William Beaver House - 15 William Street - Condo - by Tsao & McKown Architects

[NoyokA]

I hope that Balazas or whatever his name is goes bankrupt and this POS is not excreted from his rectum.

Unnecessary. Please read the forums rules of conduct and leave the potty humor out of here.

[lofter1]

Balazs would seem to have had his most supercharged fun planning the Beaver's lobby, which opens to the street and encompasses a driveway paved with the same marble used in the interior lobby. "A California idea," he says. "You drive through the lobby into the parking lot," a three-level garage beneath the building. Or, of course, leave it for the valet.

"It's perfect if you're heading out to the Hamptons," he adds. "You call down and your car appears in the lobby."

What better place to look for ideas to make NYC a better place to live?

Everything about the description of this building seems to say: "You'll be insulated from the outside world".

Does this project benefit from any of the post-9/11 tax breaks?

This catering to the super-rich is verging on the obscene.

[JMGarcia]

I can't believe some of you guys are freaking out based on a cartoon rendering. It can't possibly look that way in real life.

[TREPYE]

I can't believe some of you guys are freaking out based on a cartoon rendering. It can't possibly look that way in real life.

You're probably right. I think some us we are just preconditioned to think that a new development will be a bad project because most of them are bland, mundane and just plain bad. So it even looks like a bad design based on a mediocre picture we default to a "freak out" . Nonetheless, we should hold off judgment until we see more elaborate renderings.

[NoyokA]

You're probably right. I think some us we are just preconditioned to think that a new development will be a bad project because most of them are bland, mundane and just plain bad. So it even looks like a bad design based on a mediocre picture we default to a "freak out" . Nonetheless, we should hold off judgment until we see more elaborate renderings.

Look at the guys track record and actually read the description in the article. This building is not being done on the cheap.

[TREPYE]

Well, just because alot of $$ is being spent it does not mean that it will be a great development. Please refer to the MoMA expansion on how to spend hundreds of millions of dollars and not get anything significant out of it.

[lofter1]

MoMA has some major problems with the interior lay-out but the exterior is beautifully done.

[londonlawyer]

Looking like nothing else in the vicinity, it will be a sleekly modernist structure clad in contrasting bronze and gray-colored brick with bright yellow-glazed brick panels strewn playfully across the façade from top to bottom....

"This context exposes you too much," says Balazs. "We wanted to ... make it contextual, yet fun...."

I don't know how this moron managed to get Uma Thurman as a girlfriend.

This project isn't "fun". It will be a hideous scar amidst stunning, classic skyscrapers.

Hopefully, this project won't sell and will ruin him financially. That will prevent him from scarring NYC again.

[BrooklynRider]

Not loving the design and the rendering with the anime "sex appeal" suggests a rather poorly thought out and ex-pat oriented sales campaign. The ad/rendering certainly fails to communicate the inerestesting location and this designs complete lack of context or respect for it.

[krulltime]

NYTimes..





Illustrations of a dapper beaver-about-town now appearing on billboards around New York are just the tip of the cocktail stirrer. André Balazs, top, the club maestro turned hotelier turned developer, created the character to promote William Beaver House, in architect’s rendering right, a 330-apartment building under construction at William and Beaver Streets.

In the race to attract high-end condo buyers, the martini-sipping mascot is aimed straight at the downtown singles market. Anyone arriving at the building’s entrance will pass under a glass-bottomed Jacuzzi on the sun terrace of the health club on the floor above. The lobby includes a conversation pit with a fireplace, left, a billiards table and a bar. And where Upper West Side condos have birthday party rooms for the resident small fry, William Beaver House will offer a private screening room furnished with daybeds.

“I see the buyers here as hard-driving young Wall Streeters who work late at the office, eat out a lot and would welcome coming home to a like-minded community,” Mr. Balazs said. Prices range from $890,000 for a one-bedroom to $2.5 million for a penthouse with terrace. Bathtubs feature louvered walls opening onto the bedrooms; this is housing rated NC-17. (As Mr. Balazs said, “If you have children, go to Battery Park City.”) The sales office, with a replica of the conversation pit, opens at 20 Exchange Place on Nov. 20. For information, williambeaver.com. JULIE V. IOVINE


Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

[ablarc]

Balazs would seem to have had his most supercharged fun planning the Beaver's lobby, which opens to the street and encompasses a driveway paved with the same marble used in the interior lobby. "A California idea," he says. "You drive through the lobby into the parking lot," a three-level garage beneath the building.

They've been doing this for decades in Milan.

[pianoman11686]

I really don't know how I feel about this project. There's just something about it that screams 1970s kitsch. What ever happened to bold, modern design?

[antinimby]

They've been doing this for decades in Milan.

I'm still not sure what that is or looks like. Is it just a driveway?
If that's what it is, then that's nothing special because they are found all over Manhattan, esp. those condo towers from the 60's.

Back to the design, the full length rendering on this page makes all the difference. The earlier rendering had cut off the top, which in this case definitely adds a nice touch.

Although, I would still like to see this thing shown in daylight.

Please, no more vampire renderings - where we only see them at night, ala NY Times.

[ablarc]

I'm still not sure what that is or looks like. Is it just a driveway?

The ones in Milan work like this: big automatic glass doors from lobby to street admit car, as in some auto dealerships. Car is physically inside lobby, on marble floor. Car continues through second set of glass lobby doors to ramp to underground parking beneath building. In reverse direction, car can wait in lobby for passenger to arrive on elevator.

You get a pungently incongruous scene of a car among the potted palms and overstuffed armchairs. Neo-realist.

[kurokevin]

I don't know how this moron managed to get Uma Thurman as a girlfriend.

This project isn't "fun". It will be a hideous scar amidst stunning, classic skyscrapers.

Hopefully, this project won't sell and will ruin him financially. That will prevent him from scarring NYC again.

I know how this guy managed Uma Thurman - he's friggin' gorgous in that old-school dapper, gentlman kind of way. George Clooney-cum-luxury developer.

And with his two major hotel developments (on prime property) along the Highline in the meatpacking district his wallet will only be getting fatter, sorry Londonlawyer.