed

[czsz]

Something tells me, when the cheap glass is bolted onto the facade, that the cheerleaders comparing this building to the Chrysler or the Eiffel Tower (egad!) will find that it shall have more in common with the early-on-wow-factor-but-aging-ungracefully Westin Times Square.

For that reason among others, the design doesn't necessarily seem that innovative to me...it merely allows it to seem even more conspicuous than it would as the sole tower in a relatively lowrise area, which is just a bit too much self-conscious anomalousness. It really borders on pretension.

[kz1000ps]

^ Agreed. Once the newness factor quickly wears off we'll be left with an ill proportioned structure covered in what appears to be a still frame from some media player visualization. Monumental and enduring it will not be.

[TLOZ Link5]

With no cladding having been installed yet, it seems a bit to early to guess as to the quality or cost of the glass.

[lofter1]

If the nearby "Hotel on Rivington" is any indication then no one should get their hopes too high for how the exterior of this one will look.

http://www.hotelonrivington.com/


http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/3/hotel_on_rivington.jpg

[TLOZ Link5]

Touché. But at least there are no exposed floorplates, eh?

[iceberg]

Taken on 1/31/06
http://static.flickr.com/17/93659076_0ac87ef8b0_m.jpg

[BigMac]

City Realty
February 14, 2006

"Blue" tower on Lower East Side now half way up

“Blue,” the 16-story residential condominium building at 105 Norfolk Street on the Lower East Side, is expected to be topped out in May and occupancy is scheduled for the fall.

The building is about half-way up. It will have 32 apartments that will range in price from about $745,000 to $3,950,000. About a third of the units have already been sold.

A two-bedroom, two-bath unit with about 1,975 square feet on the 15th floor is priced at about $2,350,000 and a one-bedroom, 1-bath unit with 785 square feet on the 8th floor is priced at about $880,000.

The building has been designed by Bernard Tschumi, whose projects include Parc Villette in Paris, the Vacheron Constantin headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, a concert hall in Rouen, France, and the Lerner Hall Student Center at Columbia University where he was dean of architecture from 1988 to 2003.

The design of “Blue” is notable for its unusual, angled geometry and its “pixilated” façade of blue glass. Norfolk Hudson LLP, a venture of Angelo Cosentini and John Carson, is the developer. Its other projects include The Atalanta at 25 North Moore Street, 637 Hudson Street and 58 Thomas Street.

The building is on the site of the former parking lot belonging to Ratner’s, the famous kosher restaurant, and its sales office at 100 Norfolk Street occupies Ratner’s former restaurant kitchen that was briefly occupied by Lansky’s Lounge, a night club named after Meyer Lansky, before and after the restaurant’s closing last year.

The building, will have a full-time doorman, reportedly the first residential building on the Lower East Side to have such a feature, as well as apartments with bamboo floors, floor-to-ceiling windows, individual storage units, and residential communal outdoor space on the second and fifth floors.

Its entrance will be a plaza with large rocks and bamboo trees in front of an building-wide angled marquee. Kitchens will have glass-fronted cabinets and bathrooms will have pebbled floors and large raised sinks.

The Norfolk Street project is separated by a one-story building that houses a nightclub from another striking new condominium project, the “Switch” building at 109 Norfolk Street, a 7-story building now under construction designed by Narchitects where the floors zig-zag and forth with gentle angles creating a lively façade and a new twist on bay windows. It is just to the south of the very pleasant, red-brick Asian Americans for Equality Community Center at 111 Norfolk Street designed by Victor M. Morales, a building that was completed last year.

“Blue” will be the most visible of three new projects on Norfolk Street between Delancey and Rivington Streets. Just up the block is the “Switch” building at 109 Norfolk, a 7-story building designed by Narchitects with a zig-zag façade of angled floors that is near another new building at 115-9 Norfolk Street that has been designed by Grzywinksi Pons Architects, the firm that designed THOR (The Hotel on Rivington Street) nearby at 107 Rivington Street.

Copyight © 1994-2006 CITY REALTY.COM INC.

[BigMac]

Curbed
February 22, 2006

http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006_2_switchbuilding2.jpg

A photo of Switch next to its kinda-sorta neighbor, BLUE (http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006/02/16/blue_update_many_edgy_buyers.php). You can almost see poor little block holdout Tonic wedged in between the two. God speed, little experimental music venue.

Copyright © 2006 Curbed

[ablarc]

This area's really shaping up.

(I know: for some it's getting dull.)

[BigMac]

Curbed
April 5, 2006

BREAKING: BLUE is, uh, Blue

by Lockhart

http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006_04_bluefacade.jpg

Hello, BLUE! On Delancey Street, the dream begins to fully take flight as the first glass panels hit the facade. Even knowing reality could never quite match the vision (http://www.curbed.com/archives/2005/09/13/get_to_know_your_new_les_skyline.php), there's still something about this that made us a little sad. A quick visit to the BLUE (http://www.bluecondonyc.com/) website, though, and the world is sunny again.

Copyright © 2006 Curbed

[kurokevin]

Walked by this site yesterday, and it looks far better than what the image would suggest. While a tad darker than what was expected, it is by no means as extreme as the photo would suggest. Overall, the quality looks fantastic. This is going to look great coming down Delancy from the Williamsburg Bridge. Now if only something could be done on the one story bar next door. It is hideous, and now grossly out of place between this, and exposees the entire ugly, concrete wall of the Switch building (also looking wonderful).

I do, however, really hate the trend in street level setbacks. Seems very unnescassary here, and creates a truly odd effect walking down Norfolk

[Fabrizio]

At least the glass looks nice and flat and the frames look well put together. In the renderings the glass appeared maybe mirrored. Happy to see it´s not.

[NYatKNIGHT]

Was in the neighborhood, thought I'd check up on Blue:

http://www.pbase.com/image/59508123.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/59508124.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/59508125.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/59508126.jpg

[sfenn1117]

I think Blue is great....it brings something that most other new buildings don't....uniqueness!

Nice pics.

[BrooklynRider]

It's an interesting design, but its placement is kind of like wearing an evening gown to a barn dance.

[czsz]

http://www.pbase.com/image/59508124.jpg

Is this intersection craawling with hipsters? The irony potential is unbelievable...

[krulltime]

Was in the neighborhood, thought I'd check up on Blue:

http://www.pbase.com/image/59508123.jpg
That is very cool! Thanks for the pics... I guess is almost Top out.
http://i.pbase.com/o4/55/435155/1/58858706.Blue.JPG

[Citytect]

I guess is almost Top out.

Looks like it has already reached its full height.

