October 07, 2006
Meier On Prospect Park
Like so many clips, on a putz'd slab. The first porch railing is installed!
Posted by jmarston at 06:47 PM | Comments (1)
September 11, 2006
40 Bond Street
Oh My, all the stararchitects are getting their window treatments this week. H&M get their slabs laid in a hurry... how things looked back in April... & looked back in early June.
Posted by jmarston at 02:45 PM
On Prospect Park
The slabs have been poured, the windows are being attached, and the sales office is returning my calls! Progress my dear! Now if only I could afford a square foot or two... & how things looked back in early August.
Posted by jmarston at 02:23 PM
September 06, 2006
Nouvel's Guthrie
I'm a little late on review, but thats my uptake. This project is a smashing success, 3 volumes - two boxes and a cylinder - T'd with a bridge. The structure is just balanced enough, & just broken enough. The materials and light, in tandem with the interior and exterior, bring a sensorial effect to the giant playhouse. Nouvel’s bridge connects the parking garage on the West side, while framing the greenery of the Mississippi, the stone arch bridge & massive mill city ruins on the East side of the building. While the view opposite the bridge, down the ramp, is one of the props shops and backstage passageways. Both of which appear thru colored glass. Above this, half moons are cut and lit almost sculpturally, reaching into the second floor. The walk to the man theatre is circular, the walls inlayed with famous performers and performances, opening onto a steep Globe like pit. The bulge and radiated bottom of the theatre & its seating viewed can be seen from the outside, highlighting this logic.
I've always thought Mr. Nouvel as very contextual to the feeling of a political era. It tends to date his buildings, but I kind of like it. Most think its malarkey. That is to say, the Arab World Institute of Paris was to the 80's Regan Thatcher security state, with its low ceilings, controlled 'views in', steely reserve, and muddled plaza. This new building is for the 00's. Light and ghosts shown on the wall, dark blue and black, with the shiniest metal. In materials, logic, and feeling these expressions hit upon the current climate. Of the three most recent projects in Minneapolis: Herzog & de Meuron's Walker expansion, Jean Nouvel's Guthrie Theatre, & Cesar Pelli's Library; this little building is the most riotious of the group. I'll be posting photos of the other two buildings next. From the archives, my love letter to Minneapolis.
Posted by jmarston at 12:02 AM | Comments (1)
August 16, 2006
378-82 Baltic
The developer Kwong T. Seung has broken ground on an 11 story - 119ft - monster on Baltic btw Smith/Hoyt. Sure to become an icon of everything wrong with aesthetics & scale in South Brooklyn's devolpment boom, as well as a fine critique of the Planning Department's need for a design review board that looks at more than just the engineering specs. This beast is set too include 49 basement parking spaces & 36 dwelling units. The lot originally sold for a paltry $9 million. Brownstoner covered the news of this project back in May, and some of the comments illuminate the conversational famine of Pro/Con 'development', leading to a real lack of discussion surrounding the Developer-As-of-Right and Growth-as-of-Right attitude the city has taken to the reinvestment of Brooklyn. Perhaps a qualitative perspective could bring a more nuanced approach to the pingponged Property Rights vs NIMBY's . Anyways, save any sea change in the renderings or plans for the site, Transfer is sure to follow any smell as it rises nearly 60 feet above its neighbors.
Check this Over at Curbed. Totally tell me again that the Lower East Side will keep its character when all the towers are finished?
Posted by jmarston at 04:26 PM | Comments (1)
August 15, 2006
State Renaissance Court
Transfer's favorite Brooklyn blogger Brownstoner made a request today, & being that we love the Brownstoner, we thought we'd oblige. ... & some shots of the same site back in May.
Posted by jmarston at 03:47 PM
August 14, 2006
Brooklyn Central Library II
... & how things looked back in March.
Posted by jmarston at 04:20 PM
One Prospect Park
... & how things looked back in January.
Posted by jmarston at 04:14 PM
June 14, 2006
40 Bond Street: Part Deux
The De Young masters Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron get a lovely (and deserving) write up in the Financial Times in anticipation of their Bond St project: "Rather significantly, 40 Bond is the Swiss team's first job in New York and it is the city that preoccupies them. "The question," says Herzog, "is how does the condo affect the city? I think it can have a huge effect. Ian has proved with his hotels that he can contribute to the culture of architecture with the creation of a type of hotel that didn't exist before. 40 Bond . . . is a very constrained project, in size and type, but sometimes the less latitude there is, the more freedom there can be. So we need to ask: 'how can you make architecture out of this?' We were interested in stacking two existing typologies: the brownstone town house [with direct access from the street] and the condominium."
