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April 27, 2005
The NYU Post
Some hot hi-lites from the "Greenmonster" Goldberg review of Gwathmey’s insipid Astor Place tower, sitting there like a spoiled NYU kid. Such a stain on what was such an opportune site for a signature piece of Downtown architecture. You would have expected more from the Cooper Union trustees...
The Site
"The tone of Astor Place is set by places like Cooper Union, the Public Theatre, and the gargantuan former Wanamaker store on Broadway: heavy, brawny blocks of masonry that sit foursquare on the ground. Louis Sullivan once described one of Henry Hobson Richardson’s great stone buildings as a man with “virile force—broad, vigorous, and with a whelm of energy.”
Choice Cuts
"Mies van der Rohe as filtered through Donald Trump. Instead of adding a lyrical counterpoint to Astor Place, the tower disrupts the neighborhood’s rhythm." ... "The new building, designed by Charles Gwathmey, is an elf prancing among men."
"Gwathmey’s building doesn’t rise quietly—it thrashes about. It’s as if he believed that its complex shape and its eye-popping glass would somehow provide a strong counterpunch to the powerful surrounding architecture." Booya, Charles!!!
"I believe in God, only I spell it Nature"- FLWright
Before Frank Lloyd Wright was on everyone's lips, he built 5 major commissions in LA between 1917-1923, like the Hollyhock house, the Millard house, and the Freeman house. The more famous of the bunch, the Ennis-Brown House, seems to be succumbing to the hilly site on which it sits, a common problem in LA's foothill communities. The New York Times is reporting on the estimated 5 million it will take to shore up the foundation and stablize the 10,000 sqft mansion.
The Villager is reporting, surprise surprise, that the former educator turned real estate baron, NYU, might unjustly influence the proposed design changes at Washington Square Park, in an unfavorable way. This is at which point I love NIMBY neighborhood groups like the Greenwich Village Block Associations, because somebody has GOT to piss on NYU's amobea like ooze throughout downtown, making some blocks downright unlovable.
Curbed founder, Lockhart Steele, gets inked in Business Week.
NYC Rent Guidelines Board recently released their 2005 Income and Affordability Study (.pdf). In 2004, the obvious surfaced in the numbers, no affordable housing, and booming price increases, makes Jonny a dull boy. Inflation rose 3.4%, above the national increase of 2.7%. A quarter of all rental households pay over 50% of their gross income towards rent. The citywide vacancy rate sits at 2.9%, the average rental output per household at $816 with the average income at $39,937. The New York City Housing Authority will get 50 million less form the Federal Govt this year, in addition to a 7.5% decrease in monies from HUD. Not too mention the palpable 6% increase in single adult homelessness. Unemployment is down, and so are real wages. A mixed bag, indeed.
Fennesz played an absolutley beautiful set of music last night at the Austrian Cultural Forum, wowing a Packed room of (mostly) sweaty nerds. Get his music here, and here.
Posted by jmarston at April 27, 2005 04:36 PM