[Peteynyc1]

Is it me, or does the building look alot smaller than in the rendering? I think its the small squares that tend to trick the eye into thinking there are more floors then are there.

[czsz]

It seems clear that it's not much taller than the other tower in the rendering, but yeah, I see what you mean about the small squares.

[ablarc]

I think its the small squares that tend to trick the eye into thinking there are more floors then are there.
That's right, they're a device to change the scale and make it ambiguous. When the skin is complete we'll see if it works. I kind of wish the building actually possessed the vastness it seeks to project. This area doesn't need the height and bulk limitations the zoning mandates; this is no West Village, so there's no need for such daintiness here.

.

[lofter1]

That is very cool! http://i.pbase.com/o4/55/435155/1/58858706.Blue.JPG

Her midtown sister:

http://www.reservetravel.com/v4/hotelimages/pegs/WI/1380/re_1380_b1a.jpg

[ablarc]

^ Striking superficial resemblance but a complete contrast of spirit.

Shows the range of expression possible within a vocabulary.

[NYatKNIGHT]

It seems clear that it's not much taller than the other tower in the rendering, but yeah, I see what you mean about the small squares.It may be hard to tell from that angle but it's not taller than the other tower, not even close.

[BPC]

^ Striking superficial resemblance but a complete contrast of spirit. Shows the range of expression possible within a vocabulary.

The other main difference is that the latter building is located in Times Square, where whimsical, high-rise architecture fits in with the mood and scale of the place. The blue condo, by contrast, has no business in the middle of the historic Lower East Side neighborhood, which used to be one of NYC's worst slums but is currently experiencing a renaissance based on its low-rise charm. This is a fitting example of an urban phenomenon Jane Jacobs described in "Life and Death." She used the example of bank branches locating near "cool" blocks with cafes, eventually displacing all the cafes and leaving nothing but the banks themselves and a dull block. If left to their own devices, the real estate developers will eventaully turn the Lower East Side into the Upper East Side.

[ablarc]

If left to their own devices, the real estate developers will eventaully turn the Lower East Side into the Upper East Side.
That'll take a while. Meanwhile this adds to the mix. Cities thrive on contrast (that point's in Jacobs too); that's why we find the Meatpacking District so interesting.

[lofter1]

...that's why we find the Meatpacking District so interesting.
Yep, it was ... once.

[czsz]

If left to their own devices, the real estate developers will eventaully turn the Lower East Side into the Upper East Side.

Yes, but I wonder if Jacobs' theorem is cyclical. Certainly there is a limited quantity of wealthy people interested in streetscapes of pharmacies and bank branches. It's not a sustainable state for a neighbourhood to be in.

[BPC]

Yep, it was ... once.

You miss the pre-operative transsexual crack whores?

[kurokevin]

You miss the pre-operative transsexual crack whores?
No, there still near. (Christopher Street)

[lofter1]

You miss the pre-operative transsexual crack whores?
Not as much as I miss the meat ...

[ablarc]

The meat's gone?

[ZippyTheChimp]

Meat's still there, but diminished.

[Kris]

http://static.flickr.com/44/147497245_74877edaf0_o.jpg

www.flickr.com/photos/joeholmes

[ablarc]

^ Great picture. Workmen in heroic poses. A little like a commie poster made real.

[ryan]

A little like a commie poster made real.

Did I stumble into 1970 accidentally? I hope there's a few layers of irony there.

Blue is feeling kind of squat so far. I'm sure it will feel different when it has it's blue, but so far it's disappointing.

[Derek2k3]

http://static.flickr.com/70/154377273_2a558ae347.jpg
emily geoff (http://www.flickr.com/photos/emilygeoff/154377273/in/pool-curbed/)
5-27-2006

[Stern]

As much as I really like this building, I miss the old Lower East Side. It wasn't a year ago when the area by the Rivington Hotel was the fabled jewish bargain district. Little of the bargain district remains, replaced with trendy restaurants and nightspots. The bowery is quickly cleaning up and is being replaced by what I consider a pseudo beatnik tourist friendly neighborhood. The chaos and the energy of the LES is on the fringes and I lament the approaching loss. Im sure the live chicken store thats a couple blocks to the east of "Blue" doesn't have long, as well as the sunken abandoned car next store which provides shelter to freed chickens. There are still many sights to be seen in the LES, but I know with this wave of development they're not long for this world.

[BPC]

There are enough low-income housing projects in the neighbrhood that the area will never become completely gentried/upscale.

[lofter1]

Two new good-sized buildings going up on nearby blocks:

205 Allen St. [ east side between Stanton / Houston; block through to Orchard St. ] :


http://www.rawlingsarchitects.com/Click: "Projects" > "Lower East Side Hotel"

DOB INFO (http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/JobDetailsServlet?requestid=6&allisn=0001088975&allboroughname=&allnumbhous=&allstrt)RAWLINGS ARCHITECTS PC
"Residential (Hotel)"
19 stories
208'
108,359 Sq. Ft.


180 Orchard St. (east side between Stanton / Houston):


DOB INFO (http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/JobDetailsServlet?requestid=4&allisn=0001187797&allboroughname=&allnumbhous=&allstrt)ISSAC & STERN ARCHITECTS, P.C
Residential / Apt. House
Dwelling Units: 148
8 Stories
168'
138,174 Sq. Ft.

[Stern]

There are enough low-income housing projects in the neighbrhood that the area will never become completely gentried/upscale.

The high-rise projects are mostly along the waterfront and they offer nothing. They are safe primarily because they are not safe places to be around. The tenements and the small shops, restaurants, odd-ball attractions and people, chock full of character, is what is disappering from the LES.

[lofter1]

Just up the block: 119 Norfolk is being DEMO-ed (http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/JobDetailsServlet?requestid=5&allisn=0001229736&allboroughname=&allnumbhous=&allstrt).

Any news what is going up there?

One odd thing about BLUE is the 2nd story of the base section is being constructed over an existing store on the corner of Delancey / Essex ("GEM Discount" -- where you can get a $10 Santa suit for next years' "SANTACON (http://www.eventme.com/Invite.aspx?Event=santacon2003)"). It will be interesting to see what becomes of that store when BLUE is completed and as the neighborhood changes.

The western lot line of BLUE abuts the old low-rise Essex Street Market (http://www.essexstreetmarket.com/esmEnglish/main.html) which seems to be well ensconced and not about to go anywhere. Plenty of other lots with 1 & 2 story low-rise buildings in the vicinity that could be combined for larger building lots.