Posted by jmarston at 07:15 PM
May 31, 2006
Early Flatbush
147 Flatbush Ave. Rumor is this climbs 40 stories.
The project architects, Ismael Leyva, did this hilarious rendering for State St Chicago. ESB with a suburban roofline.
Posted by jmarston at 08:30 PM
Goofy Space Plastic
145 Park Place
The balconies are baloney, the glass, ok - a little Vancouver - the kicked out base, not so much, - green roof would scream LUX! the backside facade has a cheap stucco. Stone, or hi quality wood, not West Palm Yucco. The corner on the roof line is good, square windows are good. At least theres no parking. These were already overpriced back in January.
Posted by jmarston at 07:52 PM
Meier Crane
1 Eastern Parkway. Shit this is anxious, better be good Richy.
Posted by jmarston at 07:49 PM | Comments (2)
Rogers little Marvelaid.
267-287 State St. 14 Townhouses and Those upstairs windows better open!
Posted by jmarston at 07:15 PM
Blue Tarps 2
The 'address', 556 State, looking from Atlantic. Amenities include: Hi Speed Elevator, hahaha!
Is there a stop work order on this site? 457-467 Atlantic.
200 Schermerhorn St., State Renaissance Court
Posted by jmarston at 03:03 PM | Comments (2)
April 05, 2006
40 Bond St
Posted by jmarston at 08:06 PM
April 03, 2006
Brooklyn Blue Tarps
Brownstoner had a bit on a block of Atlantic, Transfer carry's the torch down the block, and area blocks.
295 Atlantic
457-467 Atlantic
Atlantic Ave
322-324 Dean St
261-309 State St
-bad rearend
52 3rd Ave
Posted by jmarston at 07:18 PM
March 26, 2006
Ghosts of Sterling Place & 7th Ave
Two new buildings, and one rehab, are in their final stages on the corner of Sterling Place and 7th Ave; sites that have sat vacant for some forty-five years, haunted, after 135 people were killed when a DC-8 crashed here and destroyed a funeral home and a church that occupied the corner lots.
Posted by jmarston at 07:02 PM | Comments (4)
Digging Deeper at One Prospect
digging deeper, for hope in this project.
Posted by jmarston at 06:54 PM | Comments (1)
Brooklyn Central Library
main entrance in renovation.
Posted by jmarston at 06:37 PM | Comments (43)
March 22, 2006
40 Mercer
more purple!
Posted by jmarston at 09:13 PM
March 05, 2006
One Prospect Park
About Meir's building, site peculation on Daily Heights.
Posted by jmarston at 07:38 PM | Comments (2)
Atlantic & Smith
Once glacial site rises fast.
Posted by jmarston at 07:31 PM | Comments (1)
January 17, 2006
Most Erotic Building Site in Brooklyn
1 Eastern Parkway. The excavation has begun!! The site of Brooklyn: an Institutional, Sculptural, and Evergreen confluence. A site with real grace and elegance, a true architectural opportunity. Kind of like the oppurtunity that got jacked on Astor Place. In, dare we say, a hunderd years has a site in Brooklyn afforded such an erotic positioning for an architect. Sitting opposite the Brooklyn Central Library, which is undergoing a plaza renovation, on the same block as the new BK Botanical entrance, the recently appendaged BK Museum, which all sit opposite a bevy of heavweight 1920's structures - the Martha Washington, Peter Stuyvesant, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Turner Towers, etc - all gracefully affronted by plantings, greenery, and pedestrian sophistication. Too even mention Eastern Parkway, America's first Parkway, was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. But without fail this is a cornerstone of one of BK's most majestic of sites, Grand Army Plaza vis-à-vis Prospect Park. Finally, for the scopophilic, the site sits just a few feet below Brooklyn's second highest point, (Mt Prospect, Battle Hill being #1) affording the greatest of cityscape views, as anyone whose been atop the GAP Arch can attest.
Long a parking lot for the Temple/Eastern Athletic Club, this is one of the last remaining humdingers to be excavated, and surely priced to $1,000sqft. Needless to say, Meir's Erotic Rise on this site will be watched with extreme care & attention here at Transfer. Come along kiddies.
Posted by jmarston at 07:11 PM | Comments (3)
October 07, 2005
325 Fifth Ave
Last time Transfer checked in with this project was back in March (we were grumpy about it), the foundation was just getting dug and the Times hadn't yet christened the neighborhood SoFi. Now they've started putting in the windows at 325 Fifth, the 50-story anchor of this new residential hi-rise neighborhood. Frontside / Backside pictured below...