[beatricethecat]

thanks lofter1 for the link to that hotel on allen, i've been looking everywhere to see what that monster is going to look like. the construction so far makes it seem like its gonna be a doozy.

i understand the need for this new architecture in some sense but i've lived here for a long time and i guess just to add to the neighborhood laments....why did we have to go from super cheap food joints to expensive ones? all these years i've been waiting for just one diner in all of the LES, i mean i guess there is the olympic diner on the corner of delancy and essex, but you know, just one other one? do we really need this much brunch?

[MidtownGuy]

What's happening down there SUCKS. New buildings are nice, but why does the fabric of the neighborhood have to be destroyed? I am sick of these rich, culturally vapid yuppie scum who leave a trail of Starbucks in their wake, like urban cow flops. :mad:

[ablarc]

What's happening down there SUCKS. New buildings are nice, but why does the fabric of the neighborhood have to be destroyed? I am sick of these rich, culturally vapid yuppie scum who leave a trail of Starbucks in their wake, like urban cow flops. :mad:
Fabric destroyed: do you mean physical fabric consisting of buildings or social fabric evidenced by shops and their customers?

Every morning on my way to work I stop for a coffee and pastry to go. The mornings I drop off my daughter I stop at Starbucks for a good coffee and a lousy pastry. Other mornings I stop at a mom-and-pop Serbian bakery for a good coffee and a terrific pastry. I'd prefer to get that terrific pastry every morning but the Starbucks are ubiquitous and prolific. They're also crowded with customers, unlike the Serbian bakery.

If there were a powerful national association of independent mom-and-pops, they could enjoy the benefits of volume buying and mass marketing. Then we could have oxymoronic chains of mom-and-pops. Would that satisfy you?

[ryan]

Maybe I need to drink the starbucks to make some sense out of that last post...

[SilentPandaesq]

If there were a powerful national association of independent mom-and-pops, they could enjoy the benefits of volume buying and mass marketing. Then we could have oxymoronic chains of mom-and-pops. Would that satisfy you?

Isn't that a franchise? You know....like burger king.

[MidtownGuy]

Fabric destroyed: do you mean physical fabric consisting of buildings or social fabric evidenced by shops and their customers?

More the latter, although in many cases the two are inextricably linked. I like diversity- of people, buildings, stores, colors, textures, philosophies, you name it. It is what brought me to New York 16 years ago and why I am still here. It informs and inspires my work and my spirit.

Loisada and the East Village have always been a place of special inspiration, whether it be in the curiosities of a Japanese toy store, the bins of a thrift shop, or the hairdo of some young rebel. I am sad to see diversity and texture replaced by high price condos that only a certain class of people can afford. I wouldn't mind if they wanted to join the glorious cacophony, but instead their presence brings a crushing wave of chain stores that can be found on any upstate highway or byroad. They all seem to aspire to the same materialistic goals and lack true spiritual depth, which many of them try to replace with $300 classes in some Eastern philosophy, or the trendiest scented candles from a spa. I detest these interlopers.

Oops. Maybe I'm being churlish.:D

As for Blue...cool building.

[BrooklynRider]

Putting aside issues of "context" and whether these million dollar homes can dovetail with existing housing in the area....

I walked by yesterday and I like the building. I thought the glass was going to be reflective a la Westin NY, but it has a more "stained glass" look to it. It isn't this thing reflecting wildly all around, but rather just this weird blue thing that pops up out of nowhere. With this and the switch building moving in, this has to be one of the most economically diverse neighborhoods around. There's public housing with a few blocks and middle income tenements. Retail is still kind of spotty with it catering more to the low end on Delancey Street.

[ryan]

I love the glass. I think it will look dated for a decade and then even better. The view from the north or south is of course much better, but the massing isn't working for me from the Williamsburg bridge. Just big and squat - especially next to THOR.

[lofter1]

I've heard that the units at 40 Mercer with blue glass panels are NOT selling well -- as the light coming in has an odd quality.

Wonder if this will be a problem here?

[beatricethecat]

as for the starbucks, well, if that AND the serbian bakery can co-exist, so be it. but starbucks usually means the end of the mom and pop, because newcomers flock to what they know. maybe not everyone, but they will until they are comfortable and want to try something different well by then the serbians will be gone.

just out of curiosity, where is this bakery? i live farther east and a tad north in the LES, and work in the EV so i don't "down" that often, but would love to check it out.

and, yes, i agree, blue is looking ok. i think once its all covered with blue it might look taller.

[ablarc]

just out of curiosity, where is this bakery?
Out of state. Like me.

Sorry.

[BigMac]

Curbed
June 16, 2006

Floorplan Porn: BLUE's Duplex PH

by Lockhart

http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006_06_blueph.jpg

And on the five hundredth day, there was floorplan porn: Corcoran has finally listed (http://corcoran.com/property/listing.aspx?Region=NYC&ListingID=884323) the duplex penthouse at Lower East Side pixellation obsession BLUE. Above, cast your eyes over 2,494 square feet of limited edition living—and repent. Asking $3.475 million. Oh, ever wondered what a pixellated (http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006/04/05/breaking_blue_is_uh_blue.php) penthouse view looks like? A couple of renderings, after the jump.

http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006_06_blueup.jpg

Copyright © 2006 Curbed

[lofter1]

With a view opportunity like that it's a shame to break it up with all those mullions :( ...

[kz1000ps]

Especially when they're black and rather thick like that -- the interior looks clunky.

And how will shades/curtains work on that (east facing?) wall without eating up tons of square footage?

[pianoman11686]

I think it looks fantastic.

[Citytect]

I love the pattern created with the mullions and the shadows the slanted wall creates on the floor. The view is still there. Beautiful apartment.

They make shades and blinds that can follow the slant of the windows. Won't eat up any square footage.

[spiffdog]

Has anyone in contract been able to visit the site? I'm not having much luck getting in. I also haven't been able to stop by recently, so any recent pictures would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[Kris]

http://www.gothamist.com/attachments/garth/2006_07_02_BLUEUP.jpg

http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2006/07/02/picture_of_the_9.php


http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/230/1249/1024/060702%20025.jpg

http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/230/1249/1024/060702%20028.jpg

http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/230/1249/1024/IMG_7342.jpg

http://testofwill.blogspot.com

[ZippyTheChimp]

http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/8678/blue01cgm1.th.jpg (http://img244.imageshack.us/my.php?image=blue01cgm1.jpg) http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/8477/blue02ctu2.th.jpg (http://img244.imageshack.us/my.php?image=blue02ctu2.jpg)
.

[Fabrizio]

I don´t think I´d want to live in a building with people who´d want to live in a building that looks like that.