Posted by jmarston at 02:06 PM
Atelier Bow-Wow
Byway of the excellent Spanish language architecture blog, Actos y Potencias, came this interesting Japenese photo blog tracking the construction, from the model stage, to the framing stage, to present of a private home by the firm Atelier Bow-Wow, who has done some excellent homes in Tokyo.
Posted by jmarston at 11:52 AM
September 26, 2005
Slow Moving State St Site
Rumors are confirmed on the slow moving progress of the Atlantic/Smith/State St lot adjacent 14 Towhouses, pictured back in early June... Below illustrates the Upstate pace.
Posted by jmarston at 10:17 PM | Comments (1)
September 24, 2005
State St Update
Update from the June 8th post...
Posted by jmarston at 06:27 PM
September 14, 2005
Utility Boxes as Architecture
detail of the main utility box entrance
Continuing the fall Under Construction update... Another Renzo project, this one moving into its final stages - 6 years on - the JP Morgan Library expansion (first snapped back in March). At the risk of sounding dismissive to a project heavily restricted by Landmark designation, still shrouded in scaffolding, and notably triumphant in its geological challenges, it does seem Renzo plopped three Utility Boxes on the site, and bolted. Could it be a boney middle finger to the legacy of one of America's most ruthless capitalists? Sure appears so... Judge for yourself.
Madison Ave
36th St
37th St
Posted by jmarston at 03:51 PM
September 13, 2005
Cook+Fox on 6th
An update on the Bank of America tower - One Bryant Park - rising at 42nd & 6th. Much ado since the last Transfer snap.
Posted by jmarston at 08:03 PM
Renzo Rises on 8th
An update on the New York Times building Transfer snapped back in May. The Piano plays the Port Authority block.
Posted by jmarston at 03:09 PM
June 14, 2005
Booms on State St II
On the corner of Smith and State, accross the street from 14 Townhouses.
with some excellent graffiti along the site perimeter...
Posted by jmarston at 10:52 PM
June 08, 2005
Booms on State St
14 Townhouses, by Rogers Marvel, is underway in Downtown Brooklyn. Yes, 14 in one burst.
Upcoming; more State St building boom...
Posted by jmarston at 08:24 PM
June 07, 2005
One Bryant Park
Foundation hole for Cook + Fox's 2,000,000 sqft Bank of America HQ, One Bryant Park, at 42nd & 6th.
Posted by jmarston at 02:17 PM
May 24, 2005
Alcove Studio on Madison
Ever wonder how long it would take for the city to realize you really weren't a utility company? In this ridiculous market, you can never stray too far from imaginative solutions!
Posted by jmarston at 12:40 PM | Comments (1)
May 20, 2005
The New Pimp of 8th Ave
05/19/05
Norman Foster's first building in New York...Struttin' into the kitchen with a fur coat.
Posted by jmarston at 10:31 AM | Comments (3)
May 18, 2005
Big Dogs Barking!
Excitement... As the big dog iron cranes saddle up at the 8th ave (btw 40/41st) site of Renzo Piano's (in collab with Fox&Fowle) beautifully designed NYTimes Head Qtrs, now set for early 2007. The lady was on full display at MoMa's Tall Buildings Exhibit and the green engineered double layer sheath that curtains the structure is real wow. 1,140 ft addition - 50 stories - to the square that owes it's name to our Gray Lady. This will surely, Represent.
more images & renderings available here...
Posted by jmarston at 02:20 PM
May 17, 2005
New Construction on Flatbush
think they'll move that Pam Grier billboard?
This is perhaps the newest building to go up on Flatbush (the section I care about - the slow climb leading to Grand Army Plaza), since that arrogant dump that houses Applebees, in Downtown Brooklyn, rose in the 1980's. Its the newest residential building, east of Prospect Park, Flatbush has witnessed in at least a generation. This portion of Flatbush is a commercial strip I'm extremely fond of, and use quite often, architectually it has some of the finest gems Brooklyn has to offer, along with some real hideous sliders. The surrounding blocks are filled with some of the Best 19th century rowhouses in America, along with downtowns faded Dept store glories led off Flatbush to Fulton Mall. Flatbush meets all of its intersecting streets at an angle, creating quite the show for buildings that line up the Ave. Flatbush even boasts 2 two beautiful street clocks. So, with a watchful gaze, 145 Park Place has been rising - across the street from City Lighting - and in the heat of reinvigorated Flatbush (its proximity to 7th Ave is not lost on the choice of this site).