[kz1000ps]

Lol! That sums up my thoughts quite nicely. but you gotta give them credit - the building is being delivered as advertised.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/09/11/realestate/postings.450.jpg

http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/8477/blue02ctu2.th.jpg (http://img244.imageshack.us/my.php?image=blue02ctu2.jpg)

[ryan]

The pattern of the glass is less random (and less appealing) than the rendering - though I have to say that for once the building looks more or less as good as the rendering.

[krulltime]

Good shots Zippy... I will like to see the final product when is all light up at night. I think it might look interesting.

[ld876]

It's not looking too bad actually. Lots of horrible expletives shot through my mind the first time a saw a rendering...now I'm actually really liking it as it actually goes up.

I agree...now I want to see it with lights!

[ablarc]

It's not looking too bad actually. Lots of horrible expletives shot through my mind the first time a saw a rendering...now I'm actually really liking it as it actually goes up.
That's the standard approval curve of a reasonably informed and open-minded person confronted with an unusual building. We've seen it on this forum with regard to NYTimes and IAC, and we'll see it again with Beekman.

Gehry knows all about this from having seen it so often. If those idiots in Brooklyn lay off and let him do art, they'll all grudgingly take pride in it eventually, though the heavy-duty idiots will take about five years to admit they like it.

If instead these same idiots wreck it by injecting their own debased taste, they'll never come to like it --along with everyone else-- and they'll still be crowing thirty years from now: "See, I told you so!"

[vikiked]

Does anyone know how many units or what percentage has been sold at this point? thanks.

[lofter1]

Blinded

http://testofwill.blogspot.com/2006/09/blinded.html

http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/230/1249/1024/IMG_7688.jpg (http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/230/1249/1024/IMG_7688.jpg)

Pressed for time, but one quick photo. What's that blinding light burning out my retinas as I crest the Williamsburg Bridge?

Is it the second coming? Is it a fire at a magnesium factory?

No, it turns out the funky angle in the face of the Blue building is perfect for blinding every morning driver on the bridge.

(This is around 9:30 a.m. yesterday.)

[LeCom]

I'm glad the blue colors came out much smoother and more pleasing than the bright ones on the rendering.

http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/8477/blue02ctu2.jpg

I would like to see a 30-50 story building with a similar skin, perhaps where the blues are even closer in shade to each other, but in a more conservatively shaped building (not a faling over angular egg) and in a more appropriate neighborhood (around West 42nd Street would be fine).

[Kalitechne]

Actually, West 42nd Street would be a great location for a building to make use of such colorful glass, as the Westin hotel nearby would further compliment it. Imagine...a block of technicolor.

[SPD]

this project?

[Fabrizio]

In this setting this building looks so forlorn.

[ablarc]

In this setting this building looks so forlorn.
Well, it's a pioneer. When more pioneers arrive, the setting will be transformed.

[stache]

There will be a Starbucks etc. nearby to keep it company.

[kurokevin]

Well, it's a pioneer. When more pioneers arrive, the setting will be transformed.

I thought that the community (including the East Village) was working on a downzowning of the area to prevent these tall buildings from rising in the neighborhood.

Does anyone know if that is still a prospect?

[Derek2k3]

http://static.flickr.com/44/221670013_0fc815ce5d_b.jpg


http://static.flickr.com/67/221676681_66aa4eb9f9_b.jpg
PetroleumJelliffe (http://www.flickr.com/photos/petroleumjelliffe/)

[BigMac]

Curbed
September 26, 2006

Buyers Feeling BLUE

by Scott

The last time (http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006/07/05/blue_update_it_really_is_going_to_look_like_that.p hp) we checked in with our Blue friend, construction crews were halfway done installing that distinctive glass. Now, an informed tipster passed along a note from the Corcoran Marketing staff telling buyers "that the building has been "topped off" and that the beautiful Blue glass is now up to the 16 th floor with exterior work near completion. At the same time we have been hard at work on the elevators and interiors. We are cautiously optimistic that BLUE will be ready for you to call home by the end of 2006." Our tipster spills that the "Offering plan went effective a couple weeks ago, with 24 out of 31 units sold." We also hear there is an invitation-only welcome party tomorrow on the common outdoor space. Photos welcome (mailto:tips@curbed.com).

Copyright © 2006 Curbed

[antinimby]

I thought that the community (including the East Village) was working on a downzowning of the area to prevent these tall buildings from rising in the neighborhood.

Does anyone know if that is still a prospect?I think it's already in effect.

Anyway, having seen this building while driving by on Delancey, I can say that it looks very impressive in person. Just uplifts the whole area and makes it even more interesting. Too bad we won't be getting any more like this on the LES. Thank you NIMBYs (not!).

[kurokevin]

Does that include the area South of Delancy? There are some massive sites just below Blue that are destined for large developments if zoning allows. Plus the majority of buildings in that area are over 20 floors anyways.

[Strattonport]

Very nice photos! I love this building.

[Peakrate212]

I like it too..

[BigMac]

Curbed
September 27, 2006

BLUE Update: It Really Does Look Like That

by Joey

http://www.curbed.com/2006_9_blue.jpg

In honor of tonight's big bash (http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006/09/26/blue_update_get_ready_for_movein.php) up on the BLUE roof deck—and because we're tired of seeing that damn illustration—we thought we'd show you what the building actually looks like right now. OK, what it looked like a month ago. Flickr user iceberg18 (http://flickr.com/photos/iceberg18/sets/72057594099741071/) has a nice photo timeline of BLUE starting in January and going through the end of August. So, uh, yeah—there it is. Guess we can finally admit this wasn't one huge practical joke.

Copyright © 2006 Curbed

[pianoman11686]

From http://cityrealty.com/new_developments:

"Blue" at 105 Norfolk Street nearing completion 26-SEP-06

“Blue,” the very angular, new, 16-story residential condominium building at 105 Norfolk Street on the Lower East Side, is just about topped out.

The design of “Blue” is notable for its unusual geometry and its “pixilated” façade of blue glass. Along with The Hotel on Rivington (THOR) nearby, it is one of the few distinctive, high-rise landmarks on the Lower East Side.

The building has been designed by Bernard Tschumi, whose projects include Parc Villette in Paris, the Vacheron Constantin headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, a concert hall in Rouen, France, and the Lerner Hall Student Center at Columbia University where he was dean of architecture from 1988 to 2003.

Norfolk Hudson LLP, a venture of Angelo Cosentini and John Carson, is the developer. Its other projects include The Atalanta at 25 North Moore Street, 637 Hudson Street and 58 Thomas Street.

In February, the building was anticipated to be topped out in May with occupancy scheduled for this fall, prices ranged from about $745,000 to $3,950,000 and about a third of the 32 units had been sold. A two-bedroom, two-bath unit with about 1,975 square feet was priced at about $2,350,000.

Occupancy is now expected by the end of the year, prices now range from about $775,000 to $3,475,000 and more than three-quarters of the apartments have reportedly been sold. The two-bedroom, two-bath unit with about $1,975 square feet is now priced at about $2,600,000.

The building is on the site of the former parking lot belonging to Ratner’s, the famous kosher restaurant, and its sales office at 100 Norfolk Street occupies Ratner’s former restaurant kitchen that was briefly occupied by Lansky’s Lounge, a night club named after Meyer Lansky, before and after the restaurant’s closing last year.

The building will have a full-time doorman, reportedly the first residential building on the Lower East Side to have such a feature, as well as apartments with bamboo floors, floor-to-ceiling windows, individual storage units, and residential communal outdoor space on the second and fifth floors.

Its entrance will be a plaza with large rocks and bamboo trees in front of a building-wide angled marquee. Kitchens will have glass-fronted cabinets and bathrooms will have pebbled floors and large raised sinks.

The Norfolk Street project is separated by a one-story building that houses a nightclub from another striking new condominium project, the “Switch” building at 109 Norfolk Street, a 7-story building under construction designed by Narchitects where the floors zig-zag and forth with gentle angles creating a lively façade and a new twist on bay windows.

The “Switch” building is just to the south of the very pleasant, red-brick Asian Americans for Equality Community Center at 111 Norfolk Street designed by Victor M. Morales, a building that was completed last year. Another new project planned for the street is at 115-9 Norfolk Street and it has been designed by Grzywinksi Pons Architects, the firm that designed THOR (The Hotel on Rivington Street) nearby at 107 Rivington Street.

[Kris]

http://static.flickr.com/113/254905338_eb18a37fc0_b.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/95/254905300_1438e324a0_b.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianvan/

[ablarc]

A great new urban pattern is emerging here: small-footprint miniature skyscrapers heaving out of a low-rise substrate. Looks European.

[sfenn1117]

I agree....it helps that these 2 towers were done right too. This is my favorite new building in the city...I wish the bigger projects were of this quality, uniqueness, and innovation.

What is the tower u/c in the last pic?

[lofter1]

That is this new THOMPSON Hotel at 200 Allen St.

Thread HERE (http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?p=104209&highlight=allen+thompson+orchard#post104209)

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/4856/allenhotel7db.jpg

[sfenn1117]

Sweet! More modernity.

[antinimby]

A great new urban pattern is emerging hereUnfortunately, there will be no more emerging going on here.
The LES has been downzoned. :(

[ablarc]

Unfortunately, there will be no more emerging going on here.
The LES has been downzoned. :(
Bummer. How down is down?

This was such a promising pattern. And the buildings were individually good.

Stupid NIMBYs. And sad the city caved to them

[antinimby]

The LES has been downzoned. :(Maybe I was being bit hasty (:o) but I swear I read that they are either downzoning that whole area or working on it.
Anyone with more info?

[lofter1]

There are more to come -- a lot is cleared just across Orchard Street east of the Thompson Hotel -- and right around the corner on Houston (across from Katz Deli) there is another big one going up.

Controls might be tighter, but the building isn't over.

[sfenn1117]

There's also the unforunate 26 story NYU dorm coming too. It's going to be a wreck like all of NYU's modern buildings. Shameful considering their finances.

[lofter1]

Maybe this explains NYU's many POS posing as dormitories:

Master of Urban Planning

http://wagner.nyu.edu/urbanplanning/

Ranked #4 in City Management and Urban Policy by US News and World Report
Housed within a school of public service, rather than a school of architecture, the Master of Urban Planning (MUP) program not only provides students with an understanding of the economic, technological and social forces that shape metropolitan areas at home and abroad, it also equips them with the tools needed to confront the key challenges facing urban communities across the globe. “In the twenty-first century, New York is the place to study planning, and the Wagner School’s approach to planning combines skills in policy and finance with direct exposure to waterfront planning, housing and community development, managing development projects and analyzing the effects of new urban infrastructure,” says Professor Mitchell Moss (http://www.nyu.edu/wagner/faculty/facultyDetail.php?whereField=facultyID&whereValue=26&menu=0%2C2), Henry Hart Rice Professor of Urban Planning. “Urban Planning at NYU Wagner brings students into direct contact with the critical urban challenges of our era.”

[BigMac]

Curbed
September 29, 2006

Curbed Field Trip: BLUE Welcome Party

by Lockhart

Above, the line down Norfolk Street on the Lower East Side to get into the BLUE party Wednesday night. Oh, you didn't think we'd close out the week without a BLUE party report, did you? For shame.

Below, a video report from Team Curbed, including a review of the goodie bag. After the jump, the party in photos, as captured by Brian Van (http://485i.com/). Enjoy—god knows we did.

http://www.curbed.com/2006_09_blue5.jpg

BLUE. We cannot escape you.

http://www.curbed.com/2006_09_blue6.jpg

The party terrace, featuring a delightful panorama view of—Co-Op Village.

http://www.curbed.com/2006_09_blue9.jpg

The buffet served all matter of tasty morsel with some vague Lower East Side theme. Famed Curbed commenter Babs files this report (http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006/09/27/blue_update_it_really_does_look_like_that.php#1235 19):

Oh, Red, you are so right! But what was also shocking (apart from the lack of liquor -- bar closed promptly at 8:15, people thrown out by 8:45, probably so as not to antagonize the existing area residents), was the fact that the building is so incomplete -- there were no model apartments to tour, the elevator wasn't working, so everyone went up in the hoist, even the patio where the party was was only semi-finished. And everyone was commenting on how cheap the construction looked. I don't see the point of inviting people in at this stage -- kind of reverse marketing.

I still love the building's looks, and am excited about seeing a finished unit. I'm not a contractor, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt in terms of the quality of the construction until more progress has been made.

I would have liked more 10 Cane, however, so I wouldn't have had to pour the contents of my goody bag miniature into my party's glasses...

Oh, and the rats seem to be a permament fixture of that block as well, but maybe it's just a combination of the two construction sites (Blue and Switch), mixed with Tonic's eternal sewage problems and Tides' fishy garbage.

Good times.

http://www.curbed.com/2006_09_blue4.jpg

Patrons enjoyed free finger-food and conversation about interest rates.

http://www.curbed.com/2006_09_blue7.jpg

BLUE cocktails! At last, the dreams of our youth are realized.

http://www.curbed.com/2006_09_blue3.jpg

The bar. So calm, so early...

http://www.curbed.com/2006_09_blue2.jpg

... so painful, later.

Reports blogger This Girl Called Automatic in an amusing post (http://marielynbernard.blogspot.com/2006/09/cause-we-know-how-to-treat-you-right.html) about the party, "Some genuis party-planner decided to make mojitos for the masses of clamoring people, like, with fresh limes, and we had to wait in a huge mass of men in royal blue shirts and messenger bags and young ladies (who were basically on another ozone level since Steph is 5'9 and I'm 5'10) while the bartender like, basically went to Mexico, started a lime farm, grew a bunch of limes, and then squeezed them into our drinks individually along with peppermint she grew out of her ass while we were all aging and not aging well."

http://www.curbed.com/2006_09_blue1.jpg

"Yes, it really does look like that."

http://www.curbed.com/2006_09_blue8.jpg

The gift bag included fold-out BLUEs. Yes, really. Really. Really.

Copyright © 2006 Curbed

[lofter1]

Not even ONE pic of the interior???

[BigMac]

Curbed
October 16, 2006

BLUE Adds a Touch of Woodgrain Brown

by Joshua

http://www.curbed.com/2006_10_bluewindow-thumb.jpg

Maybe it wasn't the ill Lower East Side wind this weekend that knocked this window out of BLUE. Maybe they just wanted a lighter shade for this pane. Something in a periwinkle perhaps.

Copyright © 2006 Curbed

[Try2Live4God]

I actually live 4 blocks away on Columbia Street and was wondering what the real estate costs in Blue. Does anyone have an idea? Haven't really had the opportunity to find out.

[Kris]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/nyctowers/2006/CIMG0457.jpg

[lofter1]

Carlos -- welcome back!

(I've missed your pictures)

[lofter1]

Some pics from today ...

***

[Kris]

http://static.flickr.com/118/300343779_e440c022b6_b.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alq666/

[Fabrizio]

Does this have anything to do with the above? :

http://www.curbed.com/archives/2005_8_norfolkblue.jpg


The effect has gone from looking "pixelated" to looking like there was a sale at Home Depot.


-----

[pianoman11686]

^Difference between a clear sky and an overcast one...

[ryan]

It's quite blue in person, though I agree that the rendering was unsurprisingly optimistic. The pattern seems to have been compromised for views. More like this in person:

http://static.flickr.com/114/302174760_88181fc606_o.jpg

[Stern]

Who cares about what tone of blue it is, the tone only depends on the amount of sunlight anyway. The shape and the pattern is what's really important and both are well executed. This building is dynamic and daring, its even a little dangerous. I love this building and its particularly effective in its context of the Lower East Side.

[Fabrizio]

I can believe that it looks better in person and I guess even see how it's right for the area....and although there's nothing new about beautified renderings, compare the two: in the rendering it has a delicate, egg-shell slick skin, the window panes are thin and all of the same thickness, there are NO air conditioning grills....and the pixel pattern is much more complex.

The final effect is more than a little cheapened.

[Stern]

I can believe that it looks better in person and I guess even see how it's right for the area....and although there's nothing new about beautified renderings, compare the two: in the rendering it has a delicate, egg-shell slick skin, the window panes are thin and all of the same thickness, there are NO air conditioning grills....and the pixel pattern is much more complex.

The final effect is more than a little cheapend.

I'll agree that it looks different from the rendering, but I don't think it looks worse.

[pianoman11686]

Again, I think it needs to be emphasized just how important the presence of sunlight is, as well as the angle at which you're viewing the building. Just as a sample of how bright this building can be, check out this photo from a couple months ago, taken from the Williamsburg Bridge:

http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/230/1249/1024/IMG_7688.jpg

Courtesy of a test of will (http://testofwill.blogspot.com/2006/09/blinded.html)

[ryan]

You're both right. It's not as pretty as the rendering (though I'm impressed that the form wasn't distorted in the rendering - too many buildings are squatter in reality), but not worse enough to dismiss it. Definitely one of the most interesting new buildings in the city.

[Fabrizio]

As long as we're beating a dead horse, let me continue:

So I see that rendering... and my gosh ...those big panes of glass, set nice and flat, flush with the thin frames...and look how the top edge is frameless. The corners look almost metered, no air conditioning ducts....how tailored and expensively done.

Certainly the sins of that rendering are no different than so many other buildings, but still... dont these renderings get just a little out of hand?

[pianoman11686]

Fabrizio, I really think you're being too tough on this building. Those air-conditioning ducts you mentioned: I took a closer look at the rendering, and they are positioned in exactly the same places as the final product. You can clearly pick out where they occur. What depends is how close your vantage point is. If it's far enough away, the ducts look like black pixels. If it's close up, you can tell they're ducts.

The placement and color of the pixels is also very close or almost exactly the same as the rendering (based on a few random spots I chose to sample). It looks solidly constructed - no floor plates exposed, no rooftop machinery visible, sharp corners - which leaves only the brightness effect in question. I'll give you that the rendering was overly optimistic in its use of lighting, but given the right conditions, the building does get very shiny. Honestly, I don't see how you can have so many negative things to say about such a good building.

[antinimby]

Certainly the sins of that rendering are no different than so many other buildings, but still... dont these renderings get just a little out of hand?That's the point I was trying to make in another thread awhile back, but people kept insisting that we should be more "understanding" of the design process and just accept it.

[Fabrizio]

In todays NYTimes. This is exactly what I was talking about:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/19/realestate/19njzo.html?ref=realestate

DEAN MARCHETTO, an architect in Hoboken, considered this bit of news so important that he put out a press release to publicize it: Two condominium buildings that his firm had designed came out looking just like the renderings.

Set side by side, the drawings and photographs of the St. Louis on 14th Street in Hoboken, developed by Michael Stefano and built by T&M Construction, and the Grand View on Grand Street in Jersey City, a Metro Homes project built by Paul Fried, do provide a quick slap of recognition: Wow! Twins!

But, actually, Mr. Marchetto is trying to make a number of serious points. They include his concern over cost-cutting measures taken by some builders that sap class and pizazz out of designs. They include his belief that many local planning boards need to be more muscular and more alert, establishing strict standards and enforcing them with painstaking care. And they include a rallying cry to ordinary citizens — as Mr. Marchetto explained in a post-press-release interview — who may not even notice as the overall look and ambience of their communities start to decline.

Mr. Marchetto sees urban communities as being particularly at risk. “As our inner cities undergo continued pressure for redevelopment,” he said, “it is increasingly important that the new buildings at least match the standard of quality prevalent in the older buildings that made these cities great when they were first built a century ago.”

“If not,” he added, “the redevelopment of the inner cities will continue to degrade the very nature of that which they are trying to improve.”

Several other architects working in New Jersey’s urban areas said they understood Mr. Marchetto’s disdain for builders who engage in wholesale substitution of materials that are cheaper than what a design calls for, and who strip facade detail that might be crucial. Many also share his concern over the way attractive renderings of proposed buildings submitted to planning boards sometimes turn out to be just “pretty pictures.”

None wanted to single out a particular edifice, describing it as too difficult to pinpoint blame after a design becomes reality. But all said they could think of buildings in New Jersey cities that wear the look of cost cutting like bargain-basement suits.

“Dryvit,” said Paul Drago of Morristown-based NK Architects. “I see Dryvit and fake stucco, and I tend to cringe.”

Dryvit is a polystyrene foam product that can be used to form the exterior walls of a structure. Builders can then use spray-on artificial stucco to create the building facade, giving it a coarser and more porous appearance than concrete stucco.

A few years ago, in a move that Mr. Marchetto called “inspired,” Hoboken officials passed a “facade ordinance” that effectively bans the spray-on practice. It requires that the 75 percent of a building’s facade that is not windows be either stone or brick.

All-glass buildings are quite a bit more expensive to build than masonry structures, said Erica Tishman of Manhattan-based DeWitt Tishman Architects, whose firm has designed numerous buildings in Hoboken and Jersey City. Buildings made of precast stone panels, like those at Rockefeller Center in New York City, are generally the most expensive to build, she said.

DeWitt Tishman came up with a precast stone design for the Trump Plaza residential tower now under construction in Jersey City, but it was deemed too costly and the architects moved to a brick design, Ms. Tishman said.

“We spent a whole lot of time on the exterior, because the developers are really marketing an image,” she said. “We designed a brick building, articulated with setbacks and different colors of brick, and many large windows. It is perfectly possible to design a beautiful building with those materials.”

“Value engineering” — that is, making the most of a developer’s money — can often be achieved with creative use of brickwork, Ms. Tishman said. She and other architects talked about reserving use of the most expensive materials for the most public parts of a building, like its street-level facade and the lobby.

The 55-story Trump building’s lobby is distinctly lavish, with a huge limestone fireplace, oxidized bronze details, ebony woodwork and white onyx walls, she noted.

As Mr. Drago put it: “You have to design smart, understand your budget and concentrate your resources. When you pour a lot into the lobby and main facade, you should be smart about the rest of the building and realize the other areas where money can be saved to compensate.

“To do that,” he added, “the architect and the builder both need to be involved during the different phases.”

He noted that his firm had been called in to testify recently in a suit brought against a builder whose construction work had failed to live up to his firm’s design plans.

When developers simply hand architectural plans to builders and let them translate those into construction documents, problems are inevitable, according to Mr. Drago.

An architectural rendering that may delight a planning board could turn out to be just a “glam shot,” he said — a gussied-up depiction of what turns out to be a mediocre building.

Mr. Marchetto said he commended the developers and builders he had worked with on the two midrise residential buildings in Jersey City and Hoboken for being very careful about securing the “right” materials for his designs. “In fact,” he said happily, “with the type of brick they found, these buildings may actually look better than they did in the drawings.”

The Grand View is a 40-unit condo on the edge of the Paulus Hook Historic District of Jersey City. Mr. Marchetto said it was designed to blend with the neighborhood’s classic brownstones and pick up on the Richardsonian Romanesque style of its more prominent buildings.

The St. Louis, a six-story building with 22 condos, features a repeating arched relief on the brick facade, and a projecting cornice at the roofline, that are designed to reflect similar elements of adjacent historic buildings.

-------------

Please note the phrase:

"They include his concern over cost-cutting measures taken by some builders that sap class and pizazz out of designs."

Just like in the case of Big Blue.

[Derek2k3]

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/142/347975371_8b3c5dc0eb_b.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/131/347974955_2dbd079ab1_b.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/131/347975781_63ec895a78_b.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/162/347976215_b0b30a7fb7_b.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/153/347976602_70782da1ea_b.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/144/347974020_64649eba36_b.jpg
emily geoff (http://www.flickr.com/photos/emilygeoff/)
1-6-06

[elfgam]

I was questioning this about 1/2 way through... but now it looks fantastic... to bad the city is rezoning this area to prevent any more 'out of scale' buildings like this...

[lofter1]

But who wants to spend all the time that will be needed to wash all the windows on the inside of your home?

(Let alone how that sloped glass on the outside will allow for a nasty accumulation of NYC's famous grit & grime?)

[antinimby]

This to me is an instant landmark for the LES, which before it, has very few if any.

You see this thing and you know exactly where you are and that to me is a landmark.

Years from now, groups will be fighting to protect this one like they are doing with Brooklyn's Williamsburg Savings.

[HGNY]

I went down and looked at this property recently. The exterior of the building was beautiful. I thought it was far more attractive than many of the other towers of glass I have seen down town. Unfortunately, I found the interior of the unit that I looked at less impressive. The layout was odd and it felt cramped despite a respectable size on paper...

[ablarc]

I was questioning this about 1/2 way through... but now it looks fantastic... to bad the city is rezoning this area to prevent any more 'out of scale' buildings like this...
Knuckling under to the pea brains.

[lofter1]

CURBED is showing some interior shots from a rental listing : Now Renting: BLUE! (http://www.curbed.com/archives/2007/02/28/now_renting_blue.php)

Lucky for most of us BLUE looks a heck of a lot better from the outside.

The mullions look way heavy to me -- and chop up the views ...

http://www.bellmarc.com/pictures/snapshot/large/24391.JPG

[stache]

I was afraid of that...

[lofter1]

And one bedrooms are renting for $5K :confused:

[mumbles]

i wonder what kind of glass they used that it doesn't appear "blue" from the interior?

[bigkdc]

Yes I saw that piece as well. The interiors do look pretty blah and they completely ruined an opportunity to have a light airy feel inside the apts...

[MidtownGuy]

Just some more pictures from this afternoon- not very different from the ones already posted, but I might as well add 'em to the bunch.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/178/430648478_94ee8ab8b4_b.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/172/430648484_cb261feaf8_b.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/180/430648507_79cd0ef901_b.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/181/430648511_d8e173ab0d_b.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/161/430648517_8c5d0fd53c_b.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/166/430653161_9b9bc7595c_b.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/146/430653166_c29365281d_b.jpg

[sfenn1117]

Thanks midtownguy.

Can I ask a question? Can you get a picture of the Veneto? I know you live nearby.

[antinimby]

^ Lol.

Can I also put in another request? :D

The US Mission to the UN. I know they're working on it also.

[sfenn1117]

Why not add the demolition of 823 UN Plaza to the list? :p

I just noticed the Switch building is taking forever to be finished.

[antinimby]

Why not add the demolition of 823 UN Plaza to the list? :p Why not? He'll be right there, right? :D

[MidtownGuy]

LOL.
The Veneto? Sure, no problem. I'll try to post some tomorrow. Bricks and glass are going up. The glass is green.

UN is a longer walk, but I can get over there this weekend.

[TonyO]

NY Times
September 4, 2007
Architecture Review

A Ragtag Neighborhood’s Big, Blue Newcomer

By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF

The high-design luxury residential towers marching across Manhattan pose a problem for an architecture critic. What if I should fancy one? Isn’t that just what its developer is hoping? A critic can’t help but feel a bit queasy, teetering on the edge of becoming a real estate promoter.

Yet I can’t get the Blue Building out of my mind. Amid the old brick tenements of the Lower East Side, the glittering exterior of this structure, Bernard Tschumi’s latest building, will strike some as another step in downtown Manhattan’s relentless pace of gentrification.

But the 17-story building, which is to be finished later this month, avoids the ostentatious self-importance that infects the design of so many of the new luxury towers. Encased in a matrix of blue panels, its contorted form has a hypnotic appeal that is firmly rooted in the gritty disorder of its surroundings. It reminds us that beauty and good taste are not always the same thing.

This is partly because of Mr. Tschumi’s sensitivity to the neighborhood’s changing identity. Towers are sprouting all over downtown, and most of them are awful. The cheerless facade of the new Hotel on Rivington, decorated in bands of aqua-colored panels and glass, is visible a few blocks away. Just beyond it stand several generic brick residential towers, displaying the kind of superficial historicism that remains the norm among many mainstream developers.

By contrast Mr. Tschumi’s interests lie in an older vision of the neighborhood: the mix of old tenement buildings, public housing complexes and rusting infrastructure that extends down Delancey Street to the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge.

Seen from a distance the Blue Building’s crystalline form seems to twist and bend as it rises. The exterior bulges out on one side so that its form leans over a lower commercial building next door. A big penthouse terrace is cut out of the west facade; the top of the east facade is sliced off at an angle.

These contortions are a sly expression of the various forces that this architect had to contend with while designing the building: the tight site, the restrictions imposed by the zoning envelope, the developer’s desire to squeeze out as much rentable space as possible.

But the effect also sets the entire composition wonderfully off balance. As the eye intuitively follows the lines of the building down to the ground, its tapered form gives the impression that the tower has been squeezed to fit into the site’s tight footprint, so that from certain angles the building appears to be on the verge of tipping over.

This sense of a building both rooted in and straining to escape from its context is reinforced by the quality of the exterior surfaces. A matrix of dark and pale blues, the window pattern evokes the shifting rhythms of Mondrian’s painted ode to New York, “Broadway Boogie Woogie.”

Much of the inspiration, however, comes as much from the gutter as from museum walls. The building’s milky blue colors bring to mind the cheap illuminated plastic signs still found on some old East Village storefronts. Air-conditioning units are punched through the facade. Flowered drapes hang in some of the windows.

I mean this as a compliment. Part of the problem with so many of the new luxury towers is that they look so self-consciously refined. “Look at me,” they seem to purr. “Aren’t I sooooo sophisticated?” Mr. Tschumi’s building is less self-conscious, more playful.

As you reach the upper floors, for example, the apartments get increasingly idiosyncratic. Exterior walls tilt backward or forward; rooms are tucked into what seem like leftover spaces. Big canted columns are set just inside the facade, as if bracing the rooms against some invisible force.

The tension between the tautness of the walls and the weight of the columns vaguely evokes the 1970s-era houses designed by Kazuo Shinohara, whose muscular concrete structures seemed to strain to preserve a tiny oasis of tranquillity amid the chaos of postwar Tokyo.

Unlike Shinohara’s houses, the Blue Building is not a major work of art. But it nonetheless captures an aspect of the city that is slowly fading from view: its role as a sanctuary for misfits and outcasts, a place full of dark corners and unexpected encounters. If only such people could afford the price tag.

[infoshare]

NY Times
September 4, 2007
Architecture Review

A Ragtag Neighborhood’s Big, Blue Newcomer

By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF

As you reach the upper floors, for example, the apartments get increasingly idiosyncratic. Exterior walls tilt backward or forward; rooms are tucked into what seem like leftover spaces. Big canted columns are set just inside the facade, as if bracing the rooms against some invisible force.



Viewing the interiors of this new building would be a great venue for the 'open house new york' event (http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showpost.php?p=184185&postcount=35).

[BigMac]

Betty Blade on Flickr
April 25, 2007

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/186/473163724_c38179741a_o.jpg

[krulltime]

by shaderlab (http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=2189312043&size=l)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2016/2189312043_af312b00bb_b.jpg

[krulltime]

By josewolff (http://flickr.com/photos/josewolff/3020751322/sizes/l/)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3200/3020751322_89b57fd846_b.jpg

[krulltime]

^ Anybody knows what is going (or was) to happen to that surface parking lot to the right of Blue? I always wanted to see that develop during this boom.

[Shadly]

This neighborhood is turning into "Who" ville with structures like these. I love it. That parking lot should become something really groundbreaking to pull it all together. Gehry, Aslop perhaps?

[Derek2k3]

http://www.archpaper.com/features/2006_13_developers_list.htm

Norfolk Lofts
Location:115 Norfolk Street
Developer: Zeyad Aly
Architect(s):Grzywinski Pons Architects
Consultant(s): Unavailable
Size:7 floors, 22 units, 22,800 sq. ft.
Completion (est.):Fall 2007



Grzywinski Pons Architects (http://gp-arch.com/index.php?/thumbnail/on_the_boards/)
Same guy who did the Hotel on Rivington.



Permits don't list G-P as the architects though.
http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/JobsQueryByLocationServlet?requestid=1&allbin=1813245&allstrt=NORFOLK+STREET&allnumbhous=115

[Shadly]

So much for ground breaking. Nice, but not ground breaking.

[DKNY617]

I always was attracted to the different shades of blue on the building. I think its quite nice. :)

[lofter1]

A facade of varying shades of blue executed in a different way: Chelsea Modern (http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12965&highlight=chelsea+modern)

[DKNY617]

The Chelsea Modern executes a more bluish green tint of glass which is probably even more pleasing to the eyes, almost like the waters of a calm sea. :)