Architects Lauster & Radu used an existing brick frontage on Park Place, and built out the Flatbush frontage, creating some serious angles. Honestly, the renderings are, well, I'm reluctant to comment too honestly... But, the brick work on Park Place is looking interesting, and I'm trying to stay positive about new construction in this part of Brooklyn - staying hopeful... Here are some very recent photos I snapped of the construction, which doesn't say much with all the scaffolding, but the peaks I did make, looked nice on the Park Place frontage...
You can be sure I'll be tracking this suckah...
Posted by jmarston at 11:05 AM | Comments (3)
March 25, 2005
J.P. Morgan Library Expansion Renovation
Renzo Piano's renovation & expansion of the Morgan Library, whose main building was originally constructed by McKim, Mead, and White, seems to be coming along - a good 4 years into it. With an expected complete date of 2006. In accordance with strict preservation guidelines, the structure won't touch the original three buildings. The first two years seemed to be concerned with with a massive dig job... The philosophy of the project was also to create a shelter, a “safe for the treasure”, excavated in Manhattan’s schist rock: an underground, 26,100 square feet space, on five levels.
View from Madison Ave.
View from 36th St.
View from 36th St.
Along the main McKim entrance are two lions carved by Edward Clark Potter, who is responsible for Patience and Fortitude, the two lions in front of the Public Library at 5th and 42nd. He also carved the 30 statues atop the cornice at the Brooklyn Museum. There is something really cool about enclosing them in plexiglass.
Posted by jmarston at 04:09 PM | Comments (1)
March 21, 2005
One Bryant Park
A dropped knot in the plywood lets a lucky peeping tom check the HUGE foundation hole for the Cook+Fox Bank of America tower at the corner of 42nd and 6th.
Posted by jmarston at 12:45 PM
March 03, 2005
I-SeS
What is the terminus of Luxury Condo construction in Manhattan? How many buyers can really be in the market for five hundred thousand dollar studios. In unremarkable hi-rise towers. In neighborhoods without grocers. How many euro trash pied-a-tierres can we swallow before the market explodes with inventory, and penniless Cocoran brokers talking about the early two-thousands?
Everywhere you turn, another, sometimes noteworthy (Perry St Towers, 80 South St), but most of the time trite, lux condo tower is under construction, just completed, or on the Globe St. broadsheet. I support density, and new residential construction, as a rule. But Please. If it happens to be a noteworthy building, the 500 grand studio, already so outrageously priced, jumps to atmospheric heights. Is it unimaginable for middle-income New Yorkers to live in a hi-rise and not in a row home? Does everyone in Vancouver make 6 figures?
Besides the explosion of towers on the ladies mile, and the similar blowback of shadows in Hells Kitchen, the district around the Empire State Building/Midtown South, seems to be budding with new lux hi-rises - and the ball may have just started bouncing.
So here, what better reason to kibosh the CT based developers shitty neighborhood branding and come up with a new monkier, I-SeS, or, In the Shadow of the Emprire State. Perfect I-Gnorance.
The northern most lux condo tower of the newly minted I-SeS neighborhood is the 617 ft, 57 storey, Michael Grave's sheathed 425 5th Ave. On the west end of the district, on 6th, the 463 ft, 46 storey Atlas, and in the center, on 33rd st, another cartography stimulated building, and perhaps the most appalling looking, the 348 ft, 34 storey, Magellan. And the southern most, on 31st st, the 450 ft, 41 storey, Tower 31. Supposedly a project by Trump bed partners Costas Kondylis & Partners, although the project isn't credited on their site... Heres to hoping this tower can slow I-SeS from futher architectural banality, and not end up in twenty years looking like Kips Bay hi-rises or Murray Hills monstrosities.
So that brings us to the newest finger in I-SeS hand - the 471 ft, 47 storey, 325 Fifth Ave. Which all of the photos in this post have originated from, the giant hole excavated for 325's foundation. The renderings leave me a little cold and distant, but perhaps, against my better cynic, we'll get something akin to architecture at 325 5th Ave. But I'm not crossing my rebar. So heres to I-SeS, I hope you can do something with your good bad self, cause you're home to the interminable and lovely ESB, and I've always loved how the sun shines so brightly up 5th ave from the Flatiron, and your 70's fab Broadway dirty with soot, and meat sticks, the sidewalks littered with belt wrappers, and cheap perfume boxes. Keep it togehter for us.
Posted by jmarston at 04:48 PM | Comments (